Chapter 13
Poison
…same night
Mindy locked herself in the bathroom. She didn't know why she bothered as Dina was
downstairs playing with that stupid video game that Drake purchased. It had "the
purple controller and everything" which apparently was supposed to mean something.
She never should have given them time alone. How was she going to undo this?
Maybe the answer would come to her if she disinfected the toilet instead of sitting
on the clothes hamper trying to ponder the best way to handle this delicate situation.
Damn him. Thinking he could come back and make everything right with a bunch of
tacked on "sorry's" and a bag of presents.
It always had to be about Drake didn't it? Well, Mindy was going to do her best to
make sure he was gone from their lives forever.
11:00PM
Drake should have arrived in San Diego at five after ten o'clock, but he always got
distracted when he went for something to eat. He thought of calling Audrey, but then
he figured he'd rather surprise her. He parked in the driveway. The only light that was
on was in the kitchen. Drake felt his stomach flutter with butterflies and he didn't know
why he was nervous. This was his mother and sister. They'd be proud of him for
contacting Dina and trying to reestablish a relationship.
No one was in the kitchen.
"Mom, Megan..." Drake called out while putting his keys in his back pocket.
He knew Walter was gone, but he didn't know the details. So much for having a
relationship with his new father.
"Mom..."
"She's not here."
Megan? Her voice sounded so cold
"Megan?"
"So are you back?"
She looked so different and not in the puberty sense of different. Her long hair was
gone. She had a short and spikey cut that was dyed purple in the front and green in
the back. Her idea of PJ's was a baggy black t-shirt that said "Fuck Authority" on it
and a pair of black jogging pants that were ripped in various places.
Drake noticed the three earring holes in each ear and the nose ring.
"Uh yeah."
"Who cares?" She went passed him to get a Mocha Cola out of the refrigerator.
"How are you Megan?"
"Too little, too late."
He wouldn't push her, "Where's Mom?"
"Not here."
"I can see that."
"She's working at the IHOP."
"Dina didn't mention that?"
"Oh, you've finally come off your high horse about that? And Dina doesn't know. As
always Mom only cares about her happiness and we cannot upset Dina. So yes,
Mom has another job because we are beyond broke. Didn't you notice the sign? You
were here earlier when you went through Mom's desk drawer."
"What sign?"
"The sign in the front yard, you boob!"
God was he getting on her last nerve.
Drake walked to the front door and sure enough there was a sign there all right. The
sign was from Access Realty with a yellow PENDING sticker on it.
Their house was going to be no more.
Fuck.
How did this happen?
Drake sat on the sofa in the living room not knowing if he should call Dina on his cell
phone and tell her about this.
Maybe tomorrow morning would better.
"How did this happen?" He said out loud
"If you were here you would have known. I'm going up to my room. Don't you think of
bothering me."
The way Megan said her last words 'don't you think of bothering me' sounded like a
veiled attempt at a threat. His little practical joke playing sister changed too and not
for the better.
Drake turned on the TV to KDJY—and the weatherman was not Walter Nichols.
He sighed and turned the television off.
Dina wasn't the only one who went through a metamorphosis. It seemed like everyone
in this family went through their own internal changes.
He walked to the kitchen at the same time Audrey was coming through the backdoor
with three paper grocery store bags.
"I got it." He put the bag on the kitchen table.
"Drake," she almost dropped the other two bags as they fell on the table "You've
come home."
She was wearing a blue t-shirt with the IHOP logo, a pair of black pants, and black
sneakers.
Audrey Parker looked like she aged about twenty years since the last time he was in
this house.
"Yes."
They hugged each other.
"I saw Dina today."
"You did? That's great!" That news perked her tired body up.
"Mom, you sit down. I'll put the groceries away. Is it so bad around here that you have
to have a second job waiting tables at IHOP?"
More guilt was building up inside him. Dina would say it wasn't his fault, but it was. If
he was supportive to Dina like he should've been that would have meant that he
would've been there for Megan. And financially, he could've given his mother his gig
money.
"We can talk about that and other things later." She kicked off her sneakers.
Too tired to get a bottle of water out of the refrigerator.
"I'm sorry—I know it sounds like a line of bullshit, but I really am."
Audrey held her son's hand. "Don't you worry, Drake. I'm just glad that you finally
returned back home."
Dina & Mindy's Bedroom:
"It took you long enough to come upstairs," Mindy said as she tightly squeezed her
pillow. "You know I have a busy schedule."
"And I don't? You've been quiet all night, Mindy. You wait until now to start in about
Drake. Am I right?" Not five seconds in the bed and she has to start?
"I'm NOT starting in about Drake, Dina. So what? You can forgive him now after a
bunch of insincere apologies and some presents?"
"I know he's done bad things. But he's trying to atone for them. And he WAS sincere."
Dina did not want to have this argument.
"I'm sorry, Dina," Mindy tried to snuggle in closer, "I know you want to see good
qualities in your brother. But you need an objective eye. He's poison."
"If you don't stop you'll be sleeping on the sofa."
"Why? Just because I'm trying to talk some sense into my girlfriend? Think about all
the selfish and manipulative things he's done over the years and not just with Dina—
but it's not like Josh had a perfect relationship with him, either."
This was true, but not completely true.
They were teenagers then.
God ninety-nine percent of adolescents were selfish and manipulative?
What about the good things?
Drake let Josh keep his Zero Gravity earnings from when he played with them at the
Mega Dome, took the fall for the "brilliant popcorn idea", and even though it meant
another stint in remedial English he took the back seat and let Josh be Sammy's 'Big
Sibling'.
How come Mindy wasn't mentioning the good things that Drake has done?
He came back and wanted a relationship with her.
"Goodnight, Mindy." Dina sank in the bed and put the covers over her head.
Dina bit her lip ashamed of the thoughts creeping through her brain.
Was Drake really sincere?