Allie looked up to see only one polyester finger.
“Not years. I mean, maybe not. Maybe we’ll get lucky. A year or two maybe.”
“Two years qualifies as years.”
The one finger began to wave.
“Look, Mom. I’ve got to go.”
“Honey, I just can’t tell you how—”
But Polyester Lady was signaling Allie to set the receiver back on its base. So she did.
She sat a moment staring at that coffee ring.
“Doesn’t that drive you crazy?” Allie asked.
“Doesn’t what drive me crazy?”
“That stain.”
“No, why would it? Desk still works fine.”
“It would drive me crazy because I’d keep thinking about the person who was so careless with their mug.”
“I never pay any attention to it. Mind if I ask you a question? Why did they charge your mom, too? Wasn’t it your dad’s business income? I’m not trying to be nosy, I swear. It’s just hard to see a young girl lose both parents to jail at once. So I just wondered . . .”
“She’s his CPA.”
“Got it,” Polyester Lady said.
Allie sat in the Polyester Lady’s car, staring at her hands. Until the car pulled over to the curb and stopped. When she looked up, Allie was surprised to see they were back at New Beginnings.
“I thought I had to go to school.”
“I told them your first day would be tomorrow. I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get you a call from one of your parents. And I knew how important that was to you. So just take the day. Rest. Take a nap or something.”
“Thanks.”
Allie climbed out of the car. It wasn’t as easy as it should have been. She felt limp and wrung out. For a moment it occurred to her to ask her social worker’s name again, but she never found the energy.
She slammed the car door and walked up the concrete path.
The door to the home was locked, so Allie had to ring the bell.
The Elf answered after a time, pulling back a curtain behind the glass insets of the door. Frowning. She opened the door a few inches but didn’t seem inclined to let Allie by.
“You’re supposed to be in school.”
“My social worker says I can start tomorrow.”
“Why would she say that?”
“Because after she signed me up we had to go to her office. So I could talk to one of my parents. And she didn’t know how long that would take . . .”
The Elf’s eyes narrowed.
It dawned on Allie that her new living situation was not only overcrowded and potentially dangerous, but also highly conditional. Maybe if she didn’t have the right answers at the door she wouldn’t be allowed in at all. Clearly there were a lot of things that could go wrong here. Too bad Allie didn’t know what any of them were.
“You realize I’ll have to call your social worker and verify your story.”
“Whatever,” Allie said, suddenly twice as exhausted.
The Elf stepped aside and allowed her in.
“I’m going to take a nap,” Allie said. “My social worker’s suggestion. And you can check that story with her.”
She waved weakly as she trudged up the stairs.
Allie lay on “her” bed for a few minutes, but a nap seemed out of the question. The mattress was horrible. Lumpy and ancient and thin. And her carbs-only breakfast had long since abandoned her, which was never a good recipe for sleep. Nothing like low blood sugar to keep you staring at the ceiling.
Instead Allie stared at her socks for a second or two, then sat up sharply. The sudden movement made her head spin.
She leaned over the edge of the bed and pulled out one of her two suitcases. She hadn’t had time to unpack them, and she didn’t plan to spend this free moment on organization. She just wanted to check on her socks.
There were no socks. Then again, her crazy roommate had pulled all of her belongings out onto the floor, and Allie had hastily gathered it all up again. Maybe the socks had landed in the other bag. She pulled out the second suitcase and flipped it open. Right in the middle, right on top of everything, lay four pairs of socks. White. Floppy. No elastic. Holes.
Allie jumped to her feet, fighting off another round of dizziness. She crossed the room to the dresser on Brick’s side and opened the top drawer. In it were four of her six pairs of fabulous socks. The pairs that were not currently on Allie’s—or her roommate’s—feet.
She took them back and tucked them under her mattress, gathered up the four pairs of white socks, put them in Brick’s dresser drawer where they belonged, and pushed the suitcases back under the bed.
She lay awake for a long time, sure she would never nap. But even so, it felt like a little bit of heaven. Just to lie there. In the quiet. With no one around to challenge her in any way.
It felt like a moment that belonged to Allie, a luxury she’d been unsure she would ever enjoy again.
In time she did manage to drift off to sleep.
Allie woke with a start, in pain. Someone’s knees had landed on her back and one of her arms was being twisted up to meet her shoulder blade.
“Hey!” she yelled, hoping it would be loud enough to bring The Elf running.
“You went in my drawers?” The voice was a throaty hiss near her ear. She could feel the breath of it. “You could die for less than going in my drawers. That dresser is mine. You don’t even touch it! You don’t even brush against it! You have no idea what I would do!”
Allie gathered up all her strength and rolled over fast, throwing Brick onto the hardwood floor.
Allie jumped to her feet. Ready. But, oddly, Brick stayed down. She did not attack again.
“The dresser is yours,” Allie said. “I hear that. I get it.” Her voice trembled but she tried to ignore it. “But the socks are mine. You never again take anything of mine and put it in your dresser, and I absolutely promise I won’t touch your things. You don’t steal my things and put them in with your things again. I don’t touch anything of yours ever. Deal?”
Brick opened her mouth. But before she could speak, they both looked up to see The Elf standing in the bedroom doorway.
“What on earth is going on up here?”
Brick looked to Allie. Challenging her. Daring her to answer.
“Nothing,” Allie said. “She just tripped. We’re okay. For a minute I thought we had a problem, but I think it’s all worked out now.”
And, with the absolute overconfidence of youth, Allie believed that what she had just said was true. That the way she had summarized it was the way it would be.
Chapter Twelve
Weed Oasis