Sally glances up as a team of superheroes sweeps noisily through her living room. "'Bye mom!" Laurie calls over her shoulder. "Going to Eddie's!"
"Have fun!" she calls back as the front door slams shut behind them. They exude a sort of youthful exuberance that seems to linger in the room, making her miss being that age, long for the sheer, untainted joy of a hot summer day and the company of good friends.
It's still early, hours before she has to worry about having dinner ready, and she wonders if Hollis is home. Only one way to find out, she thinks, reaching for the telephone.
***
It's the first time in weeks they've been to the comic shop, and Eddie feigns hurt for a few minutes before joining in as enthusiastically as ever. Laurie finds her eyes drawn to him more than usual. "Eddie has everything to do with this," her father's voice echoes in her head. What had he meant? She's sure that Eddie would know, wants to ask him but doesn't know how to bring it up.
Customers are few and far between, the few that do come in occasionally having to wait an extra minute or two to be rung up, distracted as Eddie is. No one seems to mind, though, too amused by the minor spectacle taking place before them. Finally the kids convince him to close up and come out to the woods with them, where he takes up fully a third of the space in Archie, now less a cardboard box and more a hybrid of balsa wood and aluminum sheeting as Daniel has replaced the inevitable weakening points with more durable materials. Eddie even has his own chair, a battered old thing Walter had found byt the side of the road and dragged back to Headquarters so that their grown-up companion wouldn't have to crouch on one of the decidedly kid-sized crates.
The sun is setting when they start walking home, Eddie escorting them partway. He offers to walk Laurie all the way home, but she refuses so vehemently that they're all a little surprised. As the only girl in the group, she is occasionally touchy about being treated any differently from the boys, but not that touchy. Finally Jon and Adrian assure Eddie that they'll see her home safe (later assuring Laurie that of course they know she would be fine on her own, they just didn't want Eddie to worry, never realizing that her one-of-the-boys pride is, in this case, the furthest thing from her mind). He nods and splits off with Dan and Walter.
Laurie checks herself carefully when she gets home, even though she's left her costume back in the treehouse. She's determined not to do anything else to set her father off. She feels a little paranoid, but the feeling dissipates immediately as she walks through the door to find him waiting, already glaring at her.
"There you are. Where's your mother?" he demands.
She blinks at the strange question. "I…don't know." Her mom's always home at this time. She's home most of the time, really, and Laurie feels a slight twinge of worry mix with her confusion.
It doesn't last long, though, as Sally breezes through the door only moments later. "Where have you been?" Larry demands, sounding more as if he's scolding a wayward child than talking to his wife.
If Sally's smile falters, it's only a bit. "I went to see Hollis. We lost track of the time," she says, giggling slightly, the sort of laugh that Laurie is too young yet to realizes is the product of a few drinks.
"Obviously," Larry snorts, voice rising. "I come home to an empty house, no note, no call, dinner not ready…"
Sally laughs again, but this time it's humorless, closer to her husband's harsh sound of disgust. "Calm down. So I went to see an old friend and stayed longer than I intended. Don't you know how to heat up leftovers? Or am I just supposed to be at your beck and call?"
This serves only to incense him further. "I work hard all day. I support you and your kid so that you can sit around and be a housewife, and you can't even do that!" Laurie is frozen, looking back and forth between them as he rages. She's literally caught in the middle, wanting to leave, wanting to go to her room and shut the door and turn up the radio she got for her birthday as loud as it will go, but she can't seem to make herself move as he continues, "So yes, it would be nice to come home to dinner on the table and my wife actually here and not out visiting with old friends."
"Larry --"
"If I call Hollis Mason," he explodes, "is he going to say you were over there today?"
Sally's face flushes, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "Yes, he would, if you were ridiculous enough to call and bother him at this hour. Of course, he's probably also say that you're a rude, jealous, insecure ass!" She looks ready to throw something, but instead she shakes her head and says more calmly, "I don't need this. I'm going to bed." And she does just that, leaving her husband glowering at Laurie, the only remaining target for his ire. She quickly scampers off to her room.
She thinks things over for a long time. She doesn't know why her dad is so mad at her mom for going to see Uncle Hollis, or why he would suspect her of lying about it, but she's pretty sure she knows one person who will have some answers. Next time Eddie offers to walk her home, she resolves, she's going to take him up on it.
As the days wear on, though, she never manages to find more than a few moments alone with him. Thankfully there are no more major fights, and if her parents are a little snippier than usual with each other, they're at least civil and she doesn't think about it that much, instead throwing herself into the game and her friends. They can almost physically feel the passing of each day, time slipping by too fast even as they try to cling to it, try to hold on to their remaining moments.
Finally it's the last day of August, and they've just wrapped up the case they've been working on for two weeks, and they're all looking at each other glumly.
"Well," Dan says, "I guess this is it."
Walter nods. "Have to stop. Won't play without you." he says, looking at Laurie seriously. Jon and Adrian are quick to agree, but it's Walter she's looking at, wondering if he knows how much those words mean, especially when she hadn't even bothered to extend him the same consideration. She feels a surge of gratitude, as well as some deeper emotion she can't name, swell within her, mingling the growing resentment she has been feeling toward her father without even realizing it, and suddenly, she's shaking her head.
"No. We just have to not get caught."
Dan's grinning at her. "You mean.."
She nods. "You guys are the best friends I've ever had. This is the most fun I've ever had. I'm not giving it up just because my dad's an ass." She blinks and then giggles at her language, her mother's words coming from her mouth.
"Right on," Jon says, the others voicing their agreement. They depart not long after, in much better spirits than they have been all day. She walks with Dan and Walter today, and when they arrive at her door, Walter shoves his hands in his pockets and says, so solemnly that she has to restrain a laugh, "Good evening, Silk Spectre."
"Night, Rorschach, Nite Owl," she says, grinning. "See you guys tomorrow." And when she walks inside and Larry demands to know what she's so happy about, she just shrugs and goes to plan her outfit for the next day.