“You shouldn’t have done that.”
I startle, whirling around toward my neighbors’, and find a girl with light brown, shoulder-length hair, maybe a year or two younger than Bailey and Payton, watching me from the other side of the fence.
That’s two times in half an hour that I’ve been startled by the neighbors, which makes me question if they’re going to end up being obnoxious.
“It’s okay. I live here,” I tell her.
“I didn’t mean the garage door.” She takes a step toward the fence. “I meant, you shouldn’t have said that shit to my brother.”
“Who’s your brother?” I wonder as I wipe my dusty hands off on the sides of my shorts.
She smiles, but it’s more mocking than friendly. “They guy you told to go fuck himself and that you were going to kick in the dick.”
“Oh.” So, this is blondie baby douchebag’s sister. I guess I can kind of see similarities in their features. “That’s actually not what I said.”
“You sure about that?”
“I just told him the best place to go find a girl who would enjoy his douchebaggery would be on go-fuck-yourself lane and don’t ever call me sweetheart or baby again or I’ll kick you in the dick drive.”
She studies me cautiously. “That’s pretty much the same thing.”
“Close, but not quite.” I move to step into the shed/garage.
“Well, just a little warning,” she says, and I pause. “My brothers don’t take one of them being insulted very well, and they’ll probably get you back for it when they hear about it.”
“Brothers?” I question, glancing back at her with my brow arched. “I only insulted one and only after he insulted me first.”
“Doesn’t matter.” She glances over her shoulder at her house, then looks back at me. “My brothers are sort of a package deal. Insult one, you insult them all. And some of them take that stuff pretty personally.”
“Okay.” Why is she warning me? If that’s what she’s even doing.
She must read the confusion on my face because she sighs. “You’re new around this town, aren’t you?”
I nod. “We just moved here from Sunnyvale.”
“Okay, well, here’s a little bit of advice that’s going to put you ahead of the game. My brothers are known around Honeyton as troublemakers. And they more than exceed their reputation.”
A drop of worry prickles inside me, but I shrug it off. I refuse to be worried about some asshole. I’m tougher than that and have had to deal with guys like him before. Sure I’m not a fan of doing so but that doesn’t mean I can’t handle it.
“Well, just so you know, I’m a retaliating sort of girl,” I tell her. “Maybe you should warn your brothers about that.”
Her lips almost quirk into a smile, but she wrestles it back. “For your sake, I’m not going to. It’ll only make it worse.” She offers me a partially remorseful look then whirls around and jogs back to her house.
Blowing out a breath, I shove thoughts of the neighbors behind me and duck inside the shed/garage, determined to find a way to get ahold of the landlord. The space is pretty much empty, so I quickly give up, close it back up, and head back to the car.
“Hey, so, do you want to stay here with Bailey and Payton and keep an eye on our stuff while I go drive around town and try to find Dad’s truck?” I ask Londyn.
“Sure.” She starts for the porch, but I capture her arm.
“Keep an eye on the neighbors, okay?” I say quietly. “The girl who lives there just gave me some weird warning about how her brothers are going to pay me back for insulting blondie earlier.”
Her lips curve downward. “That’s a little creepy.”
I let go of her arm. “Just make sure to keep an eye out.”
She nods then motions for Bailey to follow her.
As Bailey passes me, she pats me on the back. “Glad to see you’re still good at making friends, sis.”
“Don’t you know it,” I tease back.
But all my humor eases down a bit as I climb into the car and note someone is watching me from the upstairs window of the house next door.
Great, only an hour here and I’ve already stirred up drama.
Four
Searching for my dad ends up being a bust.
After driving around for over an hour, I give up and return to the house, convinced he must have left town or something. The area is too small not to be able to find him, and from what I could tell, I looked practically everywhere, except for in the hills.
By the time I pull up into the driveway, it’s late and everyone is getting grumpy. I decide to break in through a cracked open window since we can’t afford to crash in a hotel.
Once we get all our stuff inside, we dig out some sleeping bags and set them up on the dusty brown carpet of the living room.
“This is by far the worst move ever,” Bailey mutters as she wiggles around in her sleeping bag, trying to get comfortable.
Payton sneezes from all the dust floating around. She has her flashlight app on, giving us a bit of light since the place doesn’t have the power turned on yet, even though I called and had it scheduled to turn on. It’s too late to get it taken care of now.
“I don’t know,” she says, rubbing her nose. “Move six was pretty bad.”
I fluff my pillow then lie down. “Was that the one where the toilet flooded the basement two days after we moved in?”
“Yep.” Payton sneezes again, her eyes watering. “Everything smelled like moldy shit for a month.”
“Move five was pretty bad, too,” Londyn says as she slips into her sleeping bag that’s beside mine.
“Which one was that?” I ask, setting an alarm on my phone so we can get up bright and early and figure out what to do about our situation.
“The one with the rat’s nest in the attic.” Londyn rolls to her side, facing me. “Honestly, none of them have been that great.”
“Yeah, I know.” I wiggle around, trying to get situated on the thin carpet.
I did a quick walk through when we got in and discovered that only half the rooms have carpet, the other half have linoleum flooring. The kitchen is bigger than what we’re normally used to, but it doesn’t have a microwave or dishwasher, and there’s only one bathroom.
“At least we have a roof over our heads,” I attempt optimism.
“One day, I’m afraid we won’t,” Bailey mumbles, curling up into a ball and pulling the sleeping bag over her head.
“That will never happen,” I assure her, reaching over Payton to give her shoulder a squeeze. “I won’t let it.”
“You won’t always be here,” Bailey whispers. “You have one more year left of high school, and then you’re going to take off to college and we’re going to be stuck here with Dad.”
Guilt tightens my chest. I want to tell her everything will be okay, but the words won’t leave my lips. The truth is, I have no idea what will happen once I pack up my stuff and take off for college. I haven’t really thought about it too much, never allowed myself to think about it. But deep down, I know the change is going to affect them big time and that makes me feel guilty.
“Stop worrying. I can handle things,” Londyn reassures me as if reading my mind.
“I’m not worrying,” I lie. “Well, not about that.”
“Then, what are you worrying about?”
“Where Dad is, the power getting turned on, getting ahold of the landlord.”
“So, the usual things.”
“Yep.”
Silence encases us, except for the soft sound of music floating from somewhere outside.
“Do you think we’ll ever stop moving?” Payton wonders. “I mean, while we’re living with Dad?”
I want to tell her yes, but I can’t bring myself to lie to her. “I’m not sure.”
Sadly, I can’t envision our dad suddenly becoming responsible again and taking care of the bills in a timely manner so we won’t get evicted. And honestly, in the back
of my mind, where my imagination sometimes runs crazy, I wonder if perhaps our dad does it on purpose. That he moves us around so frequently because he’s running away from something.
“Night,” I whisper to my sisters as Payton turns off her phone. “Love you.”
“Love you, too,” Londyn mutters sleepily.
“Love all your crazy asses,” Bailey mutters through a yawn.
“Love you guys, too.” Payton sneezes. “I don’t love this fucking dust, though.”
“We’ll clean it up tomorrow.” I roll over to my side.
No one says anything more, and a handful of moments later, Payton starts snoring.
As my eyelids start to grow heavy, I swear I hear a thump from either in the house or just outside.
On edge, I turn on my flashlight app, climb out of the sleeping bag, and do a quick search of the house, but I stumble across nothing. And it’s too dark outside to see much of anything.
Giving up, I climb back into my sleeping bag, and it ends up taking me half the night before my eyelids lower shut again.
Five
“Hadley, wake up.” Someone shakes my shoulder.
I wish they’d go away. I’m having the best dream about going off to college. I live in a nice one-bedroom apartment that has a dishwasher.
“Hadley, wake up.” They shake me again.
Ugh.
No, I don’t want to wake up. I want to stay here in my dream …
But the apartment fades as Bailey appears in front of me.
“Why did you leave us?” She pouts, and there is a bruise on her cheek.
“What happened to your face?” I ask worriedly.
“Dad hit me,” she says with tears falling down her cheeks. “He smacked me across the face because I told him off.”
“That happened to me once.” My cheek begins to burn. “Recently actually.”
“I’m sorry, honey.” My mom suddenly appears in the dream.
“Mommy.” I start to sob as I throw my arms around her.
“Shh… It’s going to be okay.” She hugs me tightly.
“No, it’s not,” I sob. “Everything’s broken without you here.”
She hugs me tighter. “I know.”
“Will you… Will you please come back?” I move back to look at her, but she starts to fade away. “Mom!” But she vanishes.
Then suddenly I’m standing near the street with a river flowing on the other side, car engines filling the air. I hear tires skidding followed by a loud splash.
“No!” My dad shouts from beside me.
Then he rushes forward toward the river, leaving me behind in a mob of bystanders. I start to run after him, but my stomach clenches.
Something’s wrong. Something’s very, very wrong.
“Hadley!”
My eyes pop open, and I bolt upright, my cheek throbbing in pain, my skin drenched in sweat. It takes a couple of panicked breaths to get my bearings, to realize I’m not at the scene of my mom’s accident. That I’m sitting up in my sleeping bag that’s spread across the floor of my new home, sunlight trickling in through the grimy windows. On one side of me is Payton’s sleeping bag, and on the other is Londyn’s. Bailey is kneeling beside my feet, already dressed in a pair of black jeans and a matching shirt, her hair pulled into a ponytail, and worry written on her face.
“What time is it?” I ask, rubbing my sleepy eyes and trying to rub away the lingering images of the accident.
“Almost ten o’clock.” She continues to observe me with worry.
My hands fall to my lap. “Why didn’t my alarm go off?”
She wavers. “It did, but we turned it off.”
“Why?”
“Well, mostly because we were trying to figure out what to do.”
I comb my fingers through my tangled hair. “With Dad?”
“No.” Her gaze zeroes in on my cheek. “Your cheek looks really gnarly.”
“Don’t change the subject.” I throw the sleeping bag off me and rise to my feet. “What happened? And where’s Payton and Londyn?”
Bailey chews on her bottom lip. “Outside … looking at the damage.”
Worry instantly rushes through me. “The damage to what?”
When she doesn’t answer, I immediately dash out of the room. I don’t bother changing out of my plaid pajama shorts and tank top as I dash out the door and into the warm August air of Honeyton.
We arrived late enough last night that I didn’t get a good look at the neighborhood. Part of me was hoping that perhaps it’d look better in the daylight. If anything, it looks worse. The entire street is covered with dilapidated two-story houses, yellowing front yards, and the occasional junkyard. But we’ve lived in places equally as bad before.
“Great pick, Dad,” I mutter as I jog toward my car where Londyn and Payton are huddled together. “What’re you guys doing?”
They jump away from each other, Londyn pressing her hand against her chest and Payton gasping.
“Holy crap, Hadley, are you part ninja or something?” Payton jokes nervously as she works to catch her breath.
I stop in front of them, my gaze dancing back and forth between them. “Why are you guys acting so twitchy? Bailey said something about something being damaged.”
Bailey moves up beside me, and the three of them exchange worried looks. It’s unusual for me to be the outsider, but I totally feel like one right now.
I put my hands on my hips. “All right, whatever you did, fess up.”
“We didn’t do anything.” Bailey rubs her hand across her forehead. “It was just like that when we came out here.”
“What was like what?” I track her gaze to my car, and my worry skyrockets. “What happened to my car?”
Londyn frowns, while Payton looks away, and Bailey chews on her fingernail.
Giving up, I circle the car to see if I can find out for myself …
“What the fuck?” My lips part in shock as I spot one, two, three, four … “How the hell are all my tires flat?”
“It gets worse,” Payton mumbles, scuffing the tip of her shoe against the dirt.
I look to Londyn for help.
Sighing, she rounds to the trunk and pops it open. “There’re some, um, car pieces from the engine, I think, in here. I’m not sure which ones since I don’t know shit about cars.”
Anger simmers under my skin as I march to the back of the car to look inside the trunk. Sure enough, pieces of the carburetor, along with the battery are scattered around inside.
Fuming, I stride around to the front of the car and pop the hood. I’m not even sure why I bother looking. The parts are for sure mine. Just as I’m pretty sure I know who did this.
“Car trouble?” The sound of Blondie baby douchebag’s mocking tone makes my lips curl.
I reel around, preparing to have a throw down with him, but instantly falter.
Standing on the other side of the fence beside blondie are two guys, one who looks a little bit younger with chin-length black hair and the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen, and the other looks slightly older with dark hair, a few facial piercings, and heavily inked arms. All of them share similar facial features, so I’m guessing they’re brothers.
They’re also dressed head to toe in black with a different assortment of studded bracelets, belts, and chains decorating their outfits, as if they’re auditioning for a Goth boy band. A very pretty Goth boy band.
Why is it the douchey ones are always pretty?
A smirk starts to rise on blondie baby douchebag’s face, and I realize I’m staring at them.
Pulling my head out of my ass, I glare at him. “Did you fucking do this to my car?”
“Someone did something to your car?” He feigns dumb, yet keeps on smirking. “Wow, that really sucks.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t do it. I know you did.”
He stares me down hard. “If you’re so sure, then prove it.”
I want to pick up a rock and thro
w it at his stupid pretty face, but the last thing my family needs right now is assault charges pressed against me.
Blondie rests his arms on top of the fence. “You know, my brother over here”—he nods at the older-looking one—“is a mechanic. And maybe, if you ask really, really nicely, he might just fix your car for you.”
My narrowed gaze snaps to the alleged mechanic of the three, and he smirks.
“I don’t know, Blaise.” He flashes blondie a conniving grin. “I’m not sure she’s pretty enough to entice me to do much of anything.”
My hands ball into fists. Screw this. I need to punch something, mess up Goth bands’ pretty boy faces.
Suddenly, Londyn strides forward and snags the back of my shirt, towing me back—I didn’t even realize I was stepping forward. Then she positions herself in front of me protectively.
“Who the hell do you guys think you are?” she spits furiously. “Don’t you ever talk to my sister that way. And stay the hell away from her damn car!”
As much as I appreciate her protectiveness over me, her bodyguard act is probably going to escalate the situation.
I step to the side of her and mumble under my breath, “I’m not sure this is the best way to handle the situation.”
She turns to me, her eyes wild with anger. “We can’t just let them get away with this. They slashed the tires and broke … well, whatever the hell that was in the trunk. And they practically called you ugly, which you so aren’t.” She raises her voice and glowers at them. “And they know it. They’re just being bullies because you shot dickhead over there down.” She waves her hand in Blaise’s direction.
As their sister’s warning flicks through my thoughts, I grab Londyn’s arm and draw her behind me.
Yes, I’m pissed off at the next-door neighbors, and in no way in hell do I plan on letting this go. But I need to keep my sisters out of this. Let the asshats focus on me.
I catch Londyn’s gaze. “I need you to do me a favor. Take Payton and Bailey inside so I can handle this.”