CH. 4
DD sets a bowl of popcorn down on the coffee table and sits across from Amy in the living room. There is a stack of board games on the end of the table, half of which have already been played. Amy hadn't expected to have a good time, but her assumption proved wrong. DD's perkiness, though occasionally annoying, actually made her smile.
"So, what do you want to do now?" asks DD, ready to play yet another game.
Amy thinks for a moment. Her eyes fall on a deck of cards that's next to pile games and picks it up.
"How 'bout poker?" she suggests.
DD considers the game.
"Sure, that could be fun," she replies.
Amy begins shuffling the cards.
"This is gonna be different," she speculates.
"How so?" asks DD, curious.
"Well, for one thing, I'm not high," Amy replies simply, starting to deal out the cards.
"You played poker when you were high?" Didn't that affect your judgment?" asks DD, automatically worried a little.
Amy shrugs.
"Sometimes," she says, setting the rest of the deck down on the table, "but, honestly, back then I could've cared less."
"But you do now?" asks DD, glancing at her cards.
"Yeah, that's why I don't do that stuff anymore, despite what some people think."
They proceed with playing the game as the conversation continues.
"You must be talking about Cross," observes DD.
Amy looks up at her.
"How could you tell?" she asks sarcastically.
DD is silent for a moment.
"If you don't mind my asking, what exactly happened between you and Cross?" she wonders.
Amy is quiet, pondering whether or not to tell DD. Finally, she comes up with a solution.
"Let me ask you something first," she starts.
"Okay," DD says slowly, curious to see where the conversation was going.
"When something happens that makes you look bad, does Uncle Quentin give you a chance to explain yourself?" continues Amy.
"Most of the time, why?"
"But does he believe you after you explain?"
"Usually, though sometimes not at first. With Cross it can take some effort."
Amy nods to herself, acknowledging that her unspoken point was proven.
"Why? Did you do something wrong and he didn't believe you?" asks DD.
"No…and yes."
"What happened?" asks DD, very curious by now.
Amy takes a deep breath, deciding to tell DD what had happened between her and Cross. DD seems trustworthy to her, plus she figured that if she told one of the She Spies what had happened, they'd get both sides of the story and know what fully happened. Or fully to her standards, anyway.
"Back before rehab, when I was going through my "marijuana phase", Uncle Quentin caught me smoking. Instead of going to my parents, he said he wouldn't tell them if I promised never to do it again."
"That was nice of him," says DD.
"Yeah, it was. I did my best to lay off of everything because I really didn't want to get grounded for life. Besides, I was getting kind of sick of doing it so often. A few weeks later, I was walking with my boyfriend when he lights up a pipe. I didn't think much of it at the time because I was only concerned with my drug usage. I wasn't doing it anymore, but it wasn't my place to tell him what he could or couldn't do. He had to use the bathroom, so he snuffed out the pipe. He put it in his pocket. While I was outside the bathroom, waiting for him when Uncle Quentin came out of a store and saw me. Naturally, he came over to see me. I don't know if it was because he didn't trust me or what, but he couldn't have picked a worse time to do that though, because I was high from the secondhand smoke. I hadn't meant to be, but I was. I was acting like an idiot, so he could tell I was high right away. We ended up fighting, with me trying to explain it wasn't my fault. Which is kinda hard to do when you can't concentrate very well. He didn't want to hear it and dragged me home to tell my parents. None of them believed me. I guess the evidence just wasn't in my favor."
Amy sighs.
"We haven't gotten along since," she finishes.
"Wow," says DD.
"He made my parents put me in rehab, and afterwards no one would let me go anywhere by myself."
"Even the bathroom?" asks DD.
Amy nods.
"They'd have someone stand outside the door and listen."
"That's awful."
Amy nods again and looks down for a few moments.
"He never wants to talk about it because he thinks I betrayed his trust," she looks back at DD, "and you know how Uncle Quentin is. If he thinks he's right and the evidence is in his favor, it's going to take a long time and a lot of effort to get him to talk about it."
DD nods.
"Yeah, I noticed that too sometimes," she says.
Amy gives a half smile before setting her cards face up on the coffee table. DD does the same.
"I win," says Amy happily, liking the chance for a change of subject.
Cassie leans over the pool table, trying to decide on which shot is best. She picks one and takes the shot, sending the target ball straight into the pocket.
"Now that's how it's done," she says.
Shane smirks.
"Ha ha. I dare you to try and do that again," says Shane.
"Okay, I will," replies Cassie.
Cassie takes another shot and misses. Shane smirks again.
"Told ya you couldn't do it again," she says.
"Actually you dared me to do it again. You never said I couldn't," says Cassie.
"Whatever," says Shane, shaking her head, "My turn."
She walks around the table, deciding on her shot.
"Tell you what," says Cassie, "leaning on the pool cue, "You make the next shot, I'll clean the toilets."
Shane looks at Cassie disbelievingly. What she doesn't get, is that Cassie has heard how bad of a shot Shane was. She was taking a wild guess that Shane would miss.
"You'd voluntarily clean toilets?" Shane replies.
"Only if you make this next shot," Cassie answers.
"That's a deal. It's your stomach," says Shane, leaning down to take her next shot.
She takes the shot and misses.
"Oh, man," she says disappointedly.
"Looks like you better roll up your sleeves. You've got some cleaning to do," says Cassie, grinning.
"Do I have to?"
"Yup. We had a deal."
"Fine," says Shane.
She leans her pool cue on the table and walks towards Cassie.
"But you owe me," she finishes.
"Like you owe DD?" says Cassie.
Shane sighs in frustration and walks towards the bathroom. Cassie grins as she goes to take her next shot.
A little while later, the phone rings at the She Spies' house. By then, DD and Amy have decided to watch a movie. They chose to watch a comedy to help put all thoughts of the earlier conversation about Cross out of their minds. They figured it would help lighten up the situation a little since it had gotten pretty serious earlier.
"I'll be right back," says DD, standing.
"Okay," says Amy through laughter.
DD walks over to the phone and picks it up.
"Hello?" she asks.
"Hey, DD. It's me," says Cassie.
"Hey, what's up? Everything going okay?" asks DD concerned, checking her watch.
She could sense something was up because she knew Cassie and Shane weren't supposed to check in for a while.
"Well, not exactly," starts Cassie, "Shane was cleaning the bathroom-"
"Shane was cleaning the bathroom?" interrupts DD.
"Yeah, I bet that if she made a shot, I'd clean the bathrooms," says Cassie, smiling.
"And she missed," says DD, grinning to herself.
Amy giggles in the background at the movie.
"You guys sound like you're having a great time," says Cassie.
DD glances over at Amy.
"Yeah. We've played some games and now we're watching a movie," explains DD.
"Sounds fun."
"It is," confirms DD, "So why was it you called?"
"Oh, right. Shane was cleaning the bathroom when a woman who had a little too much to drink rushed in there. No sooner had the woman gotten in there, she got sick. Shane tried to help her to one of the stalls when the woman got sick again. This time it got all over Shane's shirt," explains Cassie.
"Ew, that's gross," says DD, wrinkling her nose.
"Tell me about it. Could you bring over another shirt for her?"
"Sure. We'll be down in a few minutes."
"Thanks."
"No problem."
They hang up their phones. DD walks over to where Amy is sitting.
"Sorry to cut the movie short, but I've got to run something down to the pool house for Shane," she explains.
"Magic Eight?" Amy asks, perking up.
"Yup," answers DD.
"Cool," says Amy, standing up and shutting off the tv.
Several minutes later, DD and Amy walk into Magic Eight Billiards. DD wrinkles her nose, obviously not taking to the scent of alcohol mixed with cigarette smoke. Amy, on the other hand, walked in like she could've cared less. She's been there several times before, mainly with Gavin, so she was used to the smell.
"DD, over here," calls Cassie, spotting DD.
DD smiles when she hears Cassie and walks over to her, holding the shirt for Shane. Amy is close behind her, looking around to see if she recognizes anyone.
"Hey, I brought Shane's shirt. Where is she?" ask DD.
"Oh, she's still in the bathroom. Been in there for at least ten minutes. She won't come out," explains Cassie.
"I better go give this to her," says DD, sensing how distressed Shane must be.
"That's probably a good idea."
With that, DD leaves them to go relieve Shane's stress. As she leaves, Cassie turns her gaze to Amy.
"So, are you enjoying your time with DD?" she asks, smiling.
"Yeah, she's cool. 'Course, I never knew you could play that many games in so little time," replies Amy.
"Trust me, it could be worse."
"I'm sure it could."
Cassie grins.
"So, you want to play a game while you're here?" she asks.
Amy grins.
"Sure! Rack 'em up," she says.
As Cassie racks up the balls, Amy searches for the right pool cue. As she finally chooses one, a man in his late twenties walks over to her.
"Hey! Amy! Long time no see," he says.
Cassie looks up at him curiously as Amy turns to see who was talking. Her face lights up when she sees that it's Mike, an old friend of hers.
"Mike! Hey!" she says, leaning over to hug him.
Cassie still looks confused as Amy and Mike continue to catch up.
"Who's he?" she asks finally.
"Just an old friend. I haven't seen him since before being grounded and sent to rehab. Mike, this is Cassie, a friend of my Uncle's. Cassie, Mike," says Amy.
Cassie and Mike exchange hellos. Mike then turns his attention back to Amy.
"We were all wondering when you were coming back," he says.
Now Cassie is even more confused. She has no idea who Mike meant by 'we all'. Who he was referring to was the group that Amy was always hanging out with. They too, frequented Magic Eight Billiards and knew the staff there quite well.
"Yeah, so was I. It wouldn't have been so long, but Uncle Quentin convinced my parents that it was for my own good," explained Amy, "And we all know how quickly parents take to that crap."
"Rehab's always a good idea when there's a chance that it'll help you kick a bad habit," reasoned Cassie.
Amy looks at Cassie, unamused.
"Maybe. But when it's not my fault and I'm the one who gets punished for it, it's just not fair," she says.
"What do you mean? Cross said you had a…" Cassie stops and tries to think of a word other than drugs. She's not sure if Mike knows about Amy's past with drugs or not, so she decides to be polite and not give it away. "Problem," she finishes.
"I did, but not when he got me in trouble for it," answers Amy, obviously annoyed at thoughts of the past.
Almost as if on cue, Mike's cell phone rings. He looks at the number before answering.
"Hey, what's up?" he asks, glancing around and trying not to be obvious about it.
Mike had reason to be cautious because the person on the other end of the line is Gavin. He knows what Gavin and his father are involved in, though he doesn't know every detail. Mike looks at Amy as he continues to talk.
"You'll never guess who's here," he says.
He listens for a moment before replying.
"Yup, hold on a sec," he hands the phone to Amy, grinning, "It's your boyfriend."
Cassie's eyes go wide.
"You have a boyfriend?" she asks.
She's only surprised because Cross didn't mention anything about Amy having a boyfriend. Amy nods.
"Hey, baby," she says to Gavin.
All Cassie and Mike can hear is Amy's end of the conversation, so they have no idea what she and Gavin are talking about. Shane and DD come out of the bathroom at that moment and walk over to Cassie.
"Yeah, a couple days ago…What?…No, you can't," says Amy, getting stressed over something Gavin is saying.
"Who's she talking to?" asks Shane.
"Apparently her boyfriend," replies Cassie.
"She has a boyfriend?" asks Shane, surprised.
"Yup."
"That's so cute," says DD.
Amy sighs and pushes a button on the phone, ending the call. She hands the cell back to Mike.
"Everything okay?" asks Cassie.
"Yeah. He was just upset," says Amy, not explaining everything.
Gavin was angry at Cross for having Amy sent to rehab. Very angry, which wasn't a good thing.
"Is he going to be alright?" asks DD.
"Yeah. I've got an idea on how to fix things," answers Amy.
"That's so sweet," says DD, smiling.
Shane rolls her eyes at DD.
"You guys thirsty?" asks Amy.
The She Spies and Mike nod and voice their thirst. Amy smiles and looks at Mike.
"Mike, could you please ask Frankie for four of the usual. You can order what you want. Oh, and have him put it on the tab," she says.
"Sure. Be back in a minute," replies Mike.
With that, he leaves and goes over to the counter. Amy looks at the She Spies and notices the looks she's getting from them.
"I come here a lot. I know the owner," she explains.
What she doesn't say is that she knows the owner because of Gavin. The owner, Frankie, also knows about the business that Gavin and Nikolai are in. It's also Gavin's tab that she was referring to moments before.
"That's cool," admits Shane.
"You have no idea," mutters Amy.
Before the She Spies can react, Mike comes back with the drinks. The She Spies are realizing that there's more to Amy than Cross was fully admitting.