Yes, they had meant me. “It doesn’t say my name,” I’d pointed out, which maybe she had been worried about.
But that wasn’t her issue at all. “Everett. Really. Everett? Really? Everett! Really!” my sister had seethed, and here we were.
Like she had done so many times before when I’d introduced an uncomfortable issue, Willow skirted around the problem of how she’d been driving without a license and (as far as I knew) without a lot of skills in a car. Years before, she’d practiced a little to prepare for her permit, going on the road with me a few times and once with our dad. But after she’d had the accident, that had stopped.
“Have you been driving with Boyd?” I asked, but she smacked her phone with her hand and redirected my attention.
“I warned you about this. I warned you! I told you to be careful with Everett, didn’t I? And did you listen?” She shook her head, her blonde hair flying. “No, and I’m right!”
I’d also been right about a lot of things, like how she had needed to exercise, how she and Mom needed to go to therapy, how she needed to get a job. Those were just a few examples, but had she listened to me? I didn’t bother to say that now, because she would have ignored it just like she had ignored those good suggestions.
“I think I am being careful,” I told her. “I never drop anything on his nice rugs, and when I back out of his garage, I’m very aware of his truck so that I don’t accidently ding it.”
“That’s not what I meant!” She shook her head again, obviously frustrated. “You’re so naïve, Zoey.”
“I’m tired of you saying that,” I answered sharply, and her beautiful eyes widened. I didn’t often use that kind of tone with her. “I’m not naïve. And Everett has been nothing but kind and generous to me, like how he’s letting me live in his beautiful house so that I could get out of an apartment that smelled like the world’s worst ashtray and was probably filled with mold. The moisture meter went wild when I used it.” I had shown that to my landlord as we’d discussed whether he should return my security deposit, since I’d moved out early. He had held a bandana over his face and his eyes had watered as we’d talked in the hallway of the building, and that hadn’t helped his case that things “weren’t so bad” and I could have “toughed it out.” My heart had pounded but I had stood up to him and once I’dmentioned that the smoke detectors hadn’t worked that night, he handed over the money.
As I’d talked about the ashtray apartment and mold, Willow had looked at the scarred wood of the bar top instead of meeting my eyes. Now she mumbled something about how it would be better for me to find a new place.
“I’ll be able to do that pretty soon,” I said. Since I had the deposit back from my former landlord and with my job at the elementary school starting up soon, I would be fine. And there was also another reason I’d be more solvent, which I needed to discuss with my sister. I hadn’t been looking forward to this conversation.
“I’m not going to give you any more money,” I stated.
“What?”
“I opened a new bank account that’s just for me, and I’m putting everything I make in there. I left the minimum in the account that we had together and you can close that or use it just for yourself, because I won’t touch it anymore. I won’t be adding to it with any deposits,” I explained.
She stared at me. “This is because I moved in with Boyd. You’re trying to punish me.”
“No!” I told her. “No, that’s not the reason.”
“Right. Sure, Zo,” she said scornfully. “I bet you’re giving money to other people!”
“Who?” I asked, puzzled. “I’m not. I have to think about my own future just like you were thinking about yours.”
“You’re trying to control me! I’m sorry I came over here. Everett Ford is going to use you and then throw you away just like—just like other people that you won’t give up on, people who don’t deserve it. Don’t come to me for help when he does, because I don’t care anymore.”
“What are you talking about? He won’t do that! And I already know that I can’t depend on you. You’re the person who got into Boyd’s car and drove away after the fire, and you never even asked me what I was going to do. It didn’t bother you to leave me in that stinky apartment.”
She stared at me, her lower lip trembling and tears filling her eyes. “That’s not true, you liar,” she told me.
“Yes, it is. You didn’t care what happened to me and I bet you also didn’t care about the kind of trouble you could get into by driving without a license. If you go out in the parking lot to do it again, I’ll call the police and report you,” I said next, but that wasn’t from vindictiveness. I was afraid for her safety and for other people on the road, too.
My sister stared at me, then grabbed her phone and stormed out of the bar.
“I’ll watch her,” Jannie told me as she went to the dirty window. She and the guy drinking in the corner booth had been able to watch our fight and they’d also heard everything we’d said. Besides his slurps of 7 and 7, it was quiet here tonight. The sound system (an old CD player that Jannie had jury-rigged to speakers that were even older) had shot a few sparks and then refused to play.
She positioned herself in front of the glass, not too close due to the wide circumference of her sombrero. “Willow is sitting in the car texting,” she reported over her shoulder. “I don’t think she started it.” She opened the window by shoving it hard. “Yeah, the engine isn’t running. Did she say that you’re living with the Woodsmen quarterback?”
“He’s one of the quarterbacks. They’re going to tell him today if he’s the starter.” But from the way they’d been preparing in practice for the next game, he had thought that signs were very good. Everett had been working almost exclusively with the offense, while Dallas had worked out with the Woodsmen defense. He’d explained that the backup’s usual job was to prep that side of the team.
Jannie raised her eyebrows until they disappeared under the black velvet of her hat. “So you are living with him. Good for you!” she said, and smiled.
It was good for me, although not in the way she meant. I got to go home to a clean, non-smokey house tonight, and there would be a nice person there waiting for me. Despite what I’d promised him about never having to see me, we’d actually spent plenty of time together in the brief period since I’d moved in. We’d eaten two dinners at his big table, one which I had cooked (and he had liked) and one which he’d brought home from a vegan restaurant. I had been prepared to choke that down but it was delicious. We’d seen each other in the mornings and he’d shown me around his gym, which was great because I had been officially cut off from the one at my former college. It had all been wonderful, and as I’d told my sister, I was being verycareful about his rugs and other belongings in order to keep it that way. I’d never be able to pay to replace them.
I tried to convince Jannie (and also the guy still slurping his 7 and 7) that nothing was happening, but she shook her head and told me about a lady who had protested too much in a complicated story about a king’s murder. That was from Shakespeare and I knew that he was right about an overuse of denials. Then the 7 and 7 guy ordered another and winked at me, so I saw that I had convinced no one. But I knew the truth: Everett and I were friends, and thank goodness I had one. I still felt very, very lucky.
I hoped that he felt the same way, and I hoped for luck for him in general. “You’re going to be the starter,” I’d said this morning before he’d headed to the stadium. The team would sleep in a hotel tonight and then ride together to the game tomorrow, so it was the last time I would see him until he came out for warm-ups.
