Family Ties (16 page)

CHAPTER FORTY

Blake and Terry sit at the kitchen table drinking iced tea and chatting it up like old friends. His smile breaks into a frown when he notices me closing the front door.

“Thank you for the tea, Terry,” he says, pushing himself to his feet. “Let’s go, Sara.”

“Where are we going?”

“Your new foster home.”

“I need to pack.”

“Terry already did it. Everything is in my car.” He sets his hand on my shoulder and I shrug it off.

“Keep your hands off me.”

He pulls the car out of the driveway. “You would do well to keep your mouth shut when talking to people about us. I hear you have experience with that.”

By “us” I assume he means him and the Lloyds. “Are you threatening me?” I shift in my seat to face him. The anger and bitterness fester, allowing me to tap into the Parker temper. The temper I witnessed growing up and started using the day Gillian dropped me off at the Lloyd’s.

“Call it what you want. And that boyfriend of yours, the Jerichos tell me he’s seeing an ex. Becky?”

My heart collapses in on itself and I can’t find my breath, but I can’t let him witness my devastation. That’s what he wants. I grasp the resentment with both hands, climbing out of the pit of despair before I fall in the deep end. I’ll jump in later.

“There is nothing you can do to me that is worse than what my parents already did, Blake.
Nothing
. And if you do anything to me, I won’t hesitate to report you.” I face forward in my seat again and lock my jaw, seething.

We remain quiet for the duration of the car ride. He introduces me to Erica Valdez with a smile on his face as false as a snake oil salesman’s. He carries my bag to my new room and leaves after telling me to call if I need anything. Like we’re best friends.

Fat chance, fucker.

Erica wears an inviting smile, making me long for Rose. Her dark eyes match her thick hair. She offers me cookies and milk. I accept a warm chocolate chip cookie and ask for water instead.

She tells me about working part-time as a dental hygienist and that her husband, Manny, works in construction. They haven’t been able to have kids of their own, so they are fostering in the hopes to adopt.

I’m the only foster kid for now and I won’t have to change schools for the last weeks before summer. I had hoped to go back to school with Arissa, Jason, and Damian. I already missed prom, but it’s nothing compared to missing my trio of friends.

If Jason’s back with Becky, did he take her to prom? I can’t blame him. He never asked for this. I’m a broken disaster, full of vinegar instead of the sweet he once claimed I was.

I curl up on my new bed, in my new room, in my new foster home and throw myself into the pit of despair, crying.

It’s the first time I’ve allowed myself any form of melancholy. I spent all the time at the Lloyds letting anger eat me up from the inside. Now I have privacy and a place where the routine isn’t so regimented.

I finally give myself permission to mourn the loss of the Jerichos.

And Jason.

In my sorrow, I hope he is happier now. He deserves better than my fucked up life.

It’s time to let him go.

I’m helping Erica cook dinner. It’s my first weekend in the Valdez home.

“Don’t you want to go out with your friends?” Erica asks, handing me tomatoes to chop.

Friends. I’m not allowed to talk to the ones I have and Nicole made me an outcast at school. She and her friends knock into me and keep walking while muttering obscenities. “I don’t have any friends.”

“Surely, there’s someone at school you talk to.”

Hunter, for one minute. “No. My only friends are the ones Blake won’t let me call.”

“Oh.”

I don’t dare ask to call them again. Erica treats me like the human being that I am, like Rose and Andrew did. I don’t want to test limits with her, like I did with the Lloyds. I swipe a tear away with the back of my wrist.

She slips her arm around my shoulder and tugs me to her. “I’m sorry. I wish I could do something for you.”

“Thanks.”

The deep ache in my heart hasn’t left since Blake told me Jason was back with Becky. I accept that he’s lost to me, that he’s moved on. But it’s still painful. Like someone ripped me open, drove a splinter into my heart and sewed me back up. My heart knows the object doesn’t belong and it protests its presence every waking moment.

I still want to return to the Jerichos. I’ll still have them, even if I don’t have Jason. That’s all that matters now. 

She returns to shredding the flank steak for Ropa Vieja. “Let’s go to Cineplex for a movie.”

“You don’t have to entertain me, Erica. I have a library book I can finish tonight.”

“You’re seventeen, you shouldn’t be at home reading on a Saturday night.”

“Seriously. I’ll be fine.”

“What if I said we’re going and not to argue with me?”

I appreciate what she’s trying to do. It’s more than anyone else has done for me, except Hunter, since entering Foster Hell. What would it hurt to go out to a movie with her and Manny? Nothing. “Okay. Movie at Cineplex.”

“Manny!” she calls out. “Look up movies and showtimes!”

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

I’m putting my backpack in my room after school and Erica calls out, “You have a visitor!”

Blake just visited yesterday, so it can’t be him. No one else knows where I am. Unless…unless Blake finally told the Jerichos where I am and one of them came to see me. An enormous smile breaks out, straining my cheeks, and I dash out to the living room.

I come to an abrupt stop and drop the smile.

Hunter.

“Sit, you two,” Erica says, gesturing to the sofa. “The cookies should be cool enough now.”

We sit down and I keep my hands in my lap, playing with my fingers as anxiety slinks in. I don’t know what he’s doing here or why. We haven’t talked since the day of the fight two months ago.

“How did you know where I live?” I ask.

“I followed you home.”

I scoot away. How did I not notice I was being followed? “Do you realize how creepy that is?”

“I haven’t been able to talk to you at school and I didn’t know what else to do. No one else has your number or knows where you live, so I didn’t have anyone to ask. I’m sorry.”

Erica sets a tray of cookies and glasses of milk on the coffee table before leaving with a smile brightening her face.

I can’t believe he
wants
to talk to me. I settle back into the sofa. “Why are you here?”

“I wanted to apologize for the fight.” He swipes a cookie off the tray and bites into it.

“That was Nicole. Not you.”

He pushes the food to the side of his mouth. “I know, but I feel bad. Nicole’s not always nice.”

I snort. “That’s putting it mildly.”

He swallows. “She’s not my girlfriend, you know. We were friends with ben—”

“Does it matter?” I grab one of the glasses of milk and take a swig, even though I don’t care for milk. I just need a distraction from the anxiety. I don’t want to look like a fool in front of Hunter by falling back into old habits.

“I thought you weren’t talking to me because you thought I was with her.”

“I thought you weren’t talking to me because you went out on a limb to defend me.”

He smiles and chuckles. It should make me smile and laugh in return, but it doesn’t. A ton of bricks falls on me instead. I miss Jason.

I bite my lips together and turn my head, brushing the tears away with my fingertips. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry over him after my first night here. I’m stuck here. It could be another ten months, my eighteenth birthday, before I ever see him, Arissa, or her parents again.

Hunter gives my shoulder a light squeeze. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

I take a deep breath and turn back to him. “You just made me think of Jason. That’s all.”

His brow knits together. “Why would that make you cry?”

“I haven’t seen him since I was taken from my guardians two and a half months ago and placed in foster care. My social worker won’t let me call or see him.” I don’t tell him what Blake said before dropping me off here. If he knows, I don’t want to know. But given that he isn’t talking to Nicole, he probably doesn’t.

“Oh. So the woman who answered your door?”

“Is my foster mother, Erica.”

“So you transferred to La Costa because you came here?”

“I was in another home when you met me.” It feels good talking to him. Someone my age instead of adults. I can’t talk to adults the same way I talk to Arissa, Jason, or Damian. Or Hunter. “Even if I wanted to, my foster parents before wouldn’t have let me go to the party you invited me to.”

“I’m having a party the Saturday after graduation. Why don’t you come?”

I blink hard, not believing I heard him right. “No one wants me there.”

“I do.”

He’s offering friendship at his own expense. The least I can do is accept. “I’ll talk to Erica and let you know tomorrow.”

“Awesome.” The corner of his mouth quirks up in a half-grin and I push the thoughts of Jason away. Jason is lost to me.

He gets up and heads for the door. I set my glass down and follow him outside. He gives me a quick hug, then grabs his skateboard and backpack off the porch. “See ya tomorrow, Sara.”

“
I knew it!
” A car door slams on the street and we shift our focus to the person yelling.

Nicole.

I close the door so Erica can’t hear. I hope.

Nicole points her finger at me with fire in her eyes. “I knew you two hooked up! You aren’t satisfied with just stealing Jason from Becky. You have to steal Hunter from me, you cunt.”

The anger I kept locked up since coming to the Valdez’s busts out and I ball up my fists. “This is the first time we’ve talked since you got us suspended!”

She purses her lips together. “You can’t leave anyone alone, can you?”

“Can you?” I ask in return, my voice rising.

“Hey,” Hunter says, stepping between us. “Chill.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Nicole says.

“What are you doing here anyway?” he asks.

“I followed you following her.”

This is fucked up.

“Why? You made it clear you wanted nothing to do with me.”

“That was until I saw you following the thieving skank. She can’t get away with what she did to Becky.”

“She told you she didn’t do anything.”

She huffs and then pushes him, surprising us both.

He flails for balance. “Shit!”

I throw my arms out, keeping him from falling and moving him to the side in one motion. “What the fuck, Nicole?” I step closer to her. “Does pushing people around make you feel superior? Do you know what it’s like to be on the receiving end?” I shove her back and she stumbles a few steps. “How’s that feel?” I shove her again. “How about that?”

She screams, charging at me like an untrained linebacker. I plant my feet late and she crashes into me. The air expels from my lungs as I hit the grass and is replaced with a dull ache.

I kick my leg around her in an attempt to roll over and get on top, but she throws her weight against my leg.

Hunter yanks her off of me and drags her to her car. “Later, Sara!” 

I lie still in the grass, breathing through the soreness. How does everything always go to shit just when it starts going right?

“Sara,” Erica calls from the door. “Time for therapy.”

Great. I get to spend the next hour in a stare down with Irving. Lucky me.

Hunter tracks me down on campus between morning classes the next day.

“Well?” he asks.

“Yeah, I’ll be there.” Erica was elated when I asked to go to the party. You would’ve thought I told her I was asked to prom.

“Cool. Hey, want to go to a movie or something this weekend?”

I stiffen and clutch the books in my arms, as if they’ll save me from certain death. I can’t go out with him. I just can’t.

“Friends, Sara,” he says. “I know you’re with Jason.” He doesn’t know.

Tears well up, waiting to be released. “I don’t know what it is anymore, Hunter.” Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.

He sets a hand on my arm. “I respect whatever it is. I know you miss him.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because I know what it’s like being the new kid in school.”

“I’m not the new kid anymore.”

Hunter’s eyes widen and then someone or something rams into me from behind. I fall forward, dropping my books as I throw my arms out to catch myself. He catches me instead.

“Bitch. Watch where you’re standing,” Nicole mutters as she passes.

Hunter makes sure I’m all right, then gathers my books for me. He whips a pen out of his back pocket, writes something inside my notebook, and hands it back with the books. “Call me later, after you talk to your foster mom.” He grins, then rushes off to class.

Why? Why does he have to be so nice? And why can’t I let myself enjoy making a new friend?

When I ask Erica about going out with Hunter tomorrow, she’s more excited than when I asked about the party. I call and let Hunter know I can go. He goes through the movies playing and we choose one together. 

I am going out with a new friend.

I am going out with a new friend.

I am going out with a new friend.

If I chant it long enough, it will be real and good.

Manny answers the door when Hunter arrives and makes a failed attempt at being an imposing fatherly figure. Hunter is taller and not at all scared of Manny’s posturing. Manny skulks off after a few minutes and we leave.

Hunter pays for the tickets, popcorn, and drinks. Refusing to take the money I try to give him; part of the allowance Erica gives me that she says comes from the state to care for me. The Lloyds never gave us an allowance, probably keeping the money for themselves.

“It’s what I should’ve done when we first met,” he says as we take seats in the back.

I’m not sure what this feeling is. Something between frustration and gratitude. “Thanks, Hunter.”

“I know it’s not easy being new, especially since Nicole targeted you early on. I’m just sorry I didn’t talk to you sooner.”

“We were both blackballed.”

“Yeah, but can you imagine how much fun we would’ve had being blackballed together?” He grins and tosses a piece of popcorn in his mouth.

I snicker. “Does this mean it’ll be just you and me at your party?”

“Probably.” He shrugs. “I don’t care anymore. If my friends can’t be decent human beings, I don’t want them as friends.”

Our shared social status and his friendliness puts me at ease. I find myself sharing my story with him while we wait for the movie to start. He doesn’t flinch, gape, or judge. He hugs me and keeps his arm around me during the movie. I don’t shrug away or ask him to remove his arm. I trust him.