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His grin turned sheepish and he rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry. She’s really picky about that sort of thing.”
Marie scanned the room, but my bedroom never had much inside it, just a bookshelf and trunk. It was always clean, except for perhaps some dust. There was more of it since I’d been out of the house for weeks.
“Or delusional,” Marie said. She raised her nose at both of us and walked out, across the hall and then into her room, closing the door. It was still open a crack, though, and I sensed she’d be listening.
I wished I had another room to run to. My heart thumped in my chest. There was an awkward silence as he looked at me, and I couldn’t meet his eyes. I glanced at the light maroon carpet, noting the flattened footprints along the fibers.
A few going to the window, and to the attic door.
“Sorry if I offended you,” he said. When I glanced up, he held a lopsided smile. It made his teeth look really big. “It was just what popped into my head. I couldn’t remember how old she said you were.”
“It’s okay,” I said, although I didn’t really feel that way. I was angry and upset, but he wasn’t really the cause. It wasn’t his fault that his mom, and my dad, were turning my entire life upside down. “It’s just...”
“Weird?” he asked.
I nodded and studied him, looking for something to dislike about him. I didn’t want to be nice. I didn’t want to get to know him.
I didn’t want to be here at all.
I was trapped all over again.
He was quiet for a moment. He kept a pleasant smile and stood straight, more confident. He put a hand out in offering. “I’m Jimmy.”
I studied his lean fingers and the way his palm was pale compared to the darker tones of the back of his hand. I bit my lip, unsure of attempting to make friends. I didn’t want to get lured into trusting him and say something I shouldn’t that got reported to his mother. Gingerly, I placed my palm in his. “Sang.”
He squeezed my hand snugly once and then released it. “I didn’t mean to rearrange your room on you. Figured since you were at camp, you’d probably be tired. I was going to try to get the cleaning part done before you got back.”
My mouth twitched, wanting to smile since he was being nice. My face felt numb. I wasn’t sure if I was actually smiling or not. “I can help. I don’t mind.”
“It’s not bad,” he said with a small smirk. He motioned to where the bed had been. “It’s just dusty. This wallpaper is coming down sometime, too. She hates it.”
The maroon-and-white wallpaper matched the maroon carpet. She said she was moving, so why change it now?
What else did she hate? Did she really want to change everything?
I wasn’t sure I should even care what she did to the house. I said nothing and stared blankly at him.
He laughed shortly, as if to cover up the awkwardness. “I didn’t mean right now,” he said and then grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck. “Listen, I know this is really weird. I just learned about you a few days ago, and then two days ago my mom said we were moving and to pack up my things. I’ve had to pack up some of my brother’s stuff, too, since he’s off at college. I’m not even sure how much he knows, just that we were moving. That’s how she is. She makes up her mind and that’s what happens.”
Two days ago, he’d learned he was moving? The surprise threatened to choke me. She’d move us overnight if she could.
She seemed to have made up her mind about moving. How soon?
Could I stop her?
If I were him, and I learned my possible new stepdad had lied from the start and we had to rearrange our lives, I’d be very upset with him. I couldn’t imagine what Jimmy thought of me.
The hard pit in my stomach twisted tight. I glanced at the door, still hearing the vacuum downstairs. I pictured Carol running it over and over along the carpet. “I never knew...” I spoke softly, unsure about speaking so she could hear, or even Marie. I wasn’t even sure if I should be speaking to him at all.
It wasn’t the complete truth. I’d known Dad was staying in another house with someone else, but I hadn’t known the details. Carol had been a faceless person, and he hadn’t existed at all.
He smiled sympathetically and then motioned to the door. “Close it?”
I did it automatically since he asked, but then realized I was alone with a boy in my room with the door closed.
I stiffened, staying by the door, ready to open it and get out of here.
I didn’t know him, and while I didn’t want to assume, my brain was super paranoid of any more surprises. I wanted easy access to the door if I wanted to leave.
The last thing we needed was for Jimmy to try anything, and for the boys to see it and rush in to stop him.
Because they would.
He looked at the bed, and then knelt on the floor and then repositioned himself to sit cross-legged, patting the carpet. “Do you wanna sit?”
Not really. However, I was tired. I considered whether I could beat him to the door if he did try anything.
I knelt across from him, feeling the phone behind my back sliding around and adjusting it so it remained in the waistband of the shorts. Kneeling was the easiest position to rise from if he tried anything. I sat back on my ankles, putting my hands in my lap, waiting.
He kept his hands on his knees. His shorts bunched up a bit on his thighs. “I just want to be honest,” he said. “She’s pretty ticked off at your dad for not telling her he was still married and had two kids. He swears the divorce was pending, just that your mother was in the hospital. Is that true?”
He must have been as desperate for information as I was. “She mentioned divorce before going to the hospital,” I said in a quiet tone. Would Marie tell him exactly what had happened that night? I wasn’t exactly sure what my dad had said. I needed to dig for information on my own. I wanted to know the details, and I knew the guys might need some information if there was any chance of stopping this. “How did she learn about us if he didn’t mention it before?”
He shrugged and smoothed out his sport shorts on his leg. “She got a call from your school, asking about you, since you weren’t in class. They said you were skipping.”
I raised an eyebrow. I highly doubted they would call her about us. The school wouldn’t have had her number. My father wouldn’t have been stupid enough, if he was hiding us from them, to make that mistake.
I had a feeling that perhaps she’d answered my dad’s cell phone when he wasn’t around and then discovered some information about us, or in some other roundabout way discovered about the school calling.
I thought of Ms. Wright, the school counselor, who had said she’d called home and had spoken to my “mother,” and that she was disappointed in me for skipping classes or something like that. At the time, I’d been really confused and had wondered if she was lying. Now I realized she must have spoken with Carol. “There was an error in attendance, I think,” I said, wishing I could have fixed it before, although it was too late now. The damage was done.
Jimmy scanned me and then nodded slowly. “Are you okay? You seem a little...” His lips twitched, his mouth moving without more words coming out. He shook his head. “Sorry. I don’t want to say you look bad. Trying not to offend you.”
I wasn’t sure what to tell him. My mind was just as numb as my body. Something had clicked inside of me, and I was so tired, so stressed, I was shutting down.
“I’m fine,” I said quietly. He seemed nice. Maybe his mother was a nice person, too, technically. Did she not assume she was coming in for the rescue? Was it just poor timing and circumstances that left me feeling I wanted to run?
I could have handled Mr. McCoy. I could have handled Volto.
Could I handle a situation like this, where I was trapped in a ticking time bomb, waiting for Carol to expose the truth about me?
The worst part was that I felt trapped now. Maybe I was safe, but I didn’t want to be here anymore. How would I ever see the
boys now?
I pressed my palm to my forehead. “I’m a little tired,” I said. “It’s been a long week. Do you think she’d mind if I took a bath?”
He laughed. “Of course not. Cleaning anything is never a waste of time.”
I sighed and nodded. I had already taken a bath, but I’d soak for a few more hours just to get myself together and figure out what to do. I got off of my knees as they were getting sore, stretching my legs a little in front of me. “I don’t want to make you do the cleaning alone. I just need a minute.”
“Sure,” he said quietly and his smile softened. “Take it easy. This will go pretty quick once we have the vacuum in here.” He reached out, giving a small pat on my foot. “We’re kind of in this together at the moment. I know what you’re going through.”
You have no idea. I stiffened at his touch, unsure how to respond. He was being nice, which made it so much more difficult for me when all I wanted to do was run back to Kota’s or Nathan’s and leave all this behind.
I got up and went to the closet, looking in, finding old clothes that didn’t fit, items that I’d left behind to look like I was living here, even if I wasn’t. Most of my clothes were at Nathan’s now.
Were there any left in the attic wardrobe? I couldn’t remember.
I needed the boys to deliver stuff to me here. I wasn’t sure how they could, though.
I took from the closet the closest things I thought could actually fit, at least for now, and brought them with me into the bathroom.
The moment I was in the bathroom doorway, I felt the phone vibrate. Someone was calling.
