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I knew these were no random occasions, but I couldn’t force myself to get angry. On the contrary, it made me warm in all the right ways. Or in our case, in all the wrong ones, since we hated each other.
The next Friday night I was left alone in the Cole’s residence. Lucas had a game. I never got the football bug. It just wasn’t my thing, but sitting there, in his house, while his whole family went cheering for him, felt stupid. I could have gone with them. It wasn’t like he was going to sit with us. But I also felt an excitement of some sort. An anticipation. Was he winning?
An hour later I was still alone. I knew he would probably stay with his friends after the game. But his parents and Troy should have been home already. I took my phone to check with Hannah when I received a notification about a video. It was posted by one of our classmates. I clicked on it, and I started the video. It was from that night’s game. The front door flew open and I stopped the video.
Elizabeth was the first to enter. She was pale, locks of hair had escaped her up do. She mumbled a quick hello and went into the kitchen.
Garret was explaining something to Troy. The two of them didn’t look as disturbed as Elizabeth.
“That’s why what Chase did was not acceptable.”
“But everyone laughed,” Troy argued.
“No, everyone supporting our team laughed,” Garret explained. “The others were not.”
I followed Elizabeth in the kitchen. She was pouring herself a glass of wine. My gaze stayed a little too long on the bottle.
“Oh,” Elizabeth gasped. “I’m so sorry, Clem. I forgot,” she left the glass in the sink. “I promised myself I won’t drink while you’re here, but it just slipped my mind. Did you hear what happened?”
“No,” I shook my head. “I was about to watch a video, but you came home. And you can drink, you know. I don’t mind.”
I really didn’t. It just surprised me. Everything was so different here, I sometimes forgot about my mother’s alcohol abuse and that I was living at the Cole’s house because of it. Elizabeth looked at me intensely.
“Lucas says you lie a lot. Are you lying now?”
Why the hell would he say that to his mother?
“No, I’m not. You can drink in front of me,” I reassured her.
“Good,” she let out a breath. “Because I need it. Lucas scared the shit out of me.”
The wordshitcoming out of her mouth was a first. I sat at one of the high chairs next to the kitchen island. I wanted to know everything.
“What happened? Did they win?”
“Yes,” she picked up her glass from the sink and took a sip. “But Chase crossed a line and he went so far beyond it that I can’t even… Maybe I’m old, and I forgot what it’s like to be a teenager, but he just looks for trouble, that kid,” Elizabeth leaned forward and her face was now on the same level as mine. She was looking me in the eyes, and it all felt so sincere. Like she was confiding to me. Like we were friends. “He kissed the head cheerleader.”
“He kissed Hannah?” I frowned.
It didn’t make sense. They had already made out once last year at a party. Another one I wasn’t invited to. They barely spoke to one another. Why would he kiss her?
“No. The other one. Just seconds after the game ended. He just went for it.”
“So? Chase kisses a lot of girls. Your son does it too, you know.”
I did not like how that sounded. Like I was bitter about it. Elizabeth tried to hide her amusement and continued with her story.
“The girl has a boyfriend. The quarterback and captain of the other team.”
I laughed loudly. I didn’t like football, but I knew enough about football players to know Chase didn’t receive only a verbal backlash.
“The two of them got into a fist fight. Seconds later, everyone was fighting right there on the football field. You should see Lucas’s face. He was covered in blood.”
Elizabeth put a hand over her stomach and her voice cracked. I sat up straight, alert.
“Is he okay? Where is he?”
“He’s fine,” Garret walked in. “It’s just a cracked brow. It bleeds a lot. He’s at a party. No one’s hurt. Not even Chase.”
