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ALEXIS, AKA BRAIN-DAMAGED BEEFCAKE’S FANGIRL
Keeping up with thehomestead family isn’t easy. They’re all hopped up on drama pills. I finally buddy with Journey, who takes over dinner for her sister. Poppy sits with Tuesday on the couch, whispering as they eyeball me. I pretend not to notice. However, West decides to charm his mom and joins her on the sofa.
“They’re the worst,” Journey tells me. “When Poppy was a child, people would cross the street to avoid her. She sucked so hard.”
“She seems nice now.”
Journey grins at my lie. “How do you tell people’s fortunes without them catching on to the con?”
“I say what they want to hear but remain vague enough to ensure they feel hopeful. People love bullshit, but they want to feel smart. I just walk the line.”
“Did your father teach you that?”
“No, a lady in our trailer park told fortunes. I’d watch her after school. At first, it seemed like she was really psychic. But over time, I saw how she said the same things to everyone. She just jazzed it up depending on the person.”
Glancing at West, I smile at his rumbly laughter in response to the teasing from his mom and sister.
“After a while, I started practicing with kids at school. I’d predict lots of things for a bunch of them. Some of the stuff came true. Like I said a particularly wild kid would spill his blood on the playground. Then, one day, he fell down. That’s when the kids claimed I was a witch with the gift of sight. The reality was I made so many predictions that I was bound to get some right.”
Journey studies me. “And that’s better than working as a waitress?”
“I waitressed for several months but took the poor tips too personally. I tried working at Wendy’s. When the manager yelled at me, I told him not to take his wife’s cheating out on the staff. He fired me and then stormed out to check on his wife. I tried a job at Walmart, but a guy yelled at me for not being able to check out his booze without a manager. I told him that he would die young and leave a mangled corpse. I got fired, but he did end up in the hospital months later. His fiery accident even made the local news. That’s how I got my first crystal gazer customer. She heard how I predicted he would get mangled. I made twenty bucks for a few minutes of lies.”
Glancing at her nephew, Journey whispers, “Do you tell West what he wants to hear?”
“Sometimes. He doesn’t want to know the truth.”
“And what’s that?”
Thinking of how amazing West makes me feel, I mumble, “I’m never going to live up to the dream girl he’s created in his head.”
“He seems happy,” Journey says, and we glance at him poking Tuesday across their mother, who pretends to be dizzy from their bickering.
“His life is good. He doesn’t need much reason to be happy.”
“True, but he mentioned you over the years. I remember because we made fun of him a lot about it. You made an impression on him.”
“It’s the red hair.”
Journey shakes her head. “I don’t know. We used to go to a Rockwell restaurant and get this redheaded waitress. She was one of those giggly, big-boobed women. She would hardcore flirt with the younger guys. West always looked sad around her. I assumed he was missing his imaginary dream girl.”
“Imaginary?”
“I kinda thought he made you up after spending too much time in the heat. As a kid, West did claim to see a dinosaur in the woods after an especially hot day.”
I glance at West and find him watching me. His face lights up when our gazes meet. He really thinks I’m his dream girl.
“Was he hit in the head growing up?” I whisper to Journey, who cuts red peppers.
“Oh, yeah, constantly. He and Val used to put on helmets and hit each other with frying pans. Emmett thought it was funny, but Poppy freaked out. I think she worried they’d get so dumb that she’d spend her sunset years wiping drool from their mouths.”
Grinning at West, I decide his inability to see reality is on account of his childhood brain injuries. I don’t mind him being on the dumb side. I’m terrible at math and can’t spell. I assume taxes are calculated based on some Gaelic magical index I’ll never figure out. So, compared to me, West is a genius.
And right now, he’s grinning at me like I’m the best thing to ever happen to him.
No girl in her right mind would deny such a smile.
