Page 102 of One Good Crash
"Yeah? Then do me a favor."
"What?"
"Stay here, just like I asked."
"Oh, please. That's no favor, foryouI mean. If anything, it's another favor for me."
"Not the way I see it."
"And besides," I added, "you can't go alone. You don't even know what's mine."
"So I'll figure it out. Not a big deal."
That's whathethought. With my mom, it was always a big deal.
Sitting in the van, we went back and forth a few more times before he finally accepted that I wasn't going to give in.
I couldn’t. As much as I appreciated his offer, I'd never let him take on such an unpleasant task by himself.
I wasn't a coward, and I hated the idea of me sitting blissfully at home while he waded into the muck that was my life. And I just knew that given half a chance, my mom would rip off her clothes and jump into his arms.
But as it turned out,thisworry was for nothing. And why? Because when we finally arrived, my mom wasn't even there.
Chapter 43
Standing in the hall just outside my mom's apartment, I gave Jax a worried look. "Do you think I should knockagain?"
Already, I'd knocked like five times and even tried the doorknob too, for all the good it did.
Jax said, "You got a key?"
"Sure," I said with a half-hearted laugh. "Insidethe apartment."
"But youdidhave one?"
"Yeah. Of course."
"But…?"
"But the last time I left the apartment, I was with my mom. And she hadherkey, so…" I didn't bother finishing the sentence. In hindsight, it had been incredibly stupid to trust my mom with something even as small as a key to the place where we'd both been living.
When I didn't elaborate, Jax said, "Lemme ask you something. If I wanted to replace your stuff, would you let me?"
The question caught me off guard. "Why would youwantto?"
He shrugged. "For the fun of it."
Was he joking? He didn'tlooklike he was joking. And, judging from the tightness of his mouth, it didn't look like he'd find it particularly fun either. Or maybe he was just irritated with my mom for standing me up.
If so, that made two of us.
But it didn't matter. I'd never accept such an offer, anyway. I glanced down and was suddenly embarrassed to realize that I was wearing one of the T-shirts that he'd loaned me several weeks earlier.
Damn it.While getting dressed today, why hadn't I paid more attention?
Then again, hehadarrived a half-hour early, so it's not like I'd had a lot of time to obsess over my appearance.
This was probably for the best. Over the last few weeks, while my mom had been giving me the runaround, I'd been seriously short of clothes. Mostly, I'd made due with the stuff I'd originally borrowed from Jax, along with some castoffs from Allie.
