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“No driving. Call if I need you.” We’d been over it a thousand times. “I love you.”
I gave her a hug at the bottom of the stairs and turned into the living room just in time to see Dad staring out the front window, his jaw tight.
“Who is that?” he snapped and scratched along the scruff of his chin, agitated. “It’s almost nine o’clock. I need to go outside and tell them to keep it down. People are trying to sleep. God damn inconsiderate son of a—”
“Doug,” Mom said soothingly. “I’m sure it was a mistake.”
He stepped back from the window, and his eyes narrowed on me. “Why is Ape dressed like a stripper?”
Mom turned to me. “Go.”
I felt guilty as I ran to the door.
“I’m her parent too!” Dad roared. “You send her out dressed like that? What a worthless mother you are!”
My hand froze on the handle. I knew irritability was a symptom of his TBI and PTSD, but to hear him tear down the woman who had doneeverythingfor us...
“Stop it!” I yelled at him. “Just stop it!”
He raised his hand, coming at me, and Mom stood between us.
“Go, April!” she shouted.
Dad took her arms, trying to get around her. But Mom was a big woman who could hold her own.
“GO!”
I walked out the door, tears stinging my eyes.
Sadie was waiting in her car, and I ran to the passenger door, knowing I didn’t have time to stand around and get these stupid angry, guilty, devastated tears to go away. I got inside, and when I wiped at my face, Sadie said, “Everything okay?”
It was the first real question she’d directed my way. But all I said was, “Just text me next time.”
Ten
Diego
“Here you are,”Kenzie said, handing Xander and me red Solo cups. “Made it special for you, Di.”
That was our code that meant she poured the soda without any alcohol. Most guys at Emerson went crazy on the weekends, mostly because they could steal from their parents’ liquor cabinets without them noticing. But I didn’t like the way alcohol made me feel out of control.
I thanked her and took a drink of the soda, sweet and tangy bubbles pouring over my tongue. She sat down in the sand next to me, leaning back against a big piece of driftwood next to the fire.
Terrell sat across from us, holding out his cup. “Cheers.”
Xander, Kenzie, and I tapped our cups to his. “One heck of a party,” I said. Between the smell of the beach, the warmth still in the sand, and the light coming from the fire, I didn’t think it could get any better.
Terrell scanned the beach. There had to be almost fifty people here from our school, and the night was still young. “Gosh, I love this. The only thing I don’t understand,” he said, “is why someone always plays a freaking guitar at a party.”
“Gotta show off to the chicks,” Xander said with a smirk that said he’d be playing guitar if he could. But he already got plenty of attention from girls at the skate park or on the football field.
Kenzie shook her head at them. “I think it’s nice. Adds to the ambiance.”
“Of what?” I asked. “A fire and the waves are good enough.”
“For the guy who could live on his surfboard, I’m sure it is,” she retorted. “The rest of us enjoy the real world.”
“Ha ha,” I said.
