Page 9 of Drifting

I sneak a peek at Cin, and she shrugs.

Amber, ever intuitive, notices our silence. “I said something that upset you. I’m sorry.”

I shake my head. She didn’t say anything wrong. “What I’m about to tell you, only Ricky, Mark, and Billy know.”

“I’d never betray your trust,” she promises. “But, you don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”

I believe her, and I have no problem telling her.

I drop my feet back to the ground and lean forward to rest my elbows on my knees. Then, I take a look over at Mark and his date. I don’t want this new guy to hear this.

Satisfied they’re not going to walk over, I turn back to Amber. “Cin and I are runaways.”

I bite my lip, waiting for her response.

She gasps, turns, then peers up at Ricky, who nods to let her know I’m serious. “I never would have guessed.”

“My mom’s a drug addict,” I say bluntly. “When I was six, she dropped me off at Cin’s house and didn’t come back until I was eleven. We bounced around a lot, Mom disappearing into rehab, sometimes jail. She’d get clean, then something would happen, and she’d be back on drugs, so I was in and out of group homes a lot. When I turned fourteen, she was charged for the third time for possession and got sent to jail, then to rehab. I once again got sent to a group home. This home was rough, the kids did whatever they wanted to. The guards and the counselor didn’t care. A guy I was friends with turned out to be bad. I don’t like to talk about it. I stayed for a year, then ran. I lived on the streets until Cin came and got me.”

“You’re amazing, Shelby.” Amber shakes her head. “I can’t believe you’re not eighteen. I thought you were older than the guys.”

Cin smirks. “That’s just because we act more mature than they do.”

“You talk about your dad all the time, Cin.” Amber looks at my friend. “He sounds like a great guy who taught you most of what you know as a mechanic. Does he know where you are?”

“My dad was great, but after my mom passed away in childbirth, taking my baby brother with her, things changed.” Cin tosses her head. “About a year after mom died, we started noticing a lady, who seemed to always be at the garage and constantly smiling and touching Dad. Before we knew it, they got married.

“Brenda brought two kids with her from a previous marriage. Jack was fourteen and the devil reborn. Lara was eleven and thought the world revolved around her. Shelby and I didn’t get along with Jack and Lara, and Brenda thought they could do no wrong. We used to get blamed for everything. Well, Shelby more than me. For some reason, Brenda didn’t like Shelby and wanted her gone. My dad and she would constantly fight about Shelby living with us. Brenda said she was taking food from their kids’ mouthes and complained that the money used to clothe Shelby could go towards blah, blah, blah.”

I wince as I remember the fights they had. It hurts knowing I caused so much trouble between Uncle Brett and his new wife.

“It wasn’t pretty, let me tell you.” I slouch back in my seat and cross my arms over my stomach. “To this day, I still don’t know what I did to get on that woman’s nerves. I did everything she asked me to, and I waited on her and her kids like a maid.”

“My dad told her over and over that he hadn’t talked to his sister in three and a half years and had no way of getting a hold of her. Brenda threatened to call child serves once, and I never saw my dad get so mad. His whole face turned beet-red. There was no way he was going to throw Shelby out or send her into the system, she was family.” Cin takes a sip of her beer. “But when her mom showed up again, he didn’t have a choice but to let her go.”

My stomach tightens. Where was I when he said that? If he felt that way, then why did he tell my social worker, Mrs. Abney, that he wouldn’t take me in when she called him after Mom went to jail the last time?

None of that makes sense to me. If he took me in, I wouldn’t have gone to Ashland. All that shit I try not to remember wouldn’t have happened.

A shiver runs through my body that has nothing to do with me being cold.

“I’m so sorry for your loss, Cin. This Brenda sounds like a real bitch.” Amber scowls, gripping her boyfriend’s hand. “I don’t know how you lived with her.”

“You never did tell us, Shelby,” Ricky says. “What happened when your mom came and picked you up?”

“I don’t think of her as Mom anymore. She’s just Patty to me now,” I mention with a serious tone, then a smile creeps over my face when I think back to that day. “It was a little bit comical. Patty knocked on the door, and this strange woman answered. Patty got all defensive, demanding to know what the hell Brenda was doing in her brother’s house. Patty had no idea that Aunt Maria passed away. She thought Brett was cheating on Maria. Patty called Brenda a cheating whore. It must have clicked for Brenda who this crazy woman was, because Brenda went nuts on Patty, screaming at her about dropping me off and disappearing for five years. It was nuts.”

Cin picks up the story. “Shelby and I were upstairs in our room when we heard all this yelling. We ran down the hall and sat on the steps watching those two go at each other. They didn’t get super violent, like throwing punches, but they shoved and grabbed each other’s hair. Dad came home, pulled them apart, and once they both calm down, he told Aunt Patty that Mom died, and he remarried to Brenda. Aunt Patty apologized, but Brenda wasn’t hearing it. After that, Aunt Patty told Shelby to pack, and they left.”

Cin got up and poured herself another shot. “Things got worse once Shelby left. I guess she was the buffer. There were a couple times when I wouldn’t do something Brenda asked, and she’d slap me. When I went to Dad, he told me I was overreacting. The last straw was when she took a belt to me, hitting me in my back. When Shelby called a few days later to tell me she was on the run, I told her about things at home. I met up with her fourty-eight hours later. We didn’t have a plan, we just knew we had to get away.”

When her dad never filed a missing persons report, it destroyed her.

The car was in my name, so we knew Uncle couldn’t tell the cops we stole it, but in those first few months, we were always looking over our shoulders, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Cin got depressed more every day that passed. It meant her dad didn’t care about her, and that he moved on with his new family.

I swallow and finish the story. “We’ve been racing Little Devil ever since. That’s it in a nutshell.”

Just in time, too, as Mark yells, “Dinner’s done!”

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