Brambles doesn’t seem to care as he hops in the passenger seat and waits for me to get going.
I snarl at him as I hit the road again. He huffs back, his tongue lolling from his mouth.
At home/slash/mom’s/slash/soul-sucking hell, I’m barely two steps into the house before mom is all over me. “What the hell, Selkie! Henri said you got her kicked out of school.”
Brambles knocks me into the wall as he runs down the hall with his tail wagging like he’s in a musical. “She got her own self kicked out of school, mom.” Also, yes, I look like shit. Thanks for caring.
“Elle,” Henri says as she passes us carrying a bowl of ice cream. “Remember, mom? Elle doesn’t want Tyler to know she’s old enough to be your mother.”
“And his,” I add.
Mom ignores my little dig. “Or Henri’s grandmother. And I’m not old enough to be your mother.”
“And yet, mother. You are.”
Mom shrugs as she follows Henri into the living room, squishes up next to her on the couch and picks up the remote control. “You being expelled is not a holiday from school, Henri. You’ll have to watch my shows as punishment.”
Fuck my life. I stomp over to mom and grab the remote control, turning off the TV. I feel like I’m raising two children. “Henri, mom’s right, this isn’t a vacation.”
“Elle,” they say at the same time.
“Which means no TV.” I turn to mom. “And until you tell Tyler the truth about who we really are, no TV for you either.”
She looks up at me with raised eyebrows. “My TV. My rules.”
I hate her pulling the ‘queen bee’ card, but I’m tired to my bones and can’t dig deep enough to remind her she’s supposed to be a role model.
I deflate as I slump down on the couch next to her. “Worst day ever,” I say.
Henri peeks around mom. “You had a bad day? How could it possibly be worse than mine?”
I snatch the ice cream bowl from her. “Sadie got away, so I didn’t get paid. So now we have to share ice cream. Plus you got expelled and I have to talk to that asshole biker and figure things out so I can get your butt back in school.” I shove a spoonful of chocolate mint into my mouth.
“Sadie got away?” mom says. She doesn’t actually know who Sadie is or that I had him, but she does recognize the part where I lost my payday.
“Yeah,” I tell her as I heave a sigh.
“You need a new job. With regular hours. Like working at Swallow’s except not Swallows. Somewhere else. The tips are good and you could actually contribute to the household.” Swallow’s is mom’s place of employment and regular hours is a bit of an exaggeration given that mom’s shift starts at five and ends in the wee hours of the morning.
“That would be cool,” Henri says as she wrestles the ice cream bowl away from me. “Better than what you do now, mom.”
No wonder the three of us are so fucked up. Our idea of success is making a living having men leering at us. “I’m not going to give up my career. I worked hard for my credentials and I like what I’m doing.”
Mom looks me over. “How can you like what you’re doing? You look like something the dog dragged in.”
Henri snorts. “Brambles did drag her in. Didn’t you see?”
I rub my face. “Could we please, just once have a human conversation.”
Henri swallows the last of the ice cream and looks at me mock-seriously. “I’m listening.”
Mom looks at me totally serious. “Me too.”
“For starters, I did not get Henri kicked out of school. She did it to herself.”
“Not my fault,” Henri protests. “It’s Oscar’s fault.”
“This is about that little bully?” mom says to me. “Why don’t you talk to his dad and straighten him out?”
