“Tommy! How are you? Can you talk for a while?”My aunt’s voicewasloud,as always.Definitely not my mom.
“Give me a minute, Helen. Can I call you back?” He waited for her to agree before hanging up. He placed the phone down and turned back to Dennis and Sean, his expression more serious than I’d ever seen. “Alright. I’m done asking questions for now. This should go without saying, but I’ll leave you two with this: if my daughter or my niece get hurt, you die.” He raised his eyebrows, staring them both dead on. “I don’t wanna hear about any shit from either of you. Understood?”
“Yes,” Sean answered right away.
I looked to Dennis, half expecting an awful reaction, but he wasn’t reacting at all. It felt like forever passed before he said, “Yeah. I know.”
“Good.” Uncle Tom stood. “You’re free to go.”
Ari and I exchanged a look but neither of us voiced our confusion. I didn’t even know where to start. This was the last thing I’d expected. She awkwardly cleared her throat and stood.
“I’m going to bed.I’m tired. I’ll see you later?”She directed the last part at Sean, who nodded.
“Can Dennis stay for a while?”I asked my uncle.
“Sure, niecy. No sleepovers here, but he’s welcome to stay longer.” He’d already redialed Aunt Helen’s number and was waiting for her to answer.
“Will you hang out for a while?” I hopped up and pulled Dennis with me.
He agreed and we said bye to Sean before going to my room. This time I left the door partially open out of respect for my uncle, who would appreciate the gesture if he came upstairs for anything. I sat on the bed and crossed my legs, patting the space beside me.
“What’s with the change of heart?” Dennis asked. “You’re usually tired of me by now.”
“I don’t want you to go home yet.I’m used to being around you now.”
“So you finally admit you want me to follow you.”
I scrunched my nose.“Don’t get excited. That’s not what I meant.”I smiled as he laughed.“I love this comforter.”I bounced on it and grabbed my new stuffed animal.
“Good.” He sat beside me.“How much do you know about your uncle?”
“What do you mean?”
“Actually, forget it. It doesn’t matter.” He was toying with his lip ring, seemingly lost in thought.
“He’s my uncle. Of course I know him well. I don’t get your question.”
“It’s nothing.” He started to add something else, then stared at me for a second before the expression turned to a calculated smile. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I hate when you do that,” I said. It felt like this conversation was sailing right over my head.
“Will you tell me why you went to prison now?” He leaned against the headboard, getting comfortable. “You mentioned being locked up again today. I wanna hear the story. Even if it’s long.”
“It’s long as fuck, but okay. I was twenty and working at the strip club. Some guy got kicked out for trying to grope me early in the night and I thought he was gone, but turns out he waited until my shift was over to follow me home. I didn’t want him to see where I lived so I pulled over to confront him. I was covered up, by the way. I never dressed the way I normally do when I was coming home from that job.”
“Your clothes don’t matter. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a shit person.”
“I love you.”I leaned forward and kissed him. And then I realized what the fuck I’d just said and pulled away.“I don’t love you! I mean, I love what you just said. I love that you’re a feminist. You never explicitly say it, but you obviously are. I love that about you.”
“Whatever you say, Vixen.”He was smiling and I wanted to crawl in a hole and never come out.“Finish your story before you die of embarrassment.”
“Shutup.”I shoved him as he snickered.“Anyway. The guy tried to attack me with a bat but I somehow took it from him and beat him unconscious. Once he stopped moving, I called the police and told them everything and asked for someone to come out before the man woke up. I wasn’t gonna leave him to maybe die, but I wasn’t gonna wait around defenseless, either.”
“This is the one you said wasn’t your fault?”
“What?”
“You mentioned it when you were arguing with Ari. This is the time you almost killed someone in self-defense?”
