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I blamed Dad then. Blamed him for how much pain he caused Mom, and I vowed that I would never put another human being through it. I wouldn’t put my kids through the heartache of watching a family fall apart. It was why Moira left the first chance she got. She couldn’t stand to see Mom being broken, over and over again. Even though Dad hadn’t been unfaithful to her in over eight years now, Moira had just always expected it to happen again. She didn’t want to be around when it did. Now she lived in the other part of town, and secretly I was glad she stayed away from the Club. It gave the boys less chance to drool over her.
Some of the guys hooted and cheered when Dad walked up to Mom. I’d seen photographs of the two of them together when they’d just met, before Moira and I were born. They were hot stuff and probably still were.
Dad grabbed her by the ass and pulled her to himself, before kissing her. I rolled my eyes and looked away. I’d grown up watching the two of them slobbering over each other. Fucking gross.
“Go home!” I barked at them, and the others continued to cheer. When Dad released her, she looked directly at me and arched her eyebrows, before turning to the others.
“You all should go home. It’s late, boys,” she said, in a threateningly authoritative voice. Over the years, she had slipped into her role as the matriarch quite well, and I knew it had only strengthened the marriage between the two of them.
“Jewel is a gem, get it?” Slade joked and I shook my head indulgently.
“How’s Moira?” Girth asked, knowing exactly the effect it would have on me.
My head was already swimming with alcohol and I was fighting the urge to take Mom’s advice.
“Safe now that she’s away from you,” I said to him and he sniggered. Moira was off-limits and they all knew it, but that didn’t stop them from taking potshots at my peace of mind.
“Hey, aren’t you satisfied with one guy’s sister?” Slade was quick to interject. Girth had recently started seeing Sophie, Slade’s sister, and they had embarked on a strange life together. A relationship that none of us thought was going to work. Sophie was sweet and knew what she wanted. Girth was young and scruffy and had too much going on in his family to recog
nize he had a good thing with her.
But he enjoyed how much this was annoying Slade, nonetheless.
King made to stand up. I could see it on his face that he was done. Since Dad took him under his wings four years ago, we’d been best friends.
“Where are you going?” Girth asked him and King pointed to his watch. It was three in the morning.
“Do you have to say your morning prayers?” Slade said with a laugh, and Girth, King and I all shot him threatening looks. King’s religion was out of bounds, just like Moira was. Even I thought it was a little weird when I first met him, but by now we knew it was what kept him sane. He used to be a street kid, the gang was going to kill him if he didn’t get out and he believed it was his religion that had brought him to Elwood. We respected his beliefs. Slade seemed to be a slow learner and hadn’t caught on.
“Remember what your Mom said,” King said to me, and gestured a salute to me with two fingers. I smirked at him.
“Pussy,” I called after him as I watched him exit the bar, taking his leave from the others as he went.
Now it was just Girth, Slade and me at this end of the counter, still swirling our drinks. At least Girth had Sophie to see if he wanted to. All I had was Sheila, and she wasn’t exactly a human being. It was late and I’d had too much to drink but it was too early to go to sleep as well.
I slipped my cellphone out of the pocket of my jeans and I scrolled through the voicemails.
Meet me behind the bar
I texted the blond. The one who Slade had undoubtedly been calling all night. I could tell from the shifty look in his eyes that he was waiting for her to respond to his messages.
I’ll be there in ten minutes, hun - Barb
She replied almost instantly.
Chapter 2
Ava
I was standing in front of the mirror in Charity’s bedroom, staring at myself because I hadn’t decided if what I was wearing was good or terrible.
“Will this do?” I echoed my thoughts aloud. Charity was sprawled on her double bed, which we had been sharing for the past five days. She was scrolling through her phone and eventually looked up listlessly at me.
“Well, it depends, what impression do you want to create?” she said and I stared at my reflection some more. What impression did I want to create?
Please give me a job so that I can rent a matchbox sized apartment in the bad side of town. If you like the way my jeans hug my ass, maybe you’ll like the way I can pour drinks into an endless stream of glasses that you won’t mind if I break. Maybe if you give me this job, I’ll be able to save enough money to make it through college.
“I think this needs a black shirt,” I said, instead of replying to Charity, and began to roll my t-shirt off. I was walking around in the hot-pink bra I had on and a pair of jeans that were the only decent ones I could find.
