It's the long chapter 3 in which Spencer arrives on the scene. Don't know exactly what will happen next, but hopefully I'll figure out soon.
Happy reading!
3. Runs In The Family
The week continues because life will still go on. When Monday rolls around, Kyla, Ben and Waldo start school. Kyla and Ben's little competition only grows. The twins are starting their junior year while Waldo begins eighth grade.
Two weeks into school, Kyla and Ben saunter through the door yelling while Talise and I are having an epic checkers battle. Harsh voices jar me from my planning.
"She was smiling at me, Benjamin! You know that. Stop lying!" Kyla looks like she is about to take off his head.
Ben who enjoys the irritation he's causing merely shrugs and says, "I know what I saw."
"Will you stop doing that?" Kyla demands.
"What?" Ben asks as though he doesn't realize that his every move is infuriating to Kyla at the moment.
"Every time, you try to steal whatever girl I like. I'm beginning to think that the next time I get excited about a guy, you'll go after him too."
"Yeah...".
Their agitated voices fade down the hall.
"King me," says Talise, moving her black checker piece to my side of the board.
A few days later I am in bed trying not to vomit into my pillow. Going downstairs in the early afternoon for some water, I was suddenly hit by an overpowering wave of nausea and lowered myself carefully to the floor, taking deep breaths, afraid that if I moved everything would come pouring out of my stomach. I probably would have stayed there for the rest of the day, but Talise found me and helped me get to bed. It's a side effect of my medication, but there are worse ones. Besides, as long as they keep the seizures away, I'll live with it.
Talise goes to dinner, and tells them that I'm not feeling up to eating tonight. No one will question her judgment. She has long been accepted as the family authority on me and "my condition".
My mother is fond of telling people, "Talise and Ashley have always been such a pair. You'd never be able to tell that they don't share blood. They're kindred spirits. It's amazing how well Talise understands Ashley." Can you believe how close we are after Talise has been the only person I've talked to in person regularly for the last nine years? Shocking, isn't it?
Dad makes his daily call, stirring life back into me. No matter what tour he's on, or what he's up to, he always makes sure to call. I can't always call him because in some countries his cell phone doesn't work.
"Hey."
"Hi there, sweetie. Are you okay? You sound sick."
"I'm fine just nauseous," I reply, not feeling particularly talkative.
"Well, do you need to get some rest? I'll go." He's about to hang up when I stop him.
"No! Wait. Sing 'Puff'."
"Okay, okay." I hear lots of shuffling on the other end. Then, gently, "Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honnah Lee" comes crackling out of my phone. I join him for the last chorus. "You're so spoiled, you know. What if my fans say if they heard Raife Davies singing 'Puff, the Magic Dragon'. I'd be chased off of every stage by laughing mobs."
"Goodnight, Daddy," I say, giggling slightly to myself.
"Humph, you're lucky I love you."
"Love you too." Smiling, I close my phone. After a few more boring minutes pass, I decide to get a glass of water. I still haven't gotten one even though I set out with that intention three hours ago.
When I first rise, the nausea pushes me back into a crouching position where I breathe deeply for a minute before rising back up the rest of the way. Carefully, I walk to the hatch and ladder that leads out of the attic. With caution, I descend first the ladder and then the steps. By the time I reach the ground floor, I'm feeling better. All this time, I've been assaulted by the sounds of Kyla and Ben in yet another argument. They've been arguing a lot lately, so I'm assuming that the courtship of whoever the girl is this time isn't going well.
"I've got it, Ben." Kyla snarls. "Here you go, Spencer," she says sweetly.
"Umm... thanks," offers whatever poor soul that they've got trapped in the dining room. Stealthily, I creep into the kitchen unnoticed.
"Allow me to help you with that, Spencer," Ben suggests gallantly.
"It's fine... um... I can do it myself."
"No, no, I insist." I can just imagine his overeager smile exposing his molars.
"Leave her alone, Ben," Kyla cuts in. "She said no. I doubt she wants you to help her."
"How do you know that? She's not your pet. Let her speak for herself." For a moment after that, all I hear is the sound of water dropping from the refrigerator into my glass.
"I um... have to go to the bathroom."
"I'll show you where it is!"
"No! I will."
"I'll find it myself!" the girl- Spencer nearly screams. A chair is violently pushed back, and next thing I knew, a blond girl bursts into the kitchen and leans against the door, breathing heavily. Fascinated, I watch the rise and fall of her chest as she heaves a sigh and the way her hair swings from her bent head, obscuring her face.
Suddenly, I jerk back at the shock of cold water overflowing onto my hand. The rapid movement causes more water to splash everywhere. Spencer looks up with blue eyes and a flash of fear before deciding that I wasn't a threat or an unwanted suitor. From the dining room Kyla and Ben are squabbling about who scared her away. Neither of us says a word.
"Hi..." I mumble. My social skills are nonexistent. She must not hear because she continues to stare at me. Damn it. I'm probably a mess with wrinkled clothes, tangled hair and spilled water. If I look anything like I felt only thirty minutes ago, I look like a corpse. She, on the other hand, could be on magazine covers. At any rate, she's prettier than my mother. Studying the floor, I start to retreat upstairs.
"Wher-" I turn around at the sound of her voice. Before she can finish whatever she was saying, Waldo sprints in the room.
"Spencer! I l-" Then, he sees me and stops mid-sentence. For a few more seconds, he mouths uselessly. "I-I j-just wanted y-you..." he stutters, growing progressively redder. He draws patterns on the floor with his feet and his hands are clasped behind his back. As abruptly as he entered, Waldo scurries back into the dining room. Somewhere in the dining room, Talise is unsuccessfully trying not to laugh.
Between the strangled noise and the look of absolute terror on Spencer's beautiful face, I break down into uncontrollable laughter. At some point, I remember that I'm still a little queasy and imagine how weird it would look if I started to vomit in the middle of my glee. That only makes me laugh harder. Water has long been jolted out of my glass, and I slam the empty cup onto the counter. Eventually, Spencer snickers too. It's slightly hysterical, but that only makes the entire situation funnier.
Finally, we manage to pull ourselves together. Rummaging through several drawers, I search for towels to clean up the water that's all over the floor.
"Let me help," Spencer says, taking a towel out of my hands.
"Thanks," I croak from my dry throat. Both of us get to wiping up the floor.
"So, I'm Spencer Carlin," she informs me.
"Ashley Davies."
"Don't you live here though?" For a moment, I'm puzzled. Then, I realize she's referring to my last name.
"It's a messy family." I reply shortly.
"Oh." She doesn't pry further. Usually, I'd simply let the conversation die, finish mopping up the floor and return to the attic, but I have a strange anxiety to keep this conversation going and hear her say something else.
"Kyla says you're from Ohio..." I drift off.
"Yeah, Carroll, Ohio. Otherwise known as smallest town on the face of the Earth."
"Really?"
"Well, there are smaller ones, but the last population count was 400 something people."
"Um... 400's still a big number?" I grasp wildly for anything to say. Spencer's very blue eyes search mine, looking for signs of insanity.
"You realize that most LA schools have more people than that?"
"Right," I mutter, wishing I could disappear before I make a bigger fool of myself. Too late for that. I'm the idiot who decided to open my mouth, and now I'm dealing with the consequences. "Do you like LA?"
"Sort of. You can't see the stars, and it's kind of insane here."
"What makes you think that? The drivers screaming at each other or the twins that have to compete over everything?" Finished with my cleaning, I put my towel on the counter, and Spencer does the same.
"About that, why is your sister so crazy?" Surprised, I gape at her. Really, Spencer? I thought you were smart. Obviously, Kyla has the world's biggest crush on you.
"You're joking, right? You can't possibly be that blind."
"Honestly, I have no idea."
"How to put this delicately... she has a crush on you." To my shock, she laughs. I stand there wondering what's so funny.
"Good one. Now, what's the real reason?" Very slowly, as though speaking to an alien, I repeat myself.
"She" I point to the dining room for emphasis, "has a crush" using my hands, I make a heart, "on you", here I point at Spencer. Confusion clouds her clear eyes.
"You're kidding me, right?"
"No..." I wait to see if this revelation will make her explode.
"But she's a girl," Spencer states.
"She's a bisexual girl." I really hope Spencer doesn't ask me what that means.
"So she thinks..."
"She thinks you're cute, beautiful, funny, elegant, sweet, smart," I'm listing all the things Kyla has said about Spencer so far. It's not hard because Kyla's been saying these things about every girl she's liked. I haven't eaten a single dinner all year where I didn't hear about Kyla's love life. "As well as hot, gorgeous, sexy, amazing."
Normally, I think that Kyla is being ridiculous when she tells us about these girls, and it would be too embarrassing to tell anybody this, but Spencer really seems like she could be all these things and more.
"Okay, okay. I get the idea." She looks freaked out. Should I try to cheer her up? How am I supposed to do that?
"Are you okay?" I ask. "You could always see my psychiatrist if you want? His name is Manny Louis Cruise." I purposely slur together the last two words.
Will she get it?
She's just staring at me right now. Suddenly she throws her head back and laughs, causing me to break out into a wide grin. I allow myself to purely enjoy her delight un-veiled by confusion or my own happiness. It's mesmerizing to watch her. Listening to "Car Talk" for years finally paid off.
"Why weren't you at dinner?" Oh yeah.
"I was feeling kind of sick so I stayed in our room, but I got better and thirsty so I came down for some water."
I'm beginning to relish this conversation. Ever since I started taking medicine for my seizures, I feel hopeless or irritated for no reason. Everything is cast slightly in shadows. Dr. Sherman said that it wasn't too unusual and to call her if I'm feeling suicidal. (Dr. Sherman's nice, but if I was going to kill myself, I wouldn't tell anyone.) Talking to Spencer makes the world seem... lighter. It was easy to smile and just talk. It didn't matter that people hated me or I would be stuck with an illness for the rest of my life as long as I could make her laugh.
Picking the glass off the counter where I'd set it, Spencer filled it up at the refrigerator. "Here. Since my suffering made you spill your water everywhere, you may as well take this."
"Yes, thank you," I say, taking it. "Thank you for offering me water from my own refrigerator."
"Oh, it was no big deal." I down the water in less -fewer- (aren't you proud Talise?) than five seconds without pausing. "Still thirsty?" I nod and hold my glass out for her. Rolling her eyes, she fills it up again. This time it takes me longer to drink it, but I finish it off quickly none the less and wipe my hand across my mouth.
"So... now what?" I ask.
"I really don't want to go back there." She's giving me a "please don't leave me here with the monsters" look. Who am I to resist that?
"Do you want to go to the attic with me?"
"Why the attic?"
Not understanding her question at all, I answer, "Why not?"
"Uh... okay."
I lead the way back up. The second floor is mostly where my mother and Joe sleep. There's a couple of guest rooms on one side, but mostly it's the master suite. Spencer's eyes widen in amazement.
"Your house is huge. Wait! There's another floor?" Her wonder makes me giggle.
"Yup. More than one, actually." The third floor is taken up by Waldo, Kyla, Ben, and Aiden. There isn't a single empty room on this floor, partly because they each take up more than one room. Continuing through two more hallways, we proceed to the fourth floor which has multiple rooms containing various items including: the piano I used to play, a few giant TVs, exercise equipment, and other junk. Sometime along our journey, I grabbed Spencer's hand, without even realizing it, to tow her up the steps because she's too busy gawking to walk for herself. Now, having reached the hatch, I pull the string that brings down the creaky ladder and reluctantly release her hand. I gesture for Spencer to go first, but she nearly screams when the ladder squeaks and leaps off. Usually, I'm the one with no athletic ability so I'm pleased to dart up the ladder, just to prove that it can be done.
"Don't worry. I'm the world's least coordinated person, and I haven't broken a leg on this yet," I reassure her.
"So you've just cracked your skull then?"
"Funny. Either you go first and have me as a cushion if you do fall for some reason or second and risk stepping on wood already weakened by my weight."
"Or I could not go at all." It took me a moment to figure out a good response to that.
"Do you think that you could find your way back down?" I remind her, grinning wickedly. With a pout and a glare, she begins to climb.
There are about fifteen rungs on the ladder. Soon enough we reach the attic. The only temperature regulated room in the attic is the big bedroom that Talise and I sleep in. Giddily, (I've never gotten to show anyone around the attic before) I let her glance into the room with two beds, a computer, and poems plastered all over the walls but tug her away before she can get a good look. There's another place I'm more eager to show her.
Quickly, I drag her along one of the narrow passages. Then, I drop her hand again to hoist myself on top of a sort of ledge at waist height. Breathless, Spencer follows. The ledge leads to a tunnel which opens into a room that has a huge slanted skylight instead of a ceiling and roof. It's barely tall enough to stand up in at it's highest point, but Talise and I have an air mattress and comforter here. When I look out the window though, I nearly droop with disappointment. In all my excitement, I had never thought that they might not be there.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. I kick the edge of the mattress in frustration. Spencer, who had been panting and looking at the dusty room, notices.
"What's wrong?"
"Sometimes, we're far enough from the lights to see the stars from here but not tonight," I respond numbly.
"It's not the end of the world, but it was nice of you to try. Better than staying with your... enthusiastic siblings." I glance at her, and she smiles. "Besides, now I know I just got dragged around a mansion for nothing." Seeing that I'm not comforted by her words at all, she continues, "it's probably too early for the stars. Let's wait."
We settle on the mattress. I pull out the supply of chocolate hidden there and discover that I'm ravenous. "Do you want a Hershey Kiss?" Spencer takes it and we talk. Nothing important, just a lot of little things. For instance, how annoying the dishwasher is to load properly. Lots of times, Spencer refers things and people I've never heard of. It's probably an effect my isolation, but I let her think that it's because she's from "Nowheresville". I don't tell her about my family or "condition". It's nice to have someone who doesn't know.
"Ashley!" Talise shouts from somewhere else in the attic.
"At the skylight with Spencer," I holler back.
"Tell Spencer that her brother is on his way to pick her up," Talise yells, sounding much closer. I turn towards Spencer who gets up, brushing the dust off her shirt.
We are about to descend when Spencer cries, "Wait! Look, it's a star!"
Sure enough, shining faintly in the sky is a solitary white star.
"Well, we didn't come up for nothing then," I remark with a relieved smile.
"It wasn't for nothing ten minutes ago either." Then, less seriously, "you saved me from the horror that is Kyla and Ben."
"At your service," I state, snapping a salute that nearly sends me tumbling down the attic. Laughing, Spencer helps me get down without killing myself.
Talise, Spencer, and I arrive to the family frantically searching for Spencer.
"Found her," Talise mentions serenely. The more anxious other people are, the greater pleasure she takes in being calm.
"Oh my god, Spencer! You had no idea how worried we were about you-" Kyla shrieks, missing the way Spencer flinches at the volume.
"I was worried too!" Ben interrupts his sister urgently. Real subtle, Ben.
Almost immediately, the situation deteriorates into a full-blown war, but my family has developed a certain immunity to the twins' disturbances over the last several years. Waldo gazes at Spencer, star-struck. Knowing Joe, he's probably holed up somewhere right now with a beer and old movie. My mother edges over to engage Spencer in conversation, completely ignoring me. Typically, I'd get away from her, but I stick close to Spencer, hoping to get a final word with her before she leaves. Awkward and bored, I pick up a conversation Talise and Aiden are having a short distance away.
"-more hilarious by the moment. Don't tell me you like Spencer too," Talise snickers.
"So what? She's hot." Aiden asserts.
"Still in high school," Talise sing-songs.
"She's a junior."
"And you must really like her."
"She's just nice to look at," he insists.
"I might believe that if you weren't stuttering throughout dinner." Aiden too? Why does every single person in my family seem to have a crush on Spencer?
"I was not," he scoffs.
"Oh come on, Aiden, you're as bad as Kyla and Ben."
"Kyla and Ben are hopeless, but I've got all the appeal," Aiden brags.
"Yeah right," Talise says, rolling her eyes.
"Of course I do. Kyla and Ben are trying to be all tough and cool, but I can make a fool of myself without ever seeming like an idiot. They laugh, and when their guards are down, I strike." Aiden is making me angrier than usual tonight.
"That might be because you always look like an idiot so know one can tell."
Before I can register what's happening, Aiden rapidly diverts Spencer's attention away from my mother and onto himself. Christine departs to break up Kyla and Ben while Aiden flashes a charming, friendly but romantically mysterious smile and begins to tell her about himself without forgetting to learn about Spencer too. Bewildered, I make a desperate attempt to regain Spencer's notice with a flurry of coughs.
"Having a seizure, Ash?" Aiden sneers. He makes it sound like a perfectly innocent jest. Crossing his eyes, sticking out is tongue, and flailing his arms, he crudely imitates a seizure.
"Ugh-uh," he moans. Then, he collapses on the ground and lies there twitching and convulsing.
And Spencer? Spencer laughs.
An icebox must have replaced my heart because my blood ran cold.
I dart to the shadow of the staircase. Sitting in between the first and second floor, I cry. I hate Aiden. I wish aliens would abduct him. I hope he gets into a horrible car accident. I wish he would die.
By the time commotion dies, and Spencer's brother picks her up, I'm hiding in the attic, buried under covers. Talise walks in.
"Are you hiding under there? What's wrong, Ashley?" I don't respond. The covers are whisked off, and Talise stands there, towering over me. "Is this about, Aiden? It'll be okay. You haven't let him get to you like this in years though. What is it this time?" Her gray eyes run over my face, hunting for the answer.
"I don't know." I really don't know. Aiden always loves a joke at my expense. Something about Spencer laughing though just pushed me over.
"Well, Spencer told me to tell you good-bye. She looked disappointed that you weren't there."
"Really?"
Frown lines crease her eyebrows and forehead. "Yes," she answers carefully. I drop my gaze from her face and ponder that. Does it make me happy?
I can feel Talise still studying me, dissecting my emotions as best she can. If I glance up again she'll probably have arms folded across her chest.
Randomly, without any sort of preamble, she declares, "Love is agony caramelized in sweetness, like sugar-coated candy that rots your teeth."
"What?"
"Go Fish?"
"Huh?"
"Do you want to play Go Fish? You know, the card game?"