As I walk into the house, right at three, the house phone rings.
“Hello,” I say in a monotone voice because I know who is going to be on the other side of the line. I wanted to give Kai my house phone number, that would give us a few hours to talk before my mom gets home. After thinking about it more, he wouldn’t have been able to call me between those hours since he would be at work.
“I’m glad you made it home.”
“Where else would I have gone?”
“Don’t give me your attitude,” she says, and I stay silent. “I have to stay late and catch some things up at work. Brynlee is having a friend drop her off. Can you see if we have everything for spaghetti?”
“Yeah, hold on. Let me check.” I set the phone on the counter and check the pantry for noodles. Next to it is a jar of marinara sauce. I already know she’s going to ask me to cook dinner since this is an easy recipe that I’ve made before. I open the fridge and, oh, what do you know? Ground beef is thawing out. She must have had this planned. “We have everything.”
“Good. I’ll need you to make dinner for us. And then, after dinner, bathe Brynlee and put her to bed.”
“Okay. Anything else?”
“Yes. Then you put yourself to bed.”
I roll my eyes, grateful she can’t see me.
“Okay. When will you be home?”
“When I finish here. I’m not sure when that will be.” My mom has been a mortgage loan officer for a few years now. She worked her way up from a bank teller to car loans and now mortgage loans. Back when she and my dad split, she was a bank teller. It paid little, and it was hard for her to make ends meet. Now, we’re doing a bit better, but I know she still struggles sometimes.
“I'll see you later, then. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Does my mom even have to work late? Or is she making me playmomwhile she’s out with her friends? Sometimes I wonder what she’s really doing when she asks me to make dinner and put Bryn to bed.
Maybe we both have secrets.
“Lift your arms.” I take Bryn’s shirt off. “Dip your toes in the water and see if it’s too hot or cold for you,” I instruct her.
She grabs my hand to steady herself and dips her small toes into the water before fully stepping in. “It’s good.
Kai and I fell into a routine, sneaking out and spending the night together until the early hours of the next day. My heart stings a little just thinking about it and knowing I won’t see him at nighttime anymore.
“Are you going to jail?”
I narrow my gaze at Bryn. We haven’t talked about last night. Neither my mom nor I knew what to tell her. My mom kept telling her everything was fine. I think she was too stressed to even think about what to say to her after everything. “No. I’m not.”
“Then why were you with the policeman?”
“Get your hair wet so I can shampoo it.” She leans backward and drops the back of her head into the water. I fill a cup with water and get the front of her hair wet.
“Why does everyone keep ignoring me?”
I pour shampoo into my hands and scrub it into her hair. “I went out with Kai, and we fell asleep in the park. The policeman found us and called Mom to come get me. That’s all.”
She grabs her mermaid Barbie and plays with it in the water as if she’s swimming. “Then why was Mom so mad?”
“She got scared.”
Brynlee leans back and places her head in the water, so I rinse off all the shampoo.
Kids are too smart. They catch on more than people think.
“I hope you don’t go to jail because I’ll miss you.”
