Fake (A Pretty Pill) (21 page)

“What?” I risk saying.

Ben just continues to stare at me, a
nd he picks up the second helmet and tosses it to me.

“We are so talking about
everything
when we get home.”  Ben demands.

“Fair enough.” I lightly throw back at him before placing
the helmet on, which is in fact mine.  I think of what I’ll need to tell Isi when I call her after I get through all this bullshit.

Ben rides like a demon possessed through the streets of SLO
on his Ducati 1198SP, despite having me pillion.

He rides up to the house he shares with my sister and their son; elbowing me in the ribs to jump off, which I do.

I’m taking my helmet off.

“In the house now Silas.  Your sister is freaking the fuck out.”  Ben growls.

“Happy reunions.” I grumble.

“It could’ve been if the first thing we heard from you about
wanting to see us again didn’t begin with the sentence
I’m in jail, can you come and bail me out?
”  Ben argues.

I walk into the house and Jade
’s on top of me immediately.

“What the hell have you done Silas?”  She says frantically, pulling me in for a bone crushing hug.

“I got arrested and charged with driving without a license.”

“
Whose car were you driving?” she asks me, pulling back and giving me her big puppy dog eyes.  I guess my eyes can do this too.  It makes you want to spill your guts and tell her everything.  She should work for the CIA or something.  She’d get results.

“Isobelle’s.”

“Who’s Isobelle?”

“My girlfriend.” I groan.  Here we go.

“You have a girlfriend?”

“Yes, kind of.  We haven’t discussed labels yet.” I answer.

“Does she know you don’t have a valid car license?”

“Yes.”

“And she let you drive?”

“No.”

“So you were stealing her car?”  Jade narrows her eyes.

“No, she needed her car, and I was starting it for Hank, who was going to drive it over to her.  He was getting ready inside at the time.”  I begin to lie.  I really don’t need Jade to blame Isi for this, which she will, because she always sticks up for
me in my defense.

“That’s stupid,
is it an old car?” she asks.

“No, it’s the latest model Lexus.”

Her eyes open really wide.

“You don’t need to warm new cars up Silas.  What were you really doing?” she growls.

I’m sticking to this story, but I need to embellish a little.

“The truth is I was going to back it up to the unit.  But I didn’t get that far, I only got to start it.  I had no intention of dri
ving it on the road.” I explain, or lie as the case may be.

“Ben, if he wasn’t actually driving it, how can they charge him with driving it?”

“I don’t know.  I’ll call my lawyer.”  He says, turning to leave the room.

“Tell him I called the cop a cunt too, it’s the reason they decided to arrest me I think.” I grumble.

“SILAS.”
  Jade shouts in shock.

“Well that will bloody well do it
.”  Ben agrees.  “Did you get charged with contempt?”

“No, they
didn’t charge me with that.  Besides, he was being one, and I didn’t get physical or anything.  I just said that the whole thing was bullshit and when the police officer said I was behaving like an
irresponsible fucking teenager
, I told him he was behaving like a
motherfucking cunt.
”  I explain.

Jade is wide eyed and staring at me, her hand
is over her mouth and her head is shaking back and forth.

“How do you know they
won’t slap a charge on you for verbally abusing them?”  Ben asks.

“An inmate told me
they would’ve done it already; and they didn’t.  The officer was an asshole in any case.” I shrug.

“Alright, I’ll go and make a call.” Ben states
grumpily and leaves the room.

Jade is still staring at me.

“What?”

“Is this what th
at girl is like?  Did you behave like this because of her influence?”  She asks.

“Jad
e, I have always been like this. Do you even know me?” I argue.

“I,
yes.  You have always been like this.”  She agrees, nodding.  Then she looks at me. 

Shit, the look screams
‘interrogation in process’
.

“
Who is this Isobelle girl?”  She begins.  We’re about to start with the rapid fire questions that may or may not satisfy Jade’s curiosity to know everything.  I know I’m going to lie, so I quickly think of plausible but simple lies that I won’t forget later.

“She’s a girl I’m dating.”

“What about Shae?”

“What about her.  She left me four
and a half months ago.”

“And you’re over her?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I’ve been swamped with therapy for months, and I have had nothing else to do but get over her.  I’m sick of the whole process and I never want to have to think about it again.  I’m so over it, I’m beginning to not even like Shae anymore.” I explain.

“Oh,
how long have you known Isobelle?” she asks.

“
Five weeks.”

“Was she in the same facility as you?”

“That’s where I met her, but no, she wasn’t a patient there.”

“So what was she?” 
Her eyes narrow.

I need to get my lie working to perfection.  I can’t fuck this
up; because Jade quite possibly will spaz out if she knows that Isi was a staff member.  She is all about that code of conduct bullshit.

“She works for Dr. Jensen.” I begin.

“She works there?” she gasps. 
Time to stop this spiraling out of control.

“No.” 
The lie slips out beautifully.  “She works for Dr. Jensen outside of the facility.  She would come in and run errands and shit for her.”

“Oh.  So she ha
s access to the client’s?”

“Dr. Jensen is a very busy woman.  Isi quite often had to wait around.” I continue with the lie.  It’s all plausible, I’ll add in some I don’t knows here and there and it will sound even better.

“How often did she wait around?”

“Frequently.”

“So you two started a relationship within the confines of your transitional mental health program?”

“We started being friends.”  I tell the truth.

“And then what?”

“When I got out on
the first Monday, I asked her to meet me on the Tuesday.  We spent the day together.  Come Wednesday, I asked her if we could try dating.  We’ve been hanging with each other ever since.”  I reason.

“
Have you slept with her?”

“No.  We’ve barely
even kissed.” I groan.

“So, we should invite her to dinner then?” she asks.

“No.”

“No?  Why not?” S
he gives me a confused look.

“She lives in a halfway house at the moment
and likes to be back before her curfew.”  I explain.  The best lies are told with a great amount of truth.

“She’s a drug user?” Jade gasps.

“No Jade.” I snap.

“That’s what halfway houses are for
.” she argues back.

“Not all of them.  She has mental health issues.”

“Fucking hell Silas.  Why go and burden yourself with that?  Haven’t you got enough problems yourself to deal with?”

I am seething.  She can see it, but she wants me to answer.

“I’m going to forget you just said that Jade.  That’s the same mentality that I’d expect from Mrs. Leveritt; not you.”  Mrs. Leveritt is Shae’s mom.

She has the decency to look sheepish.

“What kind of mental illness?”  She asks.

“I shouldn’t be the one to tell you.  She doesn’t like people to know.” I growl.

“Silas Tayte, I know I go about things the wrong way sometimes, but you know I’m only interested in what’s best for you.  If you want me to like this girl, you’d better fucking tell me everything.”  She demands.

“If I tell you, you can’t tell
anyone else; as it is, I’ll have to fucking plead for her not to get upset with me for telling you.  Plus, I’d like to point out that there are things I never told you about Shae, and it didn’t prevent you from liking her.  The only reason I’ll tell you about Isi now is because you’ll find out in the end anyway.”  I explain.

“What about Shae?” She asks softly.

“I’m talking about Isi now; don’t you want to know about her?”

“I want to know about both.” she sheepishly replies.

I think about it for a moment, and decide I don’t feel the need to keep Shae’s secret a secret from Jade anymore.

“Shae was born without a uterus, so she could
n’t have kids.” I blurt out.

“Holy fuck.  And I used to complain about being pregnant all of the time.”  She groans.

I shrug.

“I’m an asshole.” she whispers to herself.

“Yeah, you are.”

She gives me a fierce look once again.

“What is Isobelle’s battle?”  She asks.

Approp
riate choice of words there sis.

“PTSD.”

“Post traumatic stress disorder?”  She asks a little shocked.

“Yes.”

“Was she raped or something?” she asks softly.

“I hope not, or I’ll have to find the motherfucker and bury him.” I growl.

“So why?”  Jade asks.

“She’s a returned Army medic.  She was badly injured in Afghanistan.”

“How old is she?”  Jade asks, slightly shocked.

I can’t lie about this,
and I know Jade will have a little bit of an issue with this.

“25.”

“25?  She’s 25?” she asks shocked.

“Who’s 25?”  Ben asks, wandering in.

“His girlfriend is 25.  She’s six years older than you Silas
.” she argues.  “She’s not a girl, she’s a woman.”

“Yeah.”

“Shit, way to go Silas.” Ben chips in, coming forward with a high five.

“Shut the fuck up Ben.  She’s only a year younger than me
.  I look at Silas and I see a little boy.  What does she see in him?”  She reasons.

“Jade, I’
m old enough to go to war.  I vote; I can go out drinking back at home.  I’m an adult.  There’s nothing illegal about this situation.” I explain.

“So you’d be happy to get it on with a 50 year old, because there’s nothing illegal about that either.” she fumes.

“If she looked like Isi I would.” I reply.

“That’s insane
.”

“Jade, you
’re full of double standards.  When you were 19 you were fucking dudes in their late twenties and early thirties.  Besides, of course you look at Silas and see a boy; you’re practically his God damn mother.” Ben throws at her.

“But,
”

“But what?”  Ben says.

“Yeah Jade, but what?  In five years time, I’ll be 24 and she’ll be 30.  It won’t even matter then.”  I argue.

“But you’re barely an adult.”

“Don’t be stupid Jade.”  Ben jumps in.  “Silas has been an adult since he began working a fulltime fucking job and putting in a hard day’s work the same as any other man there.” Ben argues.  “He’s far more grown up than most guys I know around my age.”

Jade sighs.

“Will I like her?” she asks.

“Yes.  You will, especially if you kick this stupid prejudice before you meet her.”

“Fine fine.  I’ll look past it.”  She groans.

“And don’t be doing the whole stupid pregnancy is shitty and babies are hard work bullshit.”  I warn her in advance.

Ben raises his eyebrows since he always knew about Shae.

“S
ilas, please tell me she wasn’t born without a womb either, I already feel like a piece of shit.  Did you know Shae was born without a womb Ben?” She asks, hypothetically of course; to her there would be no reason that Ben would know about that.

“No.” he lies.

“Oh, Silas just told me, and now I’m remembering all those times I moaned and groaned about being pregnant to her.  I was such a bitch.”  Jade laments.

“Don’t worry
honey; you can’t turn time back now.”  He says, coming over and rubbing her shoulders from behind.

“Well?” Jade looks at me.