Page 35 of Avenged

“Who’s getting married?” Leena asked, swinging into the room in one of her floaty dresses which were just short of a muumuu but fit her personality in every way possible.

“Truck and Jersey got married,” Violet almost shouted.

Mandy was watching my face the whole time as if assessing how honest I was being about it all. I couldn’t take much more of it. It was too motherly. Too caring.

“What? I didn’t even know you two were dating. How did I not know this? When did this happen? Why weren’t we invited?” Leena asked, her own hurt evident.

Violet laughed. “They aren’t dating.”

“Apparently, they got married so Jersey would have medical insurance, because she needs to see a specialist for the severe endometriosis she didn’t tell us about,” Mandy continued to explain.

“Well… I don’t know how to respond to this round of information,” Leena said, sinking down into the chair next to Mandy who shoved the notepad at her, and I felt my face heat again. How ridiculous it all seemed now. How wrong. How did I not know it was wrong? How had I let Travis and Violet talk me into this?

A little voice inside me spoke up, shouting something I wouldn’t acknowledge. Something about Travis and heroes and ever afters. Something I couldn’t acknowledge for fear it would lead to as much chaos as my last round of lovesickness had ended in. Except, maybe it already had. My heart grew a hole that felt just like the one in the floor—ragged, jagged, and full of pockets that needed to be filled before it all collapsed underneath me in one big heap.

Truck

HELL ON THE HEART

“Once you feel her touch and you’ve felt the rush,

It’s gonna mess up your head.”

Performed by Eric Church

Written by Spillman / Church / Ruttan

The room was silent. Jersey was a shade of red I’d never seen her, almost as red as the puckered burn on her finger. Violet was smiling because she was thoroughly enjoying her sister’s discomfort in a way only little sisters and little brothers could do. Mandy and Leena were still frowning at us in shock and sadness and something close to displeasure. Something they didn’t really have a right to feel as neither Jersey nor I was their child. And they were making Jersey feel bad, which I really couldn’t stand. She needed medical care, and this was a realistic way for her to get it.

My frustrated retort was interrupted by Dawson. He took in the broken floor and our tragic faces, and he blurted out, “Whoa, what did I miss?”

Violet giggled. “Mandy and Leena found out Jersey and Truck got married.”

“And they broke the floor they were so angry?”

Violet smiled. “Unrelated, but funnily timed accident.”

Dawson looked up at me with a grin. “Damn, I can’t leave you alone for two minutes.”

“Don’t cuss,” everyone yelled at him, and he just burst out laughing.

I wanted to thank my brother for the first time in a long time, because he was dissipating the heavy air before I’d had to defend Jersey in a way that would have proven the contract Mandy had shoved at Leena was all fake. That what I was starting to feel for Jersey went far beyond the professional contract we’d written.

“Does Eli know?” Mandy asked as if this one piece of knowledge might allow her to forgive us.

I nodded, staring at her and silently sending her a message to back off. To leave it as it was. She returned my gaze for a long time, and I wondered if I really did have superpowers, because she suddenly nodded back, her hurt and sadness turning into something I couldn’t quite read. Thoughtful.

“I see Leena made me my favorite pancakes,” Dawson said, turning toward the stove. “I’m starving. Can we eat?”

“Don’t you dare touch the food yet. We’re waiting for Bob and Yevette,” Leena scolded.

The house phone started ringing again, and Mandy answered it. The ancient hardline phone was attached to the wall in a flashback to a time when there was no other way of calling people. She answered it while I went out to the detached garage and searched for some wood to cover the hole in the kitchen.

It allowed me to get ahold of the wave of conflicting emotions that had gone through my body in the few minutes I’d been in the house. Shock, concern, anger, disappointment, hope.

Dawson came out to help me.

“Wow, didn’t think they were going to go ballistic, but they still won’t let it go. It’s almost like you were their actual son.” Inside the joking tone, I heard the bitterness. “I think our own parents wouldn’t even care.”

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