“Can I reimburse you for your drink?” I ask.
She shakes her head and I smile at her inability to talk. “Well, I’m sorry again . . . ?”
“Cereus,” she whispers, almost too quiet to hear.
I tilt my head and study her for a few silent beats. “Moonflower. Unique.”
Her eyes grow large. “Ryan.” I offer her my hand.
“Pleasure to meet you.” She blushes more furiously than before, her creamy skin turning bright pink.
I step closer to her, almost aligning our bodies “The pleasure was all mine.” I drop her hand and step around her, leaving her standing there open-mouthed.
Stacy stands out in contrast to the other kids at the park. Her stance screams attitude. I walk up to her and offer her a smile.
“Hey,” I say. She flicks her hair over her shoulder and offers the same greeting in return.
“A walk?” I ask and she looks skeptical, scanning the surroundings with a raised brow but agrees. Her footsteps fall in sync with mine.
“So, tell me about your friend who you sent pictures of. Why does she need help picking out a dress?”
Stacy laughs and swings her bag back and forth. “C? She’s been my best friend since I moved here . . .” She pauses to count on her fingers, “Four years ago. She’s just different, you know? She commands an air of respect from everyone else because she’s just real. I liked her right away and she was asked to show me around. We hit it off immediately. She freaking hates shopping and dresses are not really her thing.”
She’s very forthcoming and I hear the affection she holds for Cereus in her tone. “How so?” I ask.
She shrugs and pulls a packet of chewing gum from her bag, offering me a piece, which I decline. “She’s more of a jeans and tee kinda girl. She’s never been interested in girly shit or dating. It makes people talk now she’s older.”
I stop walking and take a seat on a bench, patting the seat next to me. “Talk how?”
“Someone said they caught her spying on the other girls in the showers and the lesbian rumors took off.” She tilts her head and rolls her eyes at the lack of maturity of her peers.
“Is she a lesbian?”
Stacy laughs so hard she almost chokes on her gum, and the killer in me wants her to. I want her to choke so hard the blood vessels in her eyes pop and she reaches out for me to help so I can just laugh at her.
“Fuck, no! She just doesn’t really like guys our age and her Dad is a cop. He would kick her ass if she dated anyone older.”
I let my mind wander to Blake. It must drive him crazy being the father of a teenage girl. He was always protective. I’m surprised he’s still with the force. He was such a hypocrite when it came to me and my depravities. He’s riddled with his own sins and urges; he probably has more deaths on his hands than I do but he’s just cleaner and more human about it. I wonder if he still indulges from time to time.
“So, she cares about the rumors and has decided to date?” I hate the idea of her succumbing to bullies and rumors. It’s a sign of a weak person.
“God no. She couldn’t care less what people thought of her until the rumors reached our homophobe art teacher. C is big into art and Mr. Wallis turned into a complete douche and makes sly comments to her. I told her to report him but she won’t. She really liked him and worries about her grades.” Stacy stares out across the greenery. “She’s going to one of those fancy colleges for art when she leaves here so she needs to keep her grades up.” She brings her attention back to me, and clear in her tone and features I see her envy.
“And you? What college are you going to?”
Her eyes lose focus for a second and she smiles bitterly. “I doubt I’ll be going to college! My Dad wants me to work in the shop.”
And she will. She will be there for the rest of her miserable life, she’ll probably spit out a couple of kids before she’s twenty-one and they will carry on the cycle of achieving nothing and being worthless little assholes that smack gum and think they’re cool because they wear face jewelry and fuck a lot of boys. She’s seventeen years old and letting a man twice her age take her out, and if I wanted to she would let me fuck her. She’s dangerous to her friend and she doesn’t even know it.
“Did you know the US has more jails then colleges?”
“Err, no.” She shakes her head and laughs.
“So who’s the guy she’s going out with?”
“Matt. He’s the only guy she ever thought was cute. He’s a year older and has a thing for her Mom.” She breaks into a fit of laughter.
“Her Mom?”
She nods while still laughing, holding her stomach as tears stream from her eyes. “Yeah, her Mom’s hot. I’m sorry but it’s hilarious.”
I laugh with her but it’s forced and I’m sure it shows on my face.
“Let me walk you home,” I say, getting to my feet.
She stops laughing and pouts at me. “Don’t you want to do something tonight?”
I offer her an apologetic smile and shake my head. “I can’t tonight. Rain check?”
I SIGH, HAPPY TO HAVE finally found a suitable replacement for Joshua. I wave goodbye to Harold Clark, the winning interviewee by a mile, and make my way to my car. I need to pick up Cereus from school, do some chores and then meet Blake for dinner. He’s still not himself but the way he holds me when he climbs into bed, and breathes me in as he nuzzles my neck tells me it isn’t us that’s the problem. Something has happened and it’s frustrating not knowing what it is that’s caused such a change in him. His sister, who is also my good friend, Ruth, told me she hasn’t seen him, which is unusual. He always checks in on her at least once a week. I’m determined to get to the bottom of this one way or another.
I watch our beautiful daughter walk to the passenger side door, open it, and slip in next to me.
“You look so pretty. Have you done something different with your hair?” I ask.
The way she looks at me with suspicion makes my heart hurt. We were so close once. When she was a baby I could never imagine us being at this point in our lives. She doesn’t like me and that is the worst feeling in the world. Much like with her father, I don’t know what changed with us. One day she just had attitude with me and never stopped. Ruth assures me it’s normal and she’ll be my best friend again within a couple of months but I never went through this phase with my Mom. She was irritating at times but I never hated her or spoke back to her the way Cereus does with me. Thinking of my Mom always leaves a longing in my chest. I wish she were here to walk me through being a mother, a wife, and a woman. But she’s gone, taken cruelly by Blake’s brother. We’ve never told Cereus how my parents died, or that Blake has a brother. She believes my parents died in a car accident and because it happened before she was born it never impacted her.
She’s still looking at me like I’m about to burst out laughing and mock her, which I would never do so her suspicion isn’t warranted. I try hard to be nice and this is the reaction I receive.
“It was a compliment, Cereus, nothing more.” I sigh and she fidgets in her seat.
“I have a new coat. Nothing has changed about my hair.”
I look over at the soft cream fur coat she’s wearing and smile. It’s very feminine and girly for her. “I like it.”
“My other coat still has a Coke stain on it,” she says, looking over at me with a raised brow.
I glance at her and then look back to the road. “What stain, sweetie? I’ll take it to the dry cleaners.”
“The one from the mall guy. I already told you about it and you forgot to take it to be cleaned.”
I don’t remember her telling me about a mall guy or the stain but my mind has been preoccupied of late so I don’t argue the fact.
“Mall guy?” I ask with an excited tone and a waggle of my brows. Her eyes roll but she turns slightly in her seat towards me.
“Yeah, that Ryan guy.”
My foot crashes down on the brake and we both jolt forwards, our seatbelts catching us and pinning us back. My heart thuds loudly in my ears and my hands shake.