Her mother can take care of that.
“Apparently she can’t.”
There was a rather extended pause and I imagined several unflattering but not untrue things were said about my mother. Possibly a few that weren’t true, too.
“Well, with the dress and shoes and everything...” Shelly rattled off an amount that sounded extreme until she added in a low voice, “That’s less than half what we spent on dinner the other night. I know you bought her a laptop for Christmas, but...”
I stopped listening when Shelly started arguing with him, because even my brain decided it wasn’t a good thing to imagine Dad’s objections. And that was what they were.
I left the apartment without a word. If I’d been smarter, I would have told both my parents that the other wanted to buy me a dress. Then I could have just sat back while one threw money at me to spite the other. But I wasn’t smart. I was something else, and I didn’t care to spend another second thinking about what that was.
I took another Uber to the movie theater and watched something I’d already seen until it was late enough that I thought Mom would be asleep or passed out, assuming her date with Tom had ended as early as all the others lately.
Someone leaped out at me as I walked up my driveway. I realized it was Shelly within half a second, but that was enough time for all my internal organs to try to evacuate my body. “You’re just determined to star in all the scariest moments of my life, aren’t you?”
“I was five minutes from calling the police, Jolene. Five minutes.” Shelly held up her open hand, then crossed her arms. “I didn’t know where you went or if something had happened to you. I couldn’t call your mom. What was I supposed to do?”
“How about not hide out in the bushes like a complete psycho? Why are you here? I mean, how else will you two lovebirds keep the spark alive if you’re not in the apartment during the five minutes a week my dad’s there?”
Shelly’s face went expressionless. “You really are a self-righteous little bitch, you know that?” She let out an audible exhalation and made like her knees were giving out on her. “You have no idea how good it feels to say that. I don’t even feel bad. I used to, but that was before I got to see what a conniving and entitled—” Her lips pursed. “No. Forget it. I’m done trying to cater to your emotions. Did you get a bum deal? Yeah, you did. Are you the only person on the planet whose life didn’t turn out the way you wanted? No. So it’s time for you to suck it up. This is not the fairy tale I dreamed of either.”
I was almost impressed that Shelly was calling me out. Not that she wasn’t a total hypocrite, but that was easy enough to point out. “And yet you did all the right things. You found a guy twice your age, had an affair, broke up a marriage. I mean life issuperunfair sometimes, huh?”
“There.” Shelly pointed a shaking finger at me. “This is why I want to slap your smug face every second of every day.”
“But then you risk giving up precious moments like this.” My voice had risen slightly, but I dropped it back down. However unpleasant this conversation was, adding Mom into the mix meant risking more than just Shelly’s life.
Which she knew. Mom had legitimately tried to electrocute her using a stun gun and a well-timed sprinkler once. It made no sense that Shelly was there, ostensibly waiting for me.
“You could have just called me, you know. I’d have told you I was exactly where I wanted to be.” Alone in a movie theater.
“Except I can’t. Because you blocked my number. So I had to come here and skulk around your house trying to find out if you were inside, and then when you didn’t respond to the rocks I threw at your window, I had to wait out here for you while I froze my tits off because I couldn’t risk the queen b—yourmomseeing my car.” And then Shelly burst into tears. It was horrifying. I took a step back and watched her convulse and leak all over the place.
I hated crying. I’d have rather she vomited on me than break down like this. With Mom, crying was a regular occurrence, one I knew I could wait out if I stayed completely still and silent. But Shelly didn’t look like she was going to stop on her own.
“I just hate you so much sometimes.”
“Okay,” I said, glad that she was controlling herself enough to speak. “I’m fine with that, just stop crying.” I grabbed her a tissue from my bag. “You look gross.”
Shelly half laughed, then scowled at me. “You’re just awful all the time, aren’t you?”
“You’ve seen my gene pool. What’d you expect?”
That comment sobered her up. “I’m not waiting up for you again. Stay out all night for all I care.”
“I don’t remember asking you to, and we both know my dad didn’t.” Heat suffused my face at the mention of my father. Wow, did it gall that she knew exactly how low I ranked in his estimation.
I stared at her.
She stared at me. “Here.” She twisted her purse in front of her and dug around inside before pulling out several folded bills and slapping them into my hand. “This is to buy your dress.”
IN BETWEEN
Adam:
Bad news.
Jolene:
