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Pop. “Screw Jenna, all right?”
“Ooh… I touched a nerve, didn’t I?” She smiled with warmth and squeezed her daughter’s knee. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I’m not upset. We’re just not that close anymore.”
“What did the poor thing do to earn your wrath?”
A moment of silence. “Nothing. Who said she did anything?”
“Then why aren’t you guys friends anymore? I thought you, Jenna, and Mackenzie were inseparable.” She chuckled. “Three peas in a pod, right?”
“Shit… now the sun’s gone,” Alana muttered, staring at the clouds gathering above the ocean.
“Language,” Alexandria said sharply. “I won’t tolerate this kind of trash talk.”
“Don’t be a hypocrite, Mom. You’re not exactly a lady either when you’re on the phone with your friends.” She grabbed a piece of gum with two fingers and extended it out, then chewed it back into her mouth slowly. Strawberry flavor filled the car. “Male and female friends.”
Her jaw dropped. “You’ve been eavesdropping on my calls?”
“You haven’t been too discreet about it. Not my fault if you’re being loud. Kinda bothers me, but I’m the kid. Nothing I can do, right? Swear away, for all I care.”
Ten more miles, and they’d get there. Alexandria realized she was eager to drop her daughter off and enjoy a little peace and quiet by the ocean, without the constant struggle that meant being with her.
“What happened between you and Jenna, huh?” she pressed on.
“Nothing fucking happened, all right?” Alana raised her voice and turned toward her, her face scrunched in anger. “Why can’t you let this go?”
“She used to come and visit all the time, now she doesn’t.”
“She doesn’t do anything anymore,” Alana replied quickly. “She doesn’t get out of the house anymore. We’re too good for her or something, I don’t know.”
Seemed as if her daughter was jealous of her once best friend. “Did Nick sleep with her? Huh? Tell me. Is that what happened?”
Her mouth agape, Alana stared at her in disbelief. “Jeez, Mom, you’re insane. We’re not a soap opera here. We’re normal kids, doing normal kid stuff. If Nick was looking at another girl, I’d take it up with him.”
“He’s really popular, this Nick, isn’t he?” Alexandria drilled on mercilessly. “He doesn’t seem too committed to me. Maybe he didn’t look, but Jenna could’ve made a move, right?”
“On her best friend’s boyfriend?” Alana scoffed. “No one would speak with her again until graduation. You don’t do shit like that; it’s our code.” A quick, loud, angry pop. “Sisters before misters, remember that?”
“Then what happened between you two, huh?” Alexandria asked gently this time, pinching Alana gently by the chin.
The teenager pulled away and shrugged. “I think she’d been dating someone; I don’t know.”
“Someone from school?”
She bit her lip and gave Alexandria a scrutinizing look as if to figure out if she could be trusted. “No, Mom. A guy, not a boy. A real man.”
“An older man, you mean?”Damn perverts… they’re everywhere, lurking near schoolyards.
“Yeah… I guess.”
“How much older?”
She looked out the window, her only answer a dismissive shrug.
“You’ll have to tell me what you know about this, Alana. I’ll have to tell Jenna’s mother, maybe even the police.”
Alana clenched her fists and raised her arms in a gesture of despair. “Argh… Mom, that’s why I never tell you anything. Just… let it go already. She’ll be eighteen in a few months.”
