Crossing the Barrier (34 page)

“I…I don’t want Lily to see me like this,” he repeated to David, who was still hovering over him.

Nicole was nowhere in sight.

“Don’t worry. Sandra has her occupied.”

“I do love her, you know, but I don’t deserve her,” he said sadly.

“Stop it, dude,” David said. “You’re saying crap. You won’t mean it come morning.”

Malakai wasn’t so sure.

“Okay, here Malakai,” Nicole said, walking into the room with a glass of water and two pills. “This is your anti-inflammatory and your painkiller.”

Malakai took them, drank the glass of water, then looked toward the door.

“She’s gone,” Nicole said. “I sent her home. She has school tomorrow and it’s almost eleven.”

“School?”

“Yes, but don’t worry,” Nicole said with a reassuring smile. “You’re not going.”

“I’m not?”

“No. You get to spend the day with me. No school for you tomorrow, and you have your appointment Tuesday for your cast.”

“I…I don’t want to impose,” he said.

“You’re not imposing. You’re certainly not the first one I’ve taken care of. Now David programmed my number in your phone. If you need anything during the night, anything at all, you call my cell. If you have to go to the restroom or feel dizzy or sick, you also call my cell. And don’t worry about bothering me. I don’t have to go to work, or school, or anything else tomorrow. Is that understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. Now, David, did you bring him a change of clothes? He’s soaking wet.”

“We didn’t go to his house.”

“Then go get him some of your clothes.”

“Eh, Mom, he’s a skinny little thing. My clothes are way too big for him.”

“Then go get some from your dad,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Okay.”

“Tomorrow, I’ll make sure he gets you something during his lunch break if you don’t mind leaving me your keys. Now, will you be okay?”

“I think so,” Malakai said.

“Okay. Change while I go get some more ice.”

David came back as Nicole left the room. Malakai changed as best he could and was ready to sleep by the time he was done. Once he was in bed with his arm on the pillow and a blanket over himself, he closed his eyes and was asleep in moments.

Chapter Sixty-Four

LILY

Lily didn’t know
which side was up and which side was down anymore. The only thing she had in her life that still made sense was Malakai. Despite his surgery, she had gone to see him the previous night so she could have a moment of peace in his arms.

But today, reality came crashing in again.

She had been thrown out of her own house, the house her father had left her. And she had to face school, but she just didn’t know how.

She slowly got out of bed and looked around the room. Gone was the pale green and cream. It was replaced by purple and white. Gone was the high bed with the fluffy pillows. It was replaced by a low bed with two pillows. Gone was the white furniture. It was replaced by dark brown. Everything about this room just screamed at her she had no home anymore.

She made her way down the stairs to the kitchen, which was to the left and not to the right, like at home. All these differences compounded her sense of hopelessness, and she felt like crap. She was sure she didn’t look any better.

“What are you doing up?” Charlie asked when she walked into the kitchen.

He was sitting at the counter, reading a newspaper.

“I’ve got school.”

“Well, I think it’s better if you don’t go today,” Charlie said, standing up and walking to her. “You have a lot of important decisions to make in the next few days, and I want to make sure you get as much information as you need to make them like the wise young woman that you are. To do that, you need to know exactly where you stand,” he continued, putting his hands on her shoulders. “But you’re not alone. I’ll be here and so will Nicole.”

Genuine concern flew from Charlie.

“What kind of decisions?” she asked in a small voice, looking up at her uncle.

“Well, for one, where do you want to live, at least until the court makes its decision?”

It hit Lily again that
home
was no longer
home
, and at the thought of it, tears came to her eyes. “Do I have to make all the decisions now?”

“No, but you need all the information as quickly as possible so you can make them when you’re ready. What’s important now is that we get you on the right path before your exams. I don’t want you to have questions and worries during those.”

“Okay,” Lily said, looking down.

“Hey, you’ll be all right, kiddo. I’ll make sure of it.”

The concern coming from Charlie almost choked her.

“Thank you, Uncle Charlie.”

“I’m right here, always,” he said, letting go of her. “Now what do you want to do?”

“I’m…Go back to bed for a little while.”

“Wise decision,” Charlie agreed with a warm smile. “When you wake up later, we’ll talk, okay?”

“Okay.”

Two hours later
, Lily woke up again, but she didn’t feel any better. She was beginning to have a headache. Regardless, she got up, went to the bathroom, then made her way downstairs where she found Charlie in the kitchen, preparing breakfast.

“You the empath now?” she asked, glancing at the stove clock which showed ten o’clock.

“Nah,” Charlie said with a chuckle. “I heard you in the bathroom.”

Lily took a place at the counter and looked at Charlie, who was preparing a breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast, just like her father used to do when she was little. A few minutes later, he set a plate in front of her, poured her a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice, then took a seat next to her.

“Charlie, are you going to go to jail?” she asked after taking a slow bite of her breakfast.

“Not if I can help it.”

“But you took the fall for me.”

“I didn’t take the fall for you, Lily. I took the fall for your mother.”

Lily frowned. He was telling the truth, that she knew, and she herself believed Beatrice had planted the drugs.

“Lily, there’s a couple of things you don’t know about your father, your mother, and me. I’m pretty sure your father would have told you when you were older but…you know…”

Lily nodded, looking at her barely touched plate.

“I think you’re still too young to know, but now you need to.

“Your mother, Lily, she wasn’t always like that. I remember when Marcus and I met her. We were in our junior year. We were both in love with her. She was so pretty, so classy, and she was fighting like a lioness for some cause or another that I don’t remember now. I remember, however, both Marcus and I gave her our support just to be able to spend more time with her.”

Her mother was still quite the humanitarian, Lily had to admit. She spent more time caring about her charities than she ever did Lily.

“She loved the fact she had two of the football players supporting her cause. It helped bring interest in what she was fighting for. And, of course, one thing led to another and Marcus got lucky.

“Then, when we were seniors, Marcus, Beatrice, and I, we began to party pretty hard. And when I say hard, I mean hard, as in hard-hard, and not only with alcohol. We liked our coke too,” he added with a sigh. “We partied on and off for almost a year, from about when football finished and throughout the summer after we graduated. After that, Marcus and I, we got bored, and we moved on to other things.

“Beatrice, on the other hand, she liked it a lot, maybe even too much, and she kept on partying without us. At first, we let her, but eventually, Marcus got tired of it and told her she had to stop. But she didn’t stop. She just hid it. Eventually, we found out, and Marcus gave her an ultimatum: get clean or get out of his life. That was the first time she went to rehab. She was nineteen.”

“The first time? There were more?”

“Oh, yes, Lily, there were. At least two other times I know of. Once shortly before you were born and the other one right after you moved to Katy. Remember that time?”

Lily did remember. Beatrice had disappeared and not once had Lily asked her dad where she was. She had just been happy to finally be in a house where tensions were gone. Her father had been so happy at that time. He hadn’t said it, but she had known.

“Once she was clean, she wanted to head to Hollywood and try for an acting career. She begged Marcus to go with her, but Marcus would have none of it. We both knew if she went, she would fall into drugs again, and Marcus told her if she remained in Houston, he would take care of her, and she would never have to worry about anything.

“I think she liked the idea. I mean, Marcus and I came from money, and even at nineteen, Marcus could already support her. All she had to do was attend school and do charities. Even back then, charities were her life. I have to admit, Lily, she did a lot of good. She still does, really.

“A few months ago, just after you began band for the summer, I was at your house, and I saw something.”

“What?” Lily asked, her breakfast now completely forgotten.

“Bloodstains on the carpet of the living room,” he answered, glancing at his hands. “I then looked closely, and I saw a powder residue on the coffee table. But before I could investigate more, Beatrice came back from wherever she had disappeared. She was so bubbly, just like when we used to get high, and I had my doubts then. That’s when I hired a private investigator.”

“You…you had someone follow Beatrice?”

“Oh, yes, I did,” Charlie said, looking at her. “I didn’t want anything to happen to you, and I know how your mother can be.”

It all began to make sense to Lily. Beatrice had never loved her, but her level of irrationality had begun toward the middle of the summer and had increased ever since.

“That’s why you told her you knew something she wouldn’t like you to tell?”

“Yes. At that time, I had confronted her already. She denied it, but I told her I didn’t believe her. I never told her about the P.I., but I told her I had proof she was lying to me. I did tell her she had to stop, otherwise it wouldn’t end well.

“I think she figured if you were gone, I would go away too.

“But she did cross the line when she put that coke in your backpack. It was hers, Lily, and I have pictures to prove it. Beatrice will only have two choices now: prison or rehab, again.”

“Wow!”

“Yeah, wow!”

Lily silently looked at her plate, her appetite completely gone.

An hour later
, they were in Charlie’s office and were going over her financial situation. Lily became completely lost after fifteen minutes. After all she had found out about Beatrice and with her worries over Malakai, she couldn’t concentrate long enough to understand anything Charlie was saying. He meant well, but Lily was too overwhelmed for the long explanations.

“I think we should stop, Charlie,” Lily said, wearily rubbing her temples.

“Then let me sum it up for you. The bottom line is you can pay for college, and you can live for a while if you don’t go to excess. When you decide about the house, your situation may change.”

That last statement, Lily understood.

“Now you’ll need to make a few decisions when we hear from the court, but the fact Beatrice locked you out doesn’t look good for her. Hopefully, the court will now reach its decision quicker,” Charlie continued. “Once it does, you’ll have to decide what to do with the house. Personally, I think you should sell it and walk away.”

“What if I want to keep it?”

“You can do that, too. However, I want you to consider this: What are your plans for next year? College, right? For how long? Four years? Where do you want to go? Rice, right? And where is it? Inside the Loop? Will you want to commute from here to Rice every day? Also, if you keep the house, your finances become a lot more strained. With the taxes on it being so high, the question also becomes how long will your funds last? Of course, you could still rent it out, but do you really want to go through that? I’m not saying not to keep it. I’m saying to really take a hard look at it.”

But Lily wanted that house. It was hers. It had been left to her by her father. She didn’t understand why she wanted to keep it so much, but it was important somehow. She felt like if she sold it, she would be giving away the last piece of her father.

At a complete loss of what to do, she just nodded at Charlie.

Chapter Sixty-Five

LILY

It was Lily’s
first day back at school, and she felt like she was being hit by a freight train every few steps she took toward the building. More than once, as she flinched when she crossed someone’s path, she wanted to turn around and go home.

But she had no home to go to.

November had been going relatively well. Each day had been easier to deal with, and each day, she had known she would finally make it in one piece, if not unscratched. But now she doubted her ability to survive another day in public.