Plausibility (23 page)

Monica almost swerved off the road. Surely her best friend hadn’t just suggested what she thought she had. She looked into the rearview mirror at Quill, miraculously in a better mood all of a sudden and then over to Seri with disbelieving eyes. Fuck. She was going to get them both fired.

“Sarah, what the hell are you talking about?” she asked with a look that told her to stop, like right that second.

“She’s smoked it before, Monica.
It’s fine, and I really don’t want to deal with this attitude for the next five days.”

“Fuck you, Seri,” Quill called from the backseat.

“See,” Seri said, gesturing to the back seat with an open palm.

“Sarah, what the hell is wrong with you? You don’t give someone with issues a mind altering drug.”

“She is sitting right behind you, and she doesn’t have issues, just a fucked up life. I’m not going to tell anyone. I am a good secret keeper, just ask Seri, here,” Aquilla guaranteed.

“W
hat is she talking about, Seri -- I mean Sarah? Oh fuck. This is bad. This is so bad. How is it that you seem to always land us in these messes?”

“Nothing,” Seri, replied, giving Aquilla a death glare.

“No. It’s not ‘nothing.’ I’m here to help her. You guys can’t keep secrets from me. What is she talking about, Sarah.”

“Let’s burn this before we get there,” Seri said, derailing the question that she was now going to have to answer, thanks to A-fucking-Quilla.

“This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy,” Monica chanted, over and over, watching Seri light the joint and hand it back to Quill.

Aquilla hit the joint next and held it between the seats. “You hitting this, Mo?” she asked, holding the smoke in her lungs. Seri smiled at her calling her Mo. Seri had called her Mo since the day she had met her.

“Of course I am. If I’m going to lose my job, I may as well do it in style,” she decided, taking the skinny joint from Quill.

Quill and Seri both felt better, Monica, not so much. She was freaking out. She couldn’t believe that they had just smoked weed with a 17 year old. She was going to kill her friend, first chance she got. She was dead.

“Okay, you’re both stoned off your ass. Quill’s mother is going to know that we are all high, and we’re both going to be looking for new jobs. Tell me what the big secret is,” Monica demanded.

Aquilla scooted up and hunched between the two seats. “Well, you see, Mo,” Aquilla started and then laughed when Seri cut her off.

“You sit back and shut your mouth. I curse the day I met you,” Seri said in a loud tone.

“The day you met me or the day you tasted me?” she asked, and then burst out laughing. Shit, this weed made everything funny.

“I’m warning you. I will leave with Monica and leave your skinny ass to fend for yourself.”

“Fuck that. If you leave me, I’ll be gone in a heartbeat,” Quill promised.

“Just freaking tell me,” Monica commanded again.

“It’s nothing really, just Seri here licked my twat when I was only 16,” Aquilla blurted out, still laughing. She couldn’t help it. The look on Seri’s face was epic.

“I fucking hate you. You’re such a little bitch,” Seri scolded with a scowl, which of course sent Aquilla into another laughing frenzy. “You’re never smoking weed again,” she threatened.

“Seri?”
Monica said, looking over to her, wanting some answers.

“I didn’t know she was 16. I thought she was 18,” Seri explained. She had to. Big mouth Quill already spilled the beans.

“What did you do!?!” Monica demanded to know, looking back to Quill still laughing. Seri was right. That girl wasn’t getting anymore weed.

“I do hate you,” Seri reminded Quill again.

“Sarah!” Monica yelled.

“I did what she said I did when I was there working undercover, but she did it too,” she whined like she was tattling on Quill.

Aquilla doubled over. This needed to stop. Her gut ached. “But I didn’t get you off,” she said with laughing words.

“You would have, had Julius not stopped you.”

More laughing. This was too much.

“Sarah! You did not,” Monica hoped.

“Yes, Mo, I did, and this little snitch bitch promised to keep her mouth shut.”

“I’m sorry,” Aquilla apologized trying to keep a straight face.

“Fuck you,” Seri retorted.

More laughing
, Aquilla couldn’t breathe anymore.

“I can’t work with either of you. You’re both crazy. Sarah, you actually___?” she asked with raised eyebrows. She couldn’t say it, let alone believe it.

Seri couldn’t say it either, but Aquilla didn’t seem to be having a problem with it.

“Yup, she licked my pussy until I had one hell of a mind blowing orgasm. Did I ever thank you for that Seri?” she asked as if they were talking about a tea party.

“You can open your door and jump now,” Seri offered.

“Give her one of those eggrolls to kill her buzz. We can’t take her to her mother laughing like some crazy person.”

“No. I’m done. I promise,” Quill assured her, wiping tears with her shirt.

Seri looked back and shook her head, letting her know that she couldn’t believe that she just did that. She would get over it. Aquilla was sure of it. She had just met Monica and could already tell that she wasn’t your typical psychologist. For whatever reason, she liked her. She wasn’t sure about talking to her and telling her about all of the skeletons in her closest, but she nonetheless did like her.

Aquilla’s alertness piqued as they followed the robotic voice down the long lane of trees. She could see the lake and was a little excited about the water. She missed the ocean and hoped that it helped with the nostalgia. It wouldn’t. Nothing was ever going to be the same again, not until she found Julius anyway.

The house was pretty secluded and was a lot bigger than what she had pictured. She was picturing some old cabin or shack or something. It wasn’t at all. It was a beautiful log cabin with a covered porch running the whole length of the house. It reminded her of an
Auguste Renoir painting. She wasn’t in to art, per se, she was just aware of the painting that hung over her bed for four years. It was signed by Auguste Renoir.

“I’m going to check out the lake,” Aquilla announced as soon as the car stopped.

“You should probably go meet your grandparents first,” Seri countered.

“I will in a minute. I just want to see the lake first.”

Monica watched her walk toward the lake and instantly turned to Seri. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I have no freaking idea, Mo.”

“You went down on her? A girl?”

Seri shook her head with a puff of her own disbelieving breath. “I did what I had to do. I didn’t know at the time
who she was, let alone that she was only 16. Had I protested, my cover would have been blown, they would have run, and I would be on this case for another year.”

“Oh my God, Sarah.
Did she do it to you too?”

“Yes,” Seri answered honestly. She told Monica everything. She always had, but she was sure she would have never volunteered that information had it not been for big mouth Quill.

“And you turned her on to weed? Are you looking for another job?”

“I can’t even explain it to you, Mo. It’s something that I can’t explain. I just feel compelled to, I don’t even know. I told you I can’t explain it. You’re the quack. You tell me.”

“Codependent, you idiot. You’re making her too dependent on you. I haven’t been around her for two hours, and I can already tell that she has placed a shield between her mother and herself. I think you need to leave so that she can bond with her family.”

“Yeah, well tell Houston that. He still thinks she is going to lead us to Julius.”

“And you don’t?”

“No. She doesn’t know where he is. If she did, she would have already run.”

“No more smoking pot with her. I can’t believe you did that.”

“She needed something to calm down. That’s what you and I do when we are stressed.”

“She’s 17, Sarah,” Monica sternly reminded her.

“Okay. Okay. I get it. No more pot.”

“I still can’t get past the image of you going down on a girl. What were you thinking?”

“I told you. I had to do what I had to do.”

“But, like, how was it? I mean, I don’t know what I mean. I just can’t fathom you doing that.”

“You’re a sick bitch. Is your lesbian side a little curious there, Mo?” Seri teased, opening the car door.

“Shut the hell up. Was it gross? Did it taste nasty?”

“You are a sick bitch,” Seri assured her as she opened the back of the SUV to retrieve their things. “Actually, it wasn’t gross at all. If I didn’t keep thinking about her being under age at the time, I would say it was almost sensual. She got off, it was
  
different,” she explained. “Now let it go.”

Aquilla stared down at the water from the long dock.
Nope, no sense of reprieve there. The water was a mucky, brown green, not the crystal blue she was used to. She wouldn’t be getting in there. She looked around at the houses, placed acre’s apart. She wondered who they belonged to. Was this a private lake and only available to the homeowners?

She turned back to the house that she would be staying at for the next week. She saw the older couple standing on the porch beside her mother. The older lady had her hands over her mouth as they stared down at her.

“Fucking great,” she said out loud. That was just what she wanted to deal with. She took a deep breath and walked toward the house, wanting to get the hugging and crying over with.

That was exactly what it was. Grandma Joyce held her tight, sobbing in her hair. Gross. She was shorter than her and her mother, but had the same slim facial features as her. Grandpa Lee was tall and slender, and thank God he quickly hugged her and let her go.

Grandpa Lee took the suitcase from Seri and showed her to her room. She saw the clothes from Reese and her friend already strung about in the first room that they passed. The living room and kitchen were open and the room that she was taken to was on the opposite side of the massive living area from Reese’s room. Good. She didn’t want to hear girly giggles all night.

“Do you have a bag to bring in?” Liz asked Monica.

“Oh, no thank you. I will just get a room. I saw a motel a few miles back,” she said pointing with her thumb. “I’ll be back in the morning.”

“I can’t let you do that. We have 4 bedrooms here. You can sleep in here with Seri. There’s only one bed, but there is a rollaway bed over at my parent’s house. We can bring that over for you,” Liz explained.

“Seri is staying in my room,” Aquilla demanded.

Seri looked to Monica giving her that co-dependent look, whatever the hell that meant.

“Quill, I will be right beside you,” she tried.

“I’m not sure your room is big enough for the rollaway,” Liz also tried.

Aquilla peered in to the queen size bed. “We don’t need it. That bed is plenty big for two people,” she assured them, taking Seri’s bag from her so called grandfather.

All three women stared directly at Seri, like it was her fault. What the hell was she supposed to do? She didn’t tell her to do that.

“What do you want me to do?” Seri whispered to Monica.

Monica only nodded, telling her to accommodate. “Are you sure you don’t mind, Ms. Rimmer?” Monica asked.

“No. Not at all,” Liz politely lied. She did mind. She wanted her and Seri both to leave. She was never going to bond with Aquilla with Seri there. She was like a security blanket to her. She wanted to be her security blanket.

“Your grandmother has made up a basket of the most delicious vegetables for you,” Liz said, walking into the room with Quill. “We’re going to grill out later with some of your family. I explained to her how you wouldn’t want the hamburgers and hotdogs,” she added with a smile as she moved her long blonde hair to the back of her shoulder.

Why did she keep doing that? Aquilla didn’t want her to touch her. She smiled a fake smile and took a step back and thanked her.

“Do I have time to go for a walk?” she asked.

“You sure do,” Monica chimed in, “And I am going with you. We’re going to talk.”

“Great,” Aquilla smirked.

Seri stayed behind and Monica and Aquilla walked around the lake. Monica observed her, watching her pick up stones and toss them to the lake. Aquilla finally turned to look at her.

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“You insisted on tagging along because you wanted to talk. Remember?” she asked, with raised eyebrows.

Monica smiled and blew out a small puff of air. “Tell me what you think of all of this. How are you feeling?”

Aquilla laughed. She couldn’t help it. Was this chick for real? “How do you think I feel about all of this? Is that the best you could come up with? How many years did you have to go to school for that?”

“I can answer that. I think you are feeling more pissed off than anything. I think you should be pissed off. I would be. I also think you are using Sarah for a crutch to keep from dealing with any of it.”