In the Middle of Nowhere (19 page)

James’s big blue eyes got bigger. “Hey,
whatta ya doing driving mom’s car?”

“Don’t worry about me driving. Just be
thankful that the house didn’t burn to the ground.”

We walked inside and, even though the smoke
had cleared, I immediately caught a whiff of the pungent scent of
burnt popcorn. James and I shut all the windows and I walked into
the kitchen to close the back door. The inside of the microwave was
black and a charred bag of popcorn sat inside it. James was behind
me.

“What the heck happened?”

James shrugged. “I tried to make popcorn like
I always do, but I think I set the time wrong and walked away and
then I smelled the smoke and ran in here and opened the microwave
and smoke kept pouring out.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re not even allowed to
eat or drink when I leave you. Why did you think you could make
popcorn?”

James looked down and rubbed his belly. “I
was hungry and didn’t know when you’d be coming back.”

I wanted to be mad at my brother, but I
actually felt sorry for him. I knew I shouldn’t have left him.

“I’ll make you something else to eat. What do
you want?”

James looked up at me and grinned. “Peanut
butter sandwich, no crust?”

“Fine. Give me a minute to try and clean this
microwave first.”

“Kay,” James said and turned to leave.

“Wait a minute, James. Do not tell mom about
me driving because if you do, I will take each and every video game
you’ve ever owned and make my own special bonfire with them out
back.”

James stared at me.

“Understand?” I asked.

“Yeah,” James answered before he scurried out
of the kitchen and into the family room.

I grabbed a roll of paper toweling, some
cleaning spray and braced myself for a stinky and dirty job.

• • •

The mess in the microwave proved to be a time
consuming task. I took a break and made my brother his sandwich
before resuming my mission. I had to get it as clean as before so
my mother wouldn’t ask me what had happened. I didn’t want to have
to lie to her and certainly didn’t want her to ask James why the
white microwave suddenly turned black. He might forget about my
threat and tell her the whole story from me leaving him alone to me
stealing her car.

My mother actually called while I was making
James’s sandwich. She wanted to check in and see how we were
doing.

“Everything is fine,” I reassured her.

“Alright, dear. Brian and I will be home
sometime tomorrow morning.”

“Okay. Bye.”

“Bye, Willow.”

Except for the interruption by my mother, all
I could think about, as I scrubbed and scrubbed, was my brief
meeting with Michael. I kept reliving our last moment on the front
porch, right before I left, when his face was close to mine. He
looked like a man now, so handsome and strong under the illuminated
sky. I wanted to remember what it felt like because, until he
spoke, I thought he might kiss me.

The butterflies came rushing back in, just
from the memory of being with him. Why did I have such strong
feelings for Michael? I had never felt this way with any other boy
before.

I felt saddened by his admission about his
disease. I didn’t know anything about Cystic Fibrosis and decided I
would look it up on the Internet as soon as I was done with the
microwave. It made complete sense why Michael missed so much school
and looked sickly sometimes. Did having the disease mean that he
would die at an early age, too? I hoped not and needed to do some
research.

I was just about done cleaning up when my
cell phone beeped, telling me I had a new text. I put down the
paper towel roll and saw that it was from Michael. I opened the
text and read, “Star light, star bright, last star I saw tonight,
was the one shining deep from within your enchanting eyes.”

I smiled to myself, but didn’t know what to
respond. I wasn’t poetic like Michael, so I decided to send back a
smiley face instead.

After my final inspection of the spotless
microwave, I turned off the lights in the kitchen and headed
upstairs to my room where I would try to learn all I could about
Michael Cooper and how he lived his life with an incurable
disease.

• • •

I didn’t realize that I had fallen asleep
and, at first, thought I was dreaming. The incessant ringing of the
doorbell eventually woke me. I looked at the clock. It was 3:00
A.M.

I sat up and tried to make sense of what day
it was. I remembered it was Saturday night, actually early Sunday
morning and that my mom was away. Who the heck would be ringing the
doorbell in the middle of the night?

I was afraid to go downstairs and check. I
climbed out of my bed and crept into the hallway. I passed James’s
bedroom, peeked inside and saw that he was fast asleep. The
doorbell chimed again. I went into my mother’s room, which had a
window that faced the front of the house.

Slowly I pushed aside her curtain to peer
outside. I looked onto the driveway and saw another vehicle parked
behind my mom’s, but didn’t recognize it. I looked down toward the
front door and could not see anybody at first. Just then the person
who was ringing the bell stopped and walked away.

Even in the darkness I could tell it was
Tessa. I flung open the bedroom window and yelled down to her as
she reached her car.

“What the hell are you doing!?”

Tessa stopped, turned and looked for the
source of my voice. She couldn’t find me.

“Up here!” I shouted and waved.

She finally spotted me. “Open the damn door!
I’m freezing my ass off out here!”

• • •

I closed the family room door tightly behind
us.

“Shhh. My brother’s sleeping.”

“Sorry.” Tessa tried to whisper. Immediately
I smelled alcohol on Tessa’s breath and realized she was very
drunk.

“Why are you here?”

“’Cause Connor and I got in a fight and I
told him to go screw himself.”

“Again, why are you here?”

Tessa fished through her bag and took out her
pack of cigarettes. She tried to light one. I snatched the lighter
from her hand.

“I don’t think so,” I said. I didn’t want to
have to deal with another fire. One per night was enough for
me.

“So I told my mom I was sleeping at your
house, but I was really going to spend the night at Connor’s, but
he and I got into a huge fight and he kicked me out of his stupid
party.”

Tessa plopped down on the couch. “Can I
crash?”

I hesitated, but relented. “I guess.”

Where else was Tessa going to go? She
shouldn’t have even been driving in the first place. I didn’t want
her to kill herself or another innocent person while out on the
road.

“You might want to come upstairs, though,
’cause my brother gets up very early in the morning and turns on
the television down here.”

Tessa struggled to stand. “Sounds good to
me.”

Tessa grabbed her purse, followed me upstairs
and made my crazy night even crazier.

• • •

Thank God I had a queen-sized bed. It made
sleepovers tolerable, especially the ones with drunken guests.

I gave Tessa an extra pillow and tried to get
comfortable on mine. I was very tired and wanted to go back to
sleep, but all Tessa wanted to do was talk.

“You really should have come to Connor’s. The
party was really rockin’ until he acted like a dick to me.”

“I told you I had to stay here with my
brother.”

“I know. That’s why came here to crash. I
remembered your mom was away.”

Tessa elbowed me. “Didn’t you have fun at
Rocky’s last weekend?”

“I guess,” was all I was willing to tell her.
I opted to leave out the groping and throwing up parts.

“Yeah. Rocky’s parents are really cool,
unlike Connor’s. The only reason he had a party was ’cause his
parents are away… like your mom.”

Tessa turned to me and smiled, proud of
herself, for making such an obvious comparison. I wanted to shove a
breath mint in her mouth. She smelled like a brewery.

“The winter always sucks because we can’t
party outside at the beach like we do in the summer. The summers
are amazing on the island, but the winters suck.”

Tessa flung her arm and whacked me in the
head.

“Ow!”

“What happened?”

“Nothing,” I answered. I didn’t want to
engage her in conversation anymore. I wanted to sleep.

Tessa closed her eyes, but spoke anyway,
actually slurred. “Did you know that some girls in school call us
soph-whore-mores?”

“Yeah. I heard.”

“They’re just jealous.” Tessa opened her
eyes. “Don’t you think they’re jealous, Willow?”

“I have no idea and don’t really care.”

“Well, I think they’re jealous cuz we’re
prettier than them.”

Tessa turned toward me and curled up on her
side. “Do you think I’m pretty?”

I wanted her to stop talking and stop asking
me inane questions. I stared at the ceiling and answered
robotically.

“Yes, Tessa, I think you’re pretty. Can we go
to sleep now, please?”

Tessa reached out and touched the bottom of
my hair. “Well, I think you’re pretty, too, Willow.”

“Great! Now that we’ve established that we’re
both so damn pretty, can we go to sleep?”

I waited for Tessa to respond, but she
didn’t. The next thing I knew, Tessa began to breathe deeply, and
then started to snore loudly.

I slowly removed Tessa’s hand from my pillow
and watched as she stirred and quickly fell back to sleep. I rolled
over and turned off the light. I couldn’t believe what was
happening. What I thought had been an even crazier night, turned
out to be the craziest one ever.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN

When I finally woke up the next morning, I
looked next to me and saw that the bed was empty. Did Tessa really
spend the night or had I been dreaming? I grabbed the other pillow
and smelled it. I caught the scent of Tessa’s perfume along with
the subtle hint of cigarette smoke. I knew then that it hadn’t been
a dream. But where was she?

I got out of bed and searched the upstairs.
No sign of her. I walked into my mom’s room and looked out her
front window. Tessa’s car was gone.

I went back to bed and thought about the
events from the night before; meeting up with Michael, his
confession about his illness, my brother almost burning down the
house and Tessa’s unexpected, late-night visit. I smiled to myself.
I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t believe how much madness had taken
place in just one evening.

I could hear my brother downstairs slaying
his virtual dragons. I grabbed my cell phone and turned it on to
see if I had any new messages. There was one from Tessa that she
had sent about an hour earlier. It read: “Thanks for the bed. I owe
you.”

I was about to text her back, when I heard
the front door slam shut followed by my mother’s voice.

“Willow? James? Where are you two?”

I heard James say something in response while
I hopped out of bed and headed downstairs.

I joined James and my mother in the
kitchen.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” my mom greeted
me.

“Morning,” I said as I folded my arms and
leaned up against the counter.

As my mom unpacked bags of groceries, she
crinkled up her nose. “Why does it smell awful in here, like burnt
popcorn?”

“Cuz I burnt some last—” James started, until
I elbowed him hard in the ribs.

“Owww!” James screamed.

My mother turned, alarmed. Luckily she had
been busy putting away food and didn’t notice. “What’s wrong,
James?”

“Nothing. He’s fine,” I quickly said as I
ruffled his already messy hair. “I burned popcorn last night by
mistake while I was making it for James. Sorry.”

I smiled. She smiled back. “It’s okay,
dear.”

“Did you have a nice time?” I asked, even
though I didn’t care. I cared more about Tessa’s stupid squabble
with Connor than I did about my mom’s night away with her beau.

My mother stopped her unpacking and faced my
brother and me. “I, I mean, we had a great time.”

She had on a grin from ear to ear and held
out her left hand toward us. “Do you notice anything different?” my
mother asked as her eyes darted back and forth between my brother
and me.

James and I looked at each other, confused.
Was our mother losing it? Notice what?

This time she shook her hand wildly in our
faces. “Look you two! I’m engaged!”

Engaged! Was she kidding?! The rock on her
finger told me she wasn’t kidding, but how could she be engaged to
another man, a man other than my father? I was blown away and it
must have shown on my face.

My mother’s genuine joy turned to hurt.
“Aren’t you happy for me, Willow?”

I could see the pain in her eyes, but wasn’t
fazed. “How can you be engaged to a man, who you’ve only known for
what, two months?”