Chapter 5- Found the Pot

My mom is at home when I get to the apartment. She is sitting on the couch in front of the TV with a fleece red blanket and bag of barbeque potato chips. She looks very comfortable.

I look for signs that maybe her date didn’t go so well tonight, but there isn’t any. She just smiles and seems content.

“Hey,” she says to me when I close the apartment door behind me. Her smile lights up the room. I smile back and make my way over to the couch and plop down beside her. I steal a chip in the process.

“So,” I say. “How did it go?”

She grins even wider and pops another chip in her mouth. “Good. Really good.”

I like the sound of that.

“So is it time to invite him over and call him dad yet?” At my mom’s semi worried expression I laugh and shake my head. “I’m kidding.”

She bumps her shoulder with mine, laughs and takes another chip.

“What’s he like?” I ask.

She turns down the volume on the TV and looks at me. “Well….he’s very good looking, funny, likes kids and travels often.”

“You should have married him,” I say. Mom knows I’m joking by now and only rolls her eyes. I dig into her bag of chips again.

“He’s leaving for Australia in a month.”

I frown. “A month? That’s soon.”

She nods. “Yep. He’s really excited about it.”

“Who’s he going with?” This doesn’t seem like an out of the way question. He was single up until the point of dating my mom. He may have had previous plans with someone else. Though, I hope that is not the case.

Mom stares at the TV, but answers me. “Some friends. He told me I was welcome to come too.”

I eyes grow so big and I feel they might pop out of my skull. “He said that after just one date? Wow. I think he likes you. Are you gonna go?”

She stares at me in disbelief. “We don’t know each other that well, Summer. I’m not gonna go off to another country with I guy I just met. They make lifetime movies about things like that.”

I giggle and she giggles too.

“Besides,” she adds. “It’s not like I can get the time off work. We’re pretty busy right now.”

“Tell me you’re going out again at least?” I don’t know why I’m so insistent on her going out with him again. I suppose it has to do with her being alone for so long. I just want her to have something else to do besides work and be a mom. She needs fun and male company. She needs a life.

“He asked me to go out again next weekend. I told him I’d get back with him on it.”

I smile. “Well. It’s a start.”

Mom and I watch TV on the couch for another hour and at some point I fall asleep on her. When I wake up again it’s six-thirty in the morning and I can’t seem to go back to sleep. Mom is still out cold so I get up and place the blanket back over her.

I look at the open bag on chips on the coffee table in front of me and sigh. Stale chips, yum. I close the bag and return it to the kitchen pantry.

My stomach rumbles so I make me a quick breakfast and of cereal and milk and head to my bedroom. Along the way I hear noises coming from the other side of my brother’s bedroom door. The banging, shooting and shouting continues as I stand there listening.

I knock on the door and the noise pauses. In seconds Connor is there with the door open, peering out at me.

“Whatcha doin?” I shovel in a spoon for of Trix and internally moan at its fruity goodness.  

He glances back into his room and at me again. “Killing Zombies.”

He opens his door wider as if to invite me in and walks back into his room. I follow in after him with my bowl and sit next to him on one of his black gaming chairs on the floor in front of the TV.

“What game is this?” I ask him.

“Dead Island: Riptide.” Connor un-pauses his game and his character walks around an island with multiple weapons killing off zombies. That about sums it up.

I look at him and notice the bags under his eyes and note how tired he looks. I frown at him. “Have you been up all night?”

He shrugs. “So. It’s not like I have school today or anything.” His eyes never leave the screen as he speaks. He is addicted to video games. Especially those with zombies in them. I finish my cereal while watching him play and he pauses the game and asks, “Wanna try it?”

He hands the controller out to me and I only stare at it like it some unknown creature. I’ve hardly ever played video games, only once with Matt. Mostly though, I just watched him play.

I wanna slap myself again. It’s gonna take some time to get him out of my head. I wish I wouldn’t think of him.

“Go ahead,” Connor laughs. “It won’t bite.”

I sit my bowl down in the floor and reach out for the controller. “Explain game play to me. What button does what?”

“Left control stick moves you and right control stick allows you to look around. Just play it. You’ll get the hand of it.” Connor sends me off on my own to locate a Dr. Kessler in a research Laboratory. I have no idea what I’m doing so I just walk around trying to find my way.

After a minute I find the map and try to get to my destination. I walk across docs, stopping occasionally for character interaction. Along the way I run into one of the zombies. Normally zombies are slow, but I am surprised by how fast these are.

Connor lets me play alone for a while until it’s obvious I need help with the mission and then offers his instruction. We play for an hour and after a while I feel I am finally starting to get the hang of it. Killing zombies is actually pretty fun to my surprise.

At seven o’clock the sun is completely up and the elderly in the neighboring apartments are waking up by now. Most of mom’s neighbors are elderly actually. It’s like we live in some kind of retirement community. I think my mom likes it that way. It’s peaceful and quiet.

I hand the game controller back to Connor and wish him luck throughout the rest of the game and leave his room and head toward the bathroom.

I steal the shower before my mom gets up and enjoy the warmth of the water. The only person who takes longer in the bathroom than me is my mom. If you have to use the bathroom while she occupies it, you can forget it, or find a private spot outside somewhere.

This is one of the things I miss about my dad’s. Multiple bathrooms. It’s nice to be able to use it whenever you want.

When I’m finished with my shower, I brush my teeth and dry my hair. Today seems like a pajama day and since I have nowhere to be, I go to my room and put them on. None of the clothes match. My shorts are midnight blue with Tweety Bird on them and my top is a white cami. And my socks are knee socks, my favorite, and they are bright pink. I’m rocking the miss match combo.

I’m pleased that no one but my family will see me like this. I don’t care what they think. They are used to me like this.

After a brief knock on my door, mom pops her head into my bedroom as I’m straitening up. “Did you and Connor eat yet?”

“I did, don’t know about Connor. I don’t think he could leave his game for that long.” I place the pillows on my bed from biggest to smallest and straighten my comforter. I have a lot of pillows. I like extra padding under my head at night.

“I’ll make him something,” Mom says. “Hey, can you take out the trash when you’re done in here? Two bags are sitting in the kitchen.”

I nod and she leaves the room. It’s a good thing the community dumpster is only across the lot. I won’t have to walk far to get to it. Those bags can get really heavy if you carry them to long.

After I’m finished with my room, I tie my hair up in a ponytail and head into the kitchen where my mom is cleaning. I hear her decade of music booming from the speakers in the living room and she sings along with the words.

Connor still hasn’t come out of his room yet. That’s probably a sign we won’t see him for the rest of the day. With no school to interrupt his gaming episode, he won’t be coming out of there unless we smoke him out.

“Is this the bags?” I ask her, pointing the ones by the door way. She nods and continues singing.

I lift them and they aren’t all that heavy so I walk to the front door and open it with the trash bags in hand. I push it open with my foot and waddle my way out of the apartment.

The once light bags become heavier as I walk across the lot, as predicted.

Jeeze.

I reach the dump in a couple of minutes and I stand a good way back and sling the first bag in front of me and it goes over the top of the dump without any problems and lands inside. The second one is a little heavier so it takes more time and energy swinging. When I let go it goes sailing toward to top of the bin, but at last second catches the corner of the metal dumpster and rips before falling to the ground.

A shutter runs through me at the sight of the garbage lying on the ground next to the bag. I don’t want to touch it. It looks gross.

I look around to see if anyone saw what happened and consider leaving the mess there, but then I catch sight of Ms. Burwell sitting on her balcony, staring at me from across the lost and I groan. Virginia Burwell is the bane of my existence. This may seem mean, but I wish her family would put her in a home already.

The woman is ninety years old but looks like she’s in her seventies. She’s white haired, but dyes it light brown and has a cat that is the spawn of Satan. She’s also extremely nosey and annoyingly opinionated. My mom says we should be nice to her because she’s old and her husband is dead so that’s what I try to do; though sometimes it proves to be very challenging.

I bend down and start picking up the trash from the ground trying not to let it bother me. Once it’s all stuffed back into the torn hole of the bag I try to close the hole with a knot. When I get it tied I lift the bag once again and get ready to swing it.

I count. One…two…thr-

“Wait. Let me help you with that,” a voice calls out.

I jump and nearly drop the bag. My heart is racing. I thought I was alone out here. I look over my shoulder and someone is walking toward me. I put my hand up in front of my face to block out the sun in my eyes and focus my attention on the person. As they get closer to me, I can make out their figure and I immediately tense. Sabine?

I watch her in surprise as she reaches me and picks up the bag. She smiles and swings it around in a circle by the ties a few times then releases it and it sails over the bin and lands safely inside.

She dusts off her hands. “There you go. I hate this old thing. It’s too tall for most of us. It needs a door.” 

I stare at her unblinking for a moment then realize how stupid I must look standing here mute and I clear my throat. “I-um…thanks.”

She nods. “No problem.”

A short silence settles between us as we stare at each other and I don’t’ know what to do next. Am I supposed to walk away? Wait for her to leave? Or just stand here awkwardly?

“I didn’t know you lived here,” she says after a moment.

I have to find my voice again. “Yeah. My mom’s been here for a few years.” What are you doing here?

“Oh. I just moved in two weeks ago. Apartment 6D.” She tilts her head toward her complex.

How didn’t I know this? Spending so much time at my Dad’s has really put me behind on the events around here.

“I live in 6B,” I tell her, I’m not sure why.

“So I guess we’re sort of neighbors.”

“Yeah. Sort of.” I look around the parking lot for Chad and am relieved when I don’t see him. Over the summer they were inseparable. I’m surprised they’re not joined at the hip still.

“Well, I should go. My mom is probably wondering where I am.” I turn to go then stop. “You can tell your parents they’ll like it here. It’s a really friendly neighborhood.”

Unless you run into Ms. Burwell.

“Actually, it’s just me. My parents got me this apartment as a seventeenth birthday present. It’s the only thing I asked for.”

I stare at her in shock and I’m almost sure my mouth is hanging open. “You live on your own?”

“Yeah. I mean I still have to check in with them every week, and my uncle lives in the apartment above me, but yes, I am on my own.”

Wow. That must be nice.

“Well, congrats. And happy belated birthday.”

She smiles. “Thanks.”

Okay, I officially hate Sabine Huxley even more than I did before. She has her own apartment. Apparently her parents are rich. She’s tall and beautiful. And way too nice to be so terrible. Despite her friendly demeanor, I can’t like her after what she did to Brent.

“Bye,” I say and head toward the apartments.

“Bye. See you around!”

Not if I can help it.

Ms. Burwell is no longer outside watching me when I get back to the apartment. Her balcony next to ours is empty to my relief and I don’t have to manage any small talk.

Mom is still singing when I get inside. It appears she’s switched from the eighties music station to the nineties at some point in my absence.

“She swears the moon don’t hand quiet as high as it used to. And she only sleeps when it raining and she screams and her voice is strained. And she says baby, It’s 3 AM I must be…”

She stops mid lyric and when I close the door she turns off the vacuum cleaner so I can hear her. “Did you get lost out there?”

“Trash bag ripped,” I explain. “Made a mess.”

She picks up one of the removed couch cushions and stuffs it back into place and then adds the other two next to it.

When she gets the vacuum cleaner wrapped back up she turns off the TV and points down at the couch. “Sit.”

Her tone tells me she isn’t happy with me. I furrow my eyebrows together and take a seat. “What?”

She sits down beside me and picks up something off the end table. “Explain.” She holds a rolled joint out in front of me and narrows her eyes. “Do you know anything about this?”

My breath catches. Oh crap. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen pot up this close before. My eyes bug out their sockets.

“Um…I’ve never seen that before. I swear. Where did it come from?”

“The couch.”

“You found that under one of the cushions?” I have trouble believing it even as I say it.

I know I didn’t put it there. And my mom definitely didn’t put it there. And the only other person it could be is my fifteen year old brother.

Hell no. I’m gonna kill him!

“You don’t know how it got there?” she asks, unsure,

I shake my head. “No.”

For a moment I feel like ratting out my brother for putting me in the situation with mom, but at last second I feel like he deserves a chance to explain himself and I want to hear him out. Call it sibling love or call it potential blackmail for the future. It doesn’t matter.

“Actually, I think I might know who that belongs too,” I say.

Mom straightens herself up and raises her eyebrow at me. “Oh, yeah? Who?”

Without thinking I say the first name that comes to mind. “Matt.”

After I’ve said it, a plan starts to form in my mind. Yeah, this could work for me. And it will also make me feel better for him to take the rap on something he didn’t do..

Mom holds up the joint again.“You’re telling me this is Matt’s?”

I nod. “Yeah. Towards the end of our relationship he was getting into stuff like that. He offered it to me, but I refused. I think it might have accidently fell out of his pocket the last time he was here.”

She watches me for a second as if trying to decide what to believe, but I guess my look is pretty convincing because she finally drops her hand and sighs.

“Matt, huh?” she looks slightly disappointed. “I’m surprised. He never seemed like the type to smoke.”

I shrug. “People can surprise you.”

“Maybe I should call his parents, let them know what’s going on.”

Involve his parents? I hadn’t thought of that perk. I’m internally giddy and I can barely contain it. Revenge tastes so sweet.

“I think you should,” I agree. “I mean, I couldn’t do that to him because I was his girlfriend, but you, you could. Just do what your instincts tell you, Mom.”

Wait. Am I really doing this? Yes. Yes I am. I’m so evil. Cue the wicked laughter.

She sighs and goes silent for a minute. She disappears into deep thought and I wish I knew what she is thinking. She looks down at the joint one more time and I think she is about to tell me she’ll tell them but instead she says, “Maybe you should talk to him. I think he’ll listen to you. You were together for two years. That has to mean something. And I just don’t want to call him out to his parents unless absolutely necessary. I know how hard his dad can be on him.”

At her words, guilt starts to find its way inside me and settles in deep. I can’t believe I was actually considering getting him in trouble for this. I didn’t even think of the repercussions with his dad. It would not be pretty. Markus is scary sometimes.

Then I realize. As much as I want to get some kind of revenge on Matt, this is not the way.

Finally, I agree. “Okay. I’ll talk to him.” Not really.

Mom smiles. “Good. I think it’s very big of you to agree even after everything that has happened with you two. You are becoming the mature person I always knew you’d be. I’m a proud mother.” She reaches out her hand and rubs my back and leans in to place a kiss on my check. “I love you, Summer.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

Guilt, guilt, guilt.

Mom leaves the rolled substance with me and as soon as she has gone back to cleaning again and I am forgotten, I take it and march strait toward Connor’s room. I am determined and I will kill him. Well…at least tear him a new one.

He is so stupid. How can he be so careless? He had to know that the joint was there and that mom would eventually find it.

When I reach his door I don’t even knock, I march strait inside. To no surprise he’s still setting his chair with his eyes trained to the screen.

He pauses his game and raises an eyebrow at me. “Forget something?”

I shake my head giving him my best disappointed look. “No. But I think you did.

His eyebrows draw together in confusion when I bring my hand up from beside me and hold out the short, white rolled, stick. His eyes study it for a moment then he frowns.

“Where did you get that?”

“Mom found it in the couch. Where did you get it?” I inquire.

His eye widen to a size I’ve never seen before and he rubs his hands through his hair, making it stand up on all ends. “Shit,” he mutters.

“That’s not an answer.” I stare at him unblinking.

Connor sits his controller down on the floor next to him and sighs. “How much trouble am I in?”

“You mean you’re not even going to deny it’s yours?” I can’t believe it.

He stands. “No. Why should I? It’s clear you already know.” He looks toward his door and waits. “Why isn’t mom storming in here ready to kill me?”

I close the substance in my palm and cross my arms over my chest. “I threw her off your trail. You’re welcome by the way.”

He stands completely still but meets my eyes with unconcealed surprise in them. “You did? Why?”

I shrug dramatically. “I don’t know, Connor. Maybe because you’re my brother and I want to protect you. And maybe because I thought you should have the chance to explain yourself.”

Connor and I have never been siblings who try to black mail each other or purposely try to make each other’s lives harder. We care too much for each other to do that. We’re too close for that.

We didn’t used to be this way though. After Mom and Dad’s divorce we really had to stick together and help each other through it.

I mean, I had Matt too and that was great, but there is nothing like having someone else going through it with you and that could really understand your situation. My brother was my rock for most of the hard stuff just like I was his.

Connor sighs again and a guilty look plasters on his face. “Look. I know you’re disappointed and me and want answers, but I swear to you that’s not mine.” He pauses for a second then, “Well…I guess technically it is, but I don’t want it. Mom came home before I could discard it and I freaked, so I hid it in the couch. I guess I just forgot about it.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “What do you mean you don’t want it? Who gave it to you?”

“Jess O’Donnell. His brother got it from someone and Jess found it in his room. He took it and brought it here. He wanted us to try it.”

Jess O’ Donnell. I know him and I know his brother, Jeffery O’ Donnell. He’s the one that had to have his stomach pumped from consuming too much alcohol at a party one night last year. He’s also one of Chad’s friends. Chad is probably his dealer.

“What did you tell Jess,” I ask Connor.

He shrugs. “That mom would be home at any minute and I didn’t want to be grounded for a lifetime if she found out about it.”

“And he just left it here?”

“Yeah. Well…no, not exactly. He still wanted to try it even after I told him I wouldn’t and when he was about to light it, I heard someone at the door so I grabbed it from him and stuffed it in the couch. Mom hung close by us when she got here so he didn’t try to get it back. He just left.”

“Well, I’d tell you to give it back to him, but I don’t want you caught with it. Possession is a felony in some states and you could spend up to a year and prison. You don’t want something like that on your record. It could affect your chances at a decent job in the future or college acceptance.”

“So what do we do with it then?” he asks looking at my closed hand.

“We’ll flush it. It’s the only way.”

He nods. “Okay.”

I turn on my heel and stomp to the bathroom.  Connor comes inside just behind me. I lift the toilet lid and stare down into the clear water before tossing it inside the bowl. The water seeps into the white paper wrapping it and I flush it before it has time to sink.

It goes down the toilet without a problem and once it’s gone, I feel immense relief. Out of my hands and out of my life. It’s no longer a problem. 

I walk to the sink and scrub my hands with the peach smelling soap mom got from bath and body works last month, trying to erase the evidence of the drug from my hands.  When I’m finished, I turn to face Connor who it still standing there staring at the toilet.

“What?” I ask him.

He quickly pulls out of whatever thought his was in and shakes his head. “Nothing.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Now that that is taken care of, I hope that you will never let it happen again.”

“It was Jess’s. I can’t help it if he brings it over here.” Connor’s voice is a little annoyed.

“Then don’t invite him over anymore. If you can’t trust your friends, it’s time to get new ones.”

Connor stares at me and his eyes narrow. “You’re not my mom, Summer. You’re my sister. You don’t get to dictate who my friends are.”

“I am your older sister. That means I worry about you and have to look out for you. If I don’t, who will? I just don’t want you to make any mistakes. I want to protect you from them.”

He rolls his eyes. “Well don’t. I can take care of myself. And FYI, you telling me not do something doesn’t lesson my chances of doing it.”

I shake my head at him. I am not winning this battle.

I allow my face to soften and I lean again the bathroom counter and keep my eyes on Connor’s. “Please don’t mess up your life, Con. There is this thing called peer pressure and I don’t want you to succumb to it. You don’t have to do what your friends do.”

Some of the annoyance leaves his expression and he runs a hand through his hair again. “I know what peer pressure is, Summer. I wasn’t born yesterday. But you can’t always control everything. I’m gonna make mistakes and so are you. It’s all part of life. Sometimes you just have to let it happen and learn from them.”

I stare at him and I am taken aback for a minute. That is actually true, but I can’t believe I’m hearing it from him.

“Since when did you become so smart?” Despite myself and the situation, I grin at him.

He shrugs and smiles too. “Maybe I always have been and you haven’t noticed.”

I laugh and he laughs and after it dies down and silence settles between us again I place my hand on his shoulder.

“I get it. You want to make your own mistakes, but please just be careful. Some mistakes can’t ever be undone. Some stick with your forever. Don’t let that happen to you, okay?”

He considers my words for a moment then nods. “Okay. I’ll do my best.”

Sigh. It’s not a direct promise, but it will have to do. I reach out and hug him. “Thank you, Con. I believe you can do it.”

He chuckles. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

At five O’clock in the afternoon dad pulls up the apartment complex and helps Connor and I gather our bags for his house and pack them into the trunk of the car. We don’t take much, except some of our necessary things we like to have with us, and maybe some school stuff like a back pack and books.

Mom stands in the doorway of the apartment and waves out at us. Connor and I both wave at her as dad gets back inside the vehicle and pulls away from Lander Hills. I look out the back window and stare at mom until she disappears from my sight. I’m gonna miss her. I always do.

“We’ll be back in a week; less than a week actually. Next Friday. Six days,” Connor says to me under his breath so dad doesn’t hear.

We don’t want to hurt his feelings. We like it at his house, but things are just easier at moms. But at dad’s we only have three neighbors on our street instead of the hundreds that surround us at Lander Hills so we have more privacy with him. I guess there are pro’s and con’s to living with both.

“I’ll be glad when she gets back from her business trip,” I say.

Mom is an art buyer for her company. She goes to several galleries a year and picks out some works of art and brings them back to the company for resale on their website.

It’s actually kind of funny when I think about my parent’s jobs. They are similar in a way. My mom is an art broker and my dad is a real estate broker.  He also flips properties. He buys proprieties for less than market value and turns around and sells them for more than what he paid for them. It can be a lucrative business if you don’t make a bad investment.

I stare out the car window as we pass by the trees at rapid speed. The sky is darkening above us and it looks like it might start raining at any moment. Calm settles over me. I like the rain. I like the feel and the sound of it.

During the time it falls it’s like it shushes the earth and blankets it with its own sound and smell. It’s peaceful.

Dad asks us about our stay at moms and tells us he missed us and then tells us what Beth has cooked for dinner. She didn’t come with him since someone had to stay and make the Salmon.

“Sounds good, Dad,” I say.

He smiles at me through the rearview mirror and then at Connor. “I really have missed you two.”

“We missed you too, Dad,” Connor says.

I’m sure he’s more excited about seeing Connor than he is me. Not that he loves us any different, but Connor hasn’t been to Dad’s in nearly two weeks while I was there only a few days ago. They’ve spent time together since then and gone out to dinner, but Connor prefers Mom’s apartment to dad’s house. I know dad senses it. I guess that’s maybe why I feel obligated to spend more time with him than my mom. It has to even out somewhere.

I reach into my bag and pull out my iPod and plug the ear buds into my ears. Since no one else seems to be talking I feel like it’s the perfect opportunity to fill the silence. I find my Demi Lovato playlist and let it cycle through all the songs until we reach our destination.

“Summer.” My brother nudges my arm after a while. “Summer,” he says again. I pull my ear buds out and look at him. “You’re phone is beeping.”

“Oh,” I say. I dig through my bag for my phone and pull it out to see that I have two texts. One of them is from Krista and one of them is from Brent. I feel my face heat up, but luckily Connor doesn’t notice.

I check both messages.

Krista: Hey. Mom & I R fighting. Can I stay over at urs 2night?

I immediately ask dad and he says yes, so I text her back his reply and move on to my next message.

Brent: Hey. What are you doing?

I smile and begin to feel tingles come over my body. That’s new.

I text back: On my way to my dad’s. What are you doing?

I can’t believe he actually texted me. He hasn’t even had my number twenty-four hours and he’s already contacting me. I feel flattered. I guess I expected it to take longer to hear from him since the allotted amount of time hasn’t even passed yet. I think most guys wait a few days so it doesn’t make them look desperate.

I’m glad Brent is different.

He texts back. Eating peanut butter strait from the jar and counting the ways to kill my brother.

I laugh to myself. Sounds fun. What did he do this time?

What hasn’t he done? :(

That’s something to consider. Good point. But what specifically caused the murderous thoughts?

A minute later he texts me back. Maybe you should let someone else tell you.

I raise my eyebrow. Ok. Intrigued. Now I must know.

He sends back only two words and my heart races. Ask Krista.

Well…that can’t be good. What does she have to do with anything?

I find my previous message to Kris and start a new one when we pull into the driveway and dad turns off the car. As we climb out dad says, “You two go wash up. Dinner should be ready by now.” 

We nod and I am forced to put my phone away. Since I can’t text Kris during dinner I’ll just have to talk to her when she gets here. I have to know what Chad has done that has to do with Krista.

There are several images playing through my mind, but none that I want to believe. No. I’ll just have to wait and get the information from her personally. It’s the only way.

“Summer, you coming?” Conner asks me when he reaches the house.

I am still standing at the trunk of the car with my bag over my shoulder while he watches me. I pull out of my thoughts quickly.

“Yeah.” I catch up to him and my dad as they enter the house. The smell of smoked Salmon distracts me from my thoughts temporarily.

Beth greets us as soon as we enter the house. “Hey, guys. Dinner is almost ready.”

“It smells great,” I tell her.

She grins, “Thanks you.” She crosses the foyer and meets my dad at the door, kisses him on the cheek and walks him into the living room with Connor and me behind him. “Over her shoulder she says, “Chocolate fondue for dessert.”

Conner and I both grin and I feel very excited. I love fondue! We rarely ever have dessert so that must mean something big is happening.

That thought pushes out the excitement and worry starts to form in my gut.

Oh no. I really hope we’re not moving, or dad’s shoving Connor and me in a private school or something. I will be really pissed.

My phone beeps and pulls me out of my reverie and I check it a text.

Krista: I’ll b there n 45.

I send back a smiley emoticon and put my phone away.

“Oh, and Summer, there is a package for you from Amazon in your room,” Beth says.

I nod. Dad already told me. “Thanks.”

When we split up to go wash our hands, I see Beth brush up against my dad’s side and whisper something in his ear. I immediately raise my eyebrow and look at Con to see if he notices too. He has and he shakes his head as if to say “I don’t know” and I frown.

Something is definitely going on and I plan to find out ASAP. Dinner should be fun.

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A/N

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