True Love and Magic Tricks (14 page)

“
Why don’t we practice at
your house then? That way there’ll be no temptation. Plus I’m kind
of scared of your dad, and he won’t let us in your bedroom so we’ll
have to be on our best behavior.”

“
Um… Sure.”

“
Why the
hesitation?”

“
My mom might be
there.”

“
That’s great. I’ll finally
get to meet her.” Her bright eyes dull and lips curve down. I stop
walking and urge her to look at me. “Do you not want me to meet
her?”

“
Oh no. It’s not that. It’s
just…my parents fight when they’re together. A lot.”

“
So do my
grandparents.”

“
No. I mean scream. Like I
may as well go put on a referee uniform and go stand in the middle
of them.”

“
I bet you’d look
adorable.” I pull her close and kiss the top of her
head.

“
Well duh, but that’s not
the point.”

“
Kaylee, I’ve picked
Lexie’s mom off the ground after an all-night binger. I’ve been
there when her mom starts screaming at Lexie. Things you couldn’t
imagine a mother saying to her daughter.”

“
Poor bestie.”

“
The point is. I don’t look
at Lexie any different because of who her mother is. And I
definitely will not look at you any different if I witness a little
verbal altercation between your parents.”

“
Promise?”

“
Pinky promise.” I hold my
pinky up, and she hooks hers around mine, yanking hard until my
mouth falls onto hers. She pulls back and gives my suspenders a
little tug.

“
How are you so
perfect?”

A laugh rumbles up my throat. “I’m far
from it.”

“
In my eyes you can’t get
any closer.”

***

Kaylee wasn’t lying when she said her
parents fight. I’ve heard the saying “like cats and dogs” but they
take it to a whole other level. More like a rabid dog and a
deranged cat. We don’t even have to walk into the house to hear
them since we can hear them from the driveway.

“
You can’t call me every
time you have a problem with her. I have a life you know. I have a
job and clients and I don’t have the time to drive up here for
every little god forsaken thing.”

“
I’m sorry if your daughter
is inconveniencing you. Maybe you should have thought of that
before going off the pill!”

My eyes shoot wide and immediately
turn to Kaylee. I want to cover her ears, carry her far, far away
so she doesn’t have to hear a single word being said. But when I go
to wrap her in my arms, she’s already strides ahead of me. Her
braids bounce with each determined step.

She flings the door open and plants
her hands on her hips. “Can I not leave you two alone for three
seconds? Ugh!” She storms upstairs, with her dad standing ten feet
away from me, and considering what happened the last time I was up
in her bedroom, I decide to stay in the doorway.

“
Uh…hi.” I give an awkward
wave as Kaylee’s parents’ eyes leave her retreating frame and land
on me.

“
You must be Nate,” the
former Mrs. Sperling says. I wanted to meet her. But now, after
hearing what she said, the sight of her makes me sick to my
stomach.

“
That would be
me.”

I bite my tongue, wanting to tell her
that she should be honored to have Kaylee as a daughter. That she
should be happy her daughter still needs her in her life. Am I the
only one with a decent mother? Must be something in the water in
these parts.

The most awkward of silences spreads
across the room, and if it had hands, it would strangle
me.

Kaylee appears at the top of the
steps, Mr. Pippi cuddled into her chest. “It’s okay, Mr. Pippi. I
know you don’t like the yelling. Come on, we’ll get out of
here.”

She bounces down the steps and doesn’t
even acknowledge her parents as she walks out the front door. I
offer up a wave and bolt after Kaylee. I find her in the driveway
stroking Mr. Pippi’s head.

“
You okay?” I ask as I
approach.

“
Yup,” she says, but I can
tell it’s a lie. She doesn’t make eye contact with me.

“
Do you want to talk about
it?”

“
No. I talked to Mr. Pippi
when I went upstairs. I’m good. It’s not like I’ve never heard it
before.”

I want to hug her. Rewind the day so
she doesn’t have to hear those horrible things her mother said. I
can’t imagine how it must feel to have your own mother looking at
you as an inconvenience.

But Kaylee looks fine. Her hair is in
its signature braids, her green eyes still bright, but as she
continues to babble to Mr. Pippi, I can hear the unease in her
voice.

I gotta do something. Have to find a
way to make her laugh or at least distract her. Unfortunately she’s
pouring all her attention into her gerbil.

I wrap my arm around her, even though
she acts like she doesn’t want to be comforted, I know deep down
she does. She rests her head on my shoulder, and I tug on one of
her braids.

“
I know you’re upset,” I
say and she shrugs. “What can I do to make it better?”

“
I don’t know.”

The smile that I never thought I’d see
vanish is nowhere to be found. I hate that I can’t snap my fingers
and make it reappear.

There has to be something I can do.
Anything to take her mind off the screaming adults in the
house.

Kaylee lets Mr. Pippi crawl up her
shoulder, and I reach over and take him in my hands.

“
What are you doing?”
Kaylee asks.

“
We’re supposed to be
practicing. I figured Mr. Pippi can be my little helper today, and
you can just stand back and watch.”

A slight smile tugs at Kaylee’s lip.
“What did you have in mind?”

“
Prepare to be amazed,” I
say and stroke Mr. Pippi’s head. His nose twitches as he looks up
in the air. He’s pretty darn cute.

Kaylee steps back and claps before
lifting her hands to her mouth and shouting, “Woohoo! Go Mr.
Pippi.”

“
Hey? I’m here
too.”

“
I know, but you’re a pro.
This is Mr. Pippi’s first show.”

I laugh and go with it. “I’m very
excited to have a special guest with me today. Meet the beloved Mr.
Pippi,” I say. “Today we are going to perform a disappearing
act.”

Kaylee gasps, her hands flying over
her mouth. Her eyes widen, and she very quietly claps to
herself.

I hold Mr. Pippi behind my back and
get ready to perform the illusion. But before I can put him up my
sleeve and bring my hand back to the front, I feel his claws leave
my fingers. Crap. Where did he go?

I try to keep my cool as I
turn around and look up and down for the white gerbil. My eyes
drift to the tail pipe and…
shit
… Mr. Pippi’s tail is poking
out.

“
What’s wrong?” Kaylee
asks.

“
Uh…” How do I tell the
girl of my dreams that her beloved pet crawled out of my hand and
into the tailpipe of her mom’s car?

“
Nate, where is he?” Kaylee
asks, and I can feel the red settling on my cheeks.
“Nate!”

“
He crawled out of my hand.
He’s right here.” I drop to my knees and point to the tailpipe.
Kaylee falls beside me and gasps.
“Mr. Pippi, you get out of there right this second!” she demands,
but she may as well have been speaking Swahili to a New York raised
dog.

“
What does he
eat?”

“
Gerbil food…oh, he likes
carrots!” Kaylee says and takes off toward the house. Just as she’s
about to run through the door, her mom steps out and hits the
automatic start button on the car. The scent of singed fur stings
my nostrils.

Oh no. Oh god no.

Kaylee’s wide eyes triple in size
while the engine roars. They catch mine briefly before she mouths
“No!” and drops to her knees, sobbing into her hands.

Chapter 15

I squeeze my eyes shut,
tears trickling from my lashes, and count to three. I’m asleep.
I
have
to be.
That did not just happen. Things like this don’t
happen.

My left eye opens first and the right
follows. Nate’s babbles finally compute in Mom’s brain, and she
shuts the engine off. I pluck myself from the porch, push through
them and crouch near the exhaust.

“
Mr. Pippi?” I call out,
but my voice is snotty and gross and even with all that I can still
smell burnt fur.

“
Kaylee, I don’t
think—”

“
He could still be okay,” I
interrupt Mom. “He could’ve crawled out in time. Maybe he was blown
out instead of…”
sucked
in
. But the smell and the heat and the
lack of gerbil on the pavement tells me otherwise. A sob rips
through my throat, and I fall to my butt on the driveway, hitting
my forehead against the bumper.

I push away any attempts of comfort
from Mom, Dad, or Nate. I can’t make myself grasp the reality of it
yet. What a horrible way to go for my best friend. This stuff
doesn’t happen. It doesn’t.

But it just
did
.

Someone’s saying something, sitting
next to me, holding my hand, and I can’t see past the blur, and I’m
talking too, but I don’t know what I’m saying. But whoever’s
holding me gets a fist in the chest, a shove, a push, anything I
can because I’m so beyond rationale.

“
Did that really just
happen?” I manage one full sentence.

Nate pulls me into a hug. My limbs are
so limp now I just fall on him, and he says, “I’m so sorry. So, so,
so, sorry.”

***

An hour later Nate’s hand runs circles
over my back as I pick at my toenail polish. There’s a rolly polly
crawling across the walk, making its way into our overgrown front
lawn. I stare at it, biting my bottom lip.

“
I’m sorry,” he says. I
don’t say anything back, and he sighs. “It was an accident. I… I
really am…”

“
Sorry. I know.”

His hand pauses on my back, and he
shifts next to me on the porch. Mom left nearly an hour ago, and
Dad went inside because crying girls make him nervous. That and
Nate sort of said something about taking care of it or whatever. I
don’t know. I wasn’t really listening.

I pull a weed out from the crack
between the front step and the walk and start shredding it to
pieces. Nate clears his throat.

“
Do you want me to
go?”

Yes
, I think as loud as my brain will shout, but my voice is
back to ignoring him. How could he do that? How many times has he
practiced that trick? And if it’s not a lot… how dare he do it on
Mr. Pippi. I’m trying to keep my tongue locked tight behind my
teeth, worried it’ll run if I open my mouth.

“
Do you want to go for a
drive?” he offers.

“
No.” I chuck the weed into
the grass.

“
A walk maybe?”

“
No.”

“
A movie then. We can go
see—”

“
No.”

He blows out a breath, and I catch him
running a hand over his fedora in my peripheral. “What can I
do?”

You can turn back time,
magic man, and bring my best friend back.

We sit in silence again, and my anger
keeps boiling and boiling the longer he’s here. Mr. Pippi was the
only constant in my life. In the back of my mind I realize he
wasn’t going to live forever, but I thought he’d at least help me
through a lot more. Mom’s not around, and it doesn’t seem like she
wants to be. Dad’s here but has no idea how to deal with
me.

Nate gets to his feet, and
I think,
It’s about
time
, hoping he’ll leave before I say
something I’ll regret. But he holds his hand out to me, and I look
up to his crystal eyes.

“
Will you help me with a
trick?”