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“Ax, stop repeating everything your brothers say.” I point to him, giving him my sternest look. “I’m serious.”
“Okay.” He pokes his little bottom lip out.
“I don’t want another call from your teacher. You have a few more weeks of school. The last thing we need is a teacher who wants to speak to Vanessa this time, instead of me.” The last thing any of us wants is to see our mother. A minute with her is too long. I push my feet in my sling-back clogs behind the couch and grab my light coat that’s going to double as an umbrella. “Hey, Drew, whatever you make for dinner, make sure Axel can eat it and it doesn’t burn a hole through the lining of his stomach, please. The spicier it is does not make it better for anyone but you.”
“I got it. Kaboom! Man down for you, son,” he says to Ryan who flips him off.
“Hey, language.” I slap Ryan upside the back of the head and nod my head in Axel's direction.
“There was nothing to hear.” Ryan squints at me.
“That finger speaks a universal language, so watch it. Remember it’s Sunday, get him to bed before I get home,” I yell, closing the door to grumbles and gunfire. I doubt they heard a word I said. With a heavy sigh, I throw my coat over my head and run to the car. I jump in and fling the drenched coat off my damp hair, start the car, and drive.
I park my car in the parking area reserved for store employees while I talk to my friend on speaker. I give a quick look over my frizzed-out appearance in the rearview mirror. This is the last time I lend Drew anything without making sure he returns it. I say this all the time, but I never learn, do I?
“How can he be so careless? How hard is it to remember to give someone back something you borrowed from them when you were in desperate need of it? How hard is it to keep track of an umbrella and a freaking bright yellow raincoat? I mean I could understand the umbrella but come on, the raincoat?!! It’s like a bright yellow sheet of plastic.”
“Girl, you need to calm down, it’s not that serious. A little rain never hurt anyone.”
“Shauna, if you could see the frizz puff that is my hair.” I huff, brush my hair back, grab a scrunchy off the dash, and pull my hair back in a ponytail.
“Stop whining. Your hair always looks great. Even when it’s in its natural state, it looks like a rocking wash-and-go. You should ease up on Drew. When I was sixteen, my biggest worry was getting my party on and how to get to the party without my parents finding out.”
“Whatever.” I smear some nude shimmer lip gloss over my lips.
“Whatever nothing, I don’t know any other kid his age helping to pay bills, babysitting, cooking, and cleaning—“
“I’ll agree to the first but lately the last three have been like asking him to perform a miracle. Ryan has stepped up more in the past weeks. And next month he starts his first job. I’m so proud of that knucklehead jokester.”
“Seriously, he’s old enough to get a job already? It seems like we just celebrated his tenth birthday. Now he’s old enough for Uncle Sam to get his hooks into him.”
“Yeah, my little brothers are growing up fast.” Without a mother who couldn’t care less if any of us lives or dies and not one of our deadbeat fathers in sight. Thank heaven for small miracles and answered wishes. We don’t have to suffer through the nonexistent care and supervision of those assholes anymore. “Shauna, I gotta go. Talk to you—“
“Wait up, you coming out tonight or what?”
“I told you I’m not doing any more of those.”
“Girl, please, you know you need the money to pay that mortgage and to help your Gramps out. Em says we don’t have to do anything tonight. They’re not regulars. They don’t expect a thing but your beautiful company. A few flattering words here and there, you make them feel good, on theinside.”
“I already have a job I’m late for.”
“You might make as much tonight, as you do for a couple of days of work standing on your feet for six hours, dealing with rude ass customers, and a boss watching over you like you stole something.”
“Rachel is cool. She cuts me a lot of slack. She’s a single mother and knows my situation.”
“That’s all you took away from that? How long is her niceness going to last? Everyone’s nice in the beginning. You know as well as I do there is an expiration date on nice and understanding. Then you’re left assed out depending on yourself once again, with the responsibilities of the world on your shoulders and buried under a heap of debt.”
“Story of my life.” When you really need help, the people you think will be there for you will slam the door in your face and leave you out in the cold.
“Then be prepared. Help yourself out and jump on this. It’s easy money tonight, youneed. Come on…”
It's the worst going in there after a shift but she’s not wrong about us needing the money. Dammit. “All right. Easy money.”
“Yes, girl. You need something to wear?”
“Nah, I got it.”
“All right, catch you later.”
