Page 39 of Unhinged

Knowing I can’t say much with Vaughn present, I say, “She knows what she did.” I step closer, and I smell her perfume, tightening my balls. Motherfucker. But thankfully, they react the same way when I buy a new pair of shoes. “And how in the hell do you know my mother?”

My mother answers, “Simone is my new intern.”

“Are you shitting me?”

Speaking louder, she scolds, “That’s enough.”

Garrison turns to Amos. “Take me home.”

“Yes, please. Richmond. Delaware. Pluto. Wherever. Yesterday.” As Garrison goes to the passenger side of Amos’s pretentious dumpster, I realize what happened here and say, “Hang on. Stop right there, traitor. I’d like some words with you.”

She stops, but my mother grabs my arm, hauling me a whopping five feet away. Mom angrily mouths, “What is your problem? You’re not in grade school. What did Simone do to you?”

Unlike my mother, I don’t whisper. “Amos oozed back into my life. Simone is breathing. Now, they’re here in my face.”

Mom swings her head like I punched her twice. “That doesn’t tell me anything. They’re your friends.”

“I’d rather be a serial killer’s pen pal.”

“Keep it down,” she whispers again, glancing toward Amos with Garrison, arguing. I watch her tits bounce inside her coat before my attention falls to her ass. Goddamn. I wanted to screw that shaved pussy of hers—ready for me and so wet—

Son of a fuck. Shut up.

Mom shakes my arm, and I blink. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this angry. Not when you were a little boy, teenager, or even about Eden’s makeup at her funeral.” She didn’t see me with Hadley in a parking lot, that’s for sure.

“I’m pissed off she’s here, and you helped him with this. You know nothing about my life in Richmond.”

“Exactly. Why are you so secretive about Richmond? You won’t tell me why you quit your paralegal job.”

“I’m not good enough for you now? Are you sleeping with Vaughn? I will not call him Daddy.”

“Gregory! No!” She purses her lips. “We thought you would rekindle your friendship.”

“Is that what Amos fed you? There was no friendship to rekindle. Now you’re suddenly BFFs with Amos? You only talked to him when he dropped me off at your doorstep.”

“No. We met at Eden’s funeral. After you left Richmond, he called to ask if you were here in Durham.”

“You couldn’t say no?”

“The truth is common courtesy! Why would I lie? I was your emergency contact.”

“This was not a five-alarm friend emergency!”

“You don’t have any friends here!”

“So, this is like a playdate?”

“I don’t know what the problem is with Simone. She’s a nice young woman. I thought maybe you and her—”

I laugh, loud and with a crazed look in my eyes that scares a groundskeeper near the entrance. “You thought we’d get it on? She’s a damn kid!” I yell and swing my arm toward her.

From my peripheral, I see Garrison watching us argue. “Why in the hell would I want her for shit?”

Mom leans in and whispers, “Is this because of those kids…? The basement?”

“Fuck, no!”

“Will you quiet down?” she snarls, and it’s a little off-putting. As I glare at Amos while ignoring Garrison, my mother sighs.

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