Hey! 1st: I want to apologize for taking so long to post Chapter 2 up for you guys! I've been working a lot more than usual BUT I did take the time to make sure this one was awesome but decently sized :)) I also have to admit it took so long to upload because I am extremely critical of my own work and I just want it to be perfect! 2nd: Jerry will begin to start showing up more in Chapter 3 and onward, I promise! Just giving the family etc. some good ol' fashion back story :)) and 3rd: I would REALLY like to thank the following reviewers : VampireSiren, HannahBabies, dirty-icing, and batgirl3952 for your awesome reviews! You all made me so happy to see them! Without further ado here is Chapter 2! :) ENJOY!
The room was filled with the worst awkward silence that I had ever personally had to sit through. I mean sure I've been a part of those family meetings or whatever the hell you want to call them where you and your parents sit down and have a "heart to heart" about what's going on with you. You know all that radical stuff. But this…this was completely a whole new ball game that I had never thought I would be a part of.
I kept my eyes directed on my plate my fork being my instrument of choice in my fidgeting gathering my mashed potatoes together like a lost flock of sheep. I could hear my mother's knife scrapping against the plate as if she was going to dig a hole through her meatloaf, into the table, and out to China.
With my head still facing my plate I slowly brought my gaze around to look at her. She took a very hard bite of meatloaf off the fork, her vision staring off into space. Her thoughts had obviously taken her somewhere that was not this room. Personally, I fully believed she didn't want to be in this room.
When I initially walked in she had been just as shell shocked as Charley had been. I probably looked like that too but since I couldn't see myself I couldn't tell. After the shock wore off though she'd embraced me but still remained quiet. Her taut embrace being the only indication that she was happy or maybe just a little glad to see me.
She looked incredibly different.
Her style had changed into what looked like a mixture of sexy and laid back. She'd even dyed her hair a strawberry blonde color the blonde seeming like it was winning out between the two. I wasn't too thrilled with the dye job because my mother had beautiful fiery red hair. I was a little sad at the idea I wouldn't be seeing it anytime soon.
Jane Brewster was all grown up now.
My attention was quickly drawn to Charley as he cleared his throat and tried to find a comfortable position in his chair.
"So uhm Kaylee," he spoke his voice shaky, "What have you been up too these past years?"
At the sound of that question all noise stopped from my mom's side of the table. This could be interesting. Looking up from my plate I brought my attention to Charley. His reward was a small smirk from me, his little A for effort.
"Uhm I uh moved around a lot."
"Wow Kaylee, that was lame even for you."
Her voice cut through that awkward bubble we'd all been creating the only way mothers could. I stabbed my fork into my mashed potatoes with a low chuckle.
That was pretty lame even for me she was right. Glancing over at her I wasn't surprised to see her staring directly at me, her steel gaze penetrating into me with a look I knew all too well. This was exactly why I'd been hoping these questions would've been asked later or more like…never. Yeah, that would've been awesome.
I could almost feel Charley fidgeting nervously at my back. Funny how even after all these years I still had the ability to tell when the kid was about ready to jump out of his skin. With a tight smile I glanced back up at her meeting her piercing gaze with my own.
"You're right mom. I did start off with one lame ass sounding reply." Turning to Charley I gave him a quick wink. "I did in fact move around a lot though. Mainly because for a while I boosted cars."
"Jesus Christ I knew it," she murmured.
Her silverware made one hell of a scraping sound as she threw them down on her plate. Looking at Charley I watched as he stuffed his mouth with meatloaf trying to hide his smile. I couldn't help but smile, genuinely smile, at the memories of having talks just like this when we were all much younger.
"Yup right again mom as usual. But what's a kid to do when the only thing she thinks she's good at is breaking into stuff?"
"Maybe that's because she never tried to do anything else," she shot back.
Shaking my head I did my best to remain calm. Every time my illegal activities came up somehow it was said that I did them because she was a bad mother. Over dramatic? Hell yes. Plus she had been a great mother.
"Anyway," I continued choosing to ignore her, "I didn't do it for long. A guy's car I was trying to steal up in Seattle caught me. To pay him back for the busted window he had me waitress at his restaurant at night and then work at his grandmother's laundry mat during the day."
Instantly Charley started laughing almost spraying his soda across the table.
"What's so funny?"
Patting his chest he coughed a few times to clear his throat before he responded.
"You? Doing laundry and I mean not just your own but other people's laundry?"
Smiling I ran my hand through my hair as I caught on to what he was implying. I moved forward swiftly to playfully shove him both of us laughing in the process.
"Shut the hell up. Once I was done paying him back I stuck around for a while to save some money then dipped once I had enough. I've worked as a bartender, mechanic-"
"Wait you're a mechanic?"
The look of pure awe on the boy's face was too damn funny for words.
"Yeah man I am and a badass one at that, I might add."
"It's so great to know that after ditching your family in the middle of the night and going off to find yourself would be so fulfilling. Not knowing if you were even alive after all these years was such a real peach for us."
With each lethal word she spit out at me it felt like they had chipped away at me and any hopes that I had of things going smoothly. Had I not expected this kind of reaction? No, I knew that it was going to happen I wasn't stupid and yeah I deserved it but I didn't want to fight right when I just got back.
What an extreme fucked up kick to my gut this was.
She had both mine and Charley's attention now. My mother had never looked so smug and pissed off as she did now and watching her take a big gulp of her wine I knew she was ready to rip me a new one.
"Mom, please," Charley begged fiercely.
She completely ignored the kid.
"Tell me Kaylee Rheanne how much better your life was after you deserted us in the middle of the night. Do you know how heartbroken you left Charley? Do you?"
Each word left her mouth fiercer than the last with her voice rising with each that passed her lips. If words could kill I would have most certainly dropped dead a long time ago.
I tried to control the waves of guilt that rolled me, furiously swallowing back the acidic taste of regret that tried to break free of my throat. She used the one thing that she knew would tear me apart inside: Charley.
I couldn't even bring myself to look in his direction and in that split second she knew she had me.
"Stop it!"
"So tell me how it feels to desert your family, the people who loved you and would've done anything for you! Huh, Kaylee! You walked out on us just like your goddamn father did but at least he had the decency to walk out with us knowing. What kind of coward does it in the dead of night-"
"I said stop it goddamn it!" Charley screamed slamming his palms down hard on the table.
The sudden jolt was enough to tear me away from her and look at him at last. He was fighting so hard to stay in control of himself, his lower lip quivering from the effort, and his eyes close to spilling.
"Why do you gotta ruin it?" he cried.
I was pretty positive this was not something she had expected. She looked like she just shit a painful brick.
"Kay finally came back and all you're doing is trying to drive her away!"
"Charley it isn't like that-"
"Bullshit it isn't! All you've done is attack her."
"Guys," I tried.
They completely ignored me the assholes.
"Why can't you just be happy she's here? Just for one fucking night."
"Charley!"
I decided to maybe try him this time raising my voice just a notch higher and gave him a millisecond to respond. When he didn't I did the next best thing: I punched him hard in the shoulder.
Yup I had his attention then.
His head snapped to me standing next to him with his eyes blinking rapidly as his brain registered me there. Once he did I watched in astonishment as his face contorted into a mixture of pain and shock as his hand shot up to hold the shoulder I'd greeted with my fist.
"Ah, what the fuck Kaylee?"
"What the fuck? What the fuck? What the fuck were you doing Charley?"
"I was sticking up for you!"
"There are too many fucks being thrown around in this room!"
There was that perfect motherly timing coming into play now. She raised herself from her chair and looked close to coming across the table and pulling both of our ears. Neither of us paid any mind to her.
"Yeah and not that I'm not grateful or nothing-"
"Then you're welcome," he interjected sternly.
I gave him a short look wanting to punch him all over again and then out of fucking nowhere, the kid cracked a smile and started laughing. Now I was completely confused and a tad worried that he'd turned into Charles Manson.
"Uhm Charley?" I asked cautiously.
I didn't want to make any sudden movements just in case he decided to spring on me. He looked like a crazy ass white boy with his eyes still moist with the unshed tears that had threatened to leave him earlier.
"It's just like old times, huh?"
I turned to look at my mom we both stared at each other neither of us knowing what the hell he was talking about. I gave it a few more seconds to sink in before I finally got what he was talking about.
Rolling my tongue across my teeth I fought to not laugh at his very true statement. The last couple of months I'd been here that was almost exactly how every dinner had gone.
"Come on Kay I'll show you to your room."
The subject and the change in his tone was enough to jar me from my thoughts so much that I damn near gave myself whiplash looking back at him. He wasn't smiling anymore, his eyes barely glimmered with a hint that he'd done it before. Pushing in his chair he turned and headed for the base of the stairs. He didn't even look back to check and see if I was even following.
"Thank for dinner."
My voice sounded hollow even to me but I didn't care. I just gave her a brief nod, pushed in my chair, and made my way to Charley and the stairs. He wasn't even there when I reached the stairs and neither was my duffel bag. Taking the stairs two by two I was promptly at the top of the stairwell and now in the hallway of my childhood home.
She'd repainted the walls a lilac color with the stereotypical rows upon rows of family photos in mahogany frames scattered around the walls. I was glad that she had gotten rid of that awful flowered wallpaper. That shit looked like the exorcist had spit up her green bean vomit all over the walls and a giant chicken came running across the walls soon after. Okay, so maybe it didn't look as ridiculous as that sounded but what can I say? I really fucking hated that wallpaper.
I started my decent down the hall glancing at the occasional photo. She still had up the ones of all of us on Christmas of '98, my soccer and softball pictures along with Charley's first year of T-Ball, and of my middle school graduation and all of our strained smiles. I couldn't help but smile at the protective arm I had around him in just about every group photo. Our parents may have always been arguing but me and Charley, we'd had each other.
Someone cleared their throat and quickly I brought myself out of my memories and looked down the hallway to find the owner of the noise. Of course it was Charley sticking his head out of my old bedroom that was the last one on the right. I blinked a few times as I attempted to fight off all the old feelings that began to try and consume me as I made my way towards my brothers peeking head and the doorway.
"I know you couldn't have gotten lost," he teased.
I made a face at him that was rewarded with laughter as he moved back into the room so I could come through.
"Ha look at you all grown up and so funny!" I mocked. "Nah man I was looking at that T-Ball photo with you when you used to have teeth bigger than your head."
I couldn't stop from laughing at the memory while Charley gave me a look of pure misery.
"Not cool, Kay. Those were some of the worst memories of my life."
"Oh please like you can actually remember having those big ass beaver teeth," I chuckled.
"Yeah I can actually if it's so hard for you to believe. My life was hell until my baby teeth fell out and my adult ones grew in."
"And then you had miss matched rows of teeth going from large to small, large too small, all in one fucked up little row."
Giving me a look of disbelief he muttered, "That's fucked up."
Before I stepped inside the bedroom I sucked in my bottom lip and placed my front teeth over it instantly making me have huge buck teeth. Crossing my eyes was the last finishing touch of my funny face I made for him and danced my face back and forth in front of him for a second before I grew bored and walked in to the bedroom.
"Now that's really fucked up," he groaned.
"Not as much as your teeth were," I sang teasingly.
I chuckled as I entered the room and immediately felt my smile fall. She had painted my room a color that I could only describe as shit brown. The whole entire wall was covered in this plain brown color with only white boarding to give me any sort of hope that it wasn't all that I was going to look at. The queen size bed was decorated with those frilly display pillows and the bed spread was a deep plum color littered with light brown flowers to give it some sort of contrast. What really shocked me was the desk that was seated off in the left corner of the room. I had never had a desk in my room in my entire life it literally was a foreign object sitting in my room. The only thing that I liked about this room was the 26' inch flat screen television that was placed on the wall.
There was just so much fucking brown in this room and it was so…bare.
"There's a desk in my room," was all I could seem to say.
Out of everything that was wrong with this room that was all that I had come up with. Charley came and stood beside me placing his hands in his front pockets as he grew tight lipped rocking on his heels.
"After two years mom finally just came in and re-did the whole thing."
"Well aren't you just a master of the fucking obvious," I grumbled.
He lightly laughed from beside me knowing that I was just being grumpy. He'd had already placed my duffel down on the bed and with its army olive coloring it look ridiculously out of place amongst all the brown that threatened to swallow the room whole. I took a step forward towards the bed when Charley laid a gentle hand on my shoulder.
"Hey I gotta go and start my homework or else mom won't let me go see Am- Adam later," he said sheepishly.
I raised an eyebrow as he looked down at his feet for a brief second his cheeks turning a soft rosy color as he tried to meet my eyes. The kid was holding out on something and was acting like he usually did when he was trying to hide it: awkward. I pretended to not notice the way he stumbled around Adam's name and gingerly nodded my head.
"Alright that's fine. I'll see you later kiddo."
I playfully pinched his cheek which he quickly tried to swat away but missed me by an inch before I pulled my hand back, both of us laughing. We kind of stood there in that comfortable silence again. With one last nod I turned and headed over to my bag unzipping it and began to bring out clothes and put them on the bed.
"Kay."
Twisting back to the doorway Charley stood there, a hand against the doorframe, hanging just outside the hallway.
"Yeah?"
"It really is good to see you."
We both gave each other a small smile before he finally headed down the hallway. I heard his bedroom door open and five seconds later close followed by the light sound of metal music turning on. Shaking my head I couldn't help but smile as I continued to unpack my duffel putting my clothes in designated piles. As I pulled out a couple of band tees something in a plastic bag fell from between them and landed on the bed. On closer inspection I realized it was a bag of joints LaLa must have slipped into my bag when I wasn't looking.
I looked around frantically to make sure that my mother or Charley wasn't coming up around the stairs or down the hall. After I made sure the coast was clear I ran back to the bed and picked up the bag cursing LaLa every step of the way. Examining the bag closer I counted out seven joints the bastard had given me. Not that I wasn't grateful for the unexpected gift but if my mom walked in-
And just like that Jane Brewster appeared in my room after a brief knock on the door. Worst. Timing. Ever.
My eyes widened as everything felt like it was going into slow motion. I turned to watch her stride into my room a tight smile around her mouth as she came towards me. I did the only thing that I could think of. I quickly flung the bag down on the bed and threw my tee shirt down on top of it. Talk about your awkward situations.
"Hey," she began politely.
"Hey!"
I tried to play it cool but I couldn't control my eyes from darting down to the shirt. Crossing my arms I leaned my hip against the bed giving her my full attention as she stopped a few inches in front of me.
"You find everything okay?"
I gave the room a once over before I looked back at her and shrugged.
"It's all a little too much brown, don't ya think?"
A real smile curled her lips as she looked down at her feet and back up to me. Waving a playful finger at me she replied, "I figured you would say something about it."
It was my turn to shrug this time.
"I would rather stare at prison orange than shit any day."
"Hey now it is chocolate delight not shit."
I looked at her like she was insane.
"Call it whatever you want but chocolate delight or coffee, taffy whatever, in the end it all ends up the same. It's the color of shit."
Giving me a flat look she looked around the bed at what little clothes I had taken out from my duffel. No doubt spotting my old Zeppelin tee that John had given me on my fifteenth birthday. The minute her eyes caught it they lit up and in sheer panic I watched as her hand reached for it, exposing the bag of joints hidden underneath it. Luckily for me she hadn't noticed it yet she was too focused on the shirt.
"I remember the day he gave this too you," she began smiling down at the shirt.
Her hand caressed down the fabric ending with her fingers playing across the hem of the shirt. While she was busy stroking the damn shirt I decided to attempt to get the bag out of view. My fingers danced across the bedspread as I tried to keep my back straight so I didn't look anymore suspicious as I most likely already did. Apparently though I was awful at it because she looked up from the tee shirt and immediately I began to pretend I was just feeling the sheets.
"These Egyptian cotton?"
Why out of everything I could have said I chose to say that I will never know but when my mother's eyes caught sight of the bag of joints on the bed I was almost tempted to throw myself out the bedroom window. My heart was thundering in my chest as she casually picked it up by the edges bringing it to the center between us. I watched as her eyes wondered around the bag. Licking my lips I did my best to stay calm and to not all of the sudden fly into word diarrhea like I normally did but when her roaming eyes finally feel on me it was like I couldn't stop myself.
"There is a perfectly good explanation for that."
Cocking an eyebrow she set the bag back down on my bed, her eyes never leaving me.
"Oh yeah and what would that be?" she tested.
"See I've got Glaucoma-"
"Kaylee I was born, just not yesterday," she cut in.
"Alright then how about if I said I have night blindness?"
Before she turned away from me I caught a glimpse of a smile as she shook her head. I was at least victorious in this. Maybe there was still hope for us to fix things after all. I figured when she turned back to face me she would have righted herself but instead her face was warm with a light smile attached. She motioned down to the bag one more time before she turned to head back towards the door.
"Don't let your brother have any and kid, don't smoke it where the neighbors can see."
Giving her a swift nod I uncrossed my arms and followed her to the door.
"Will do and uh mom," with her hand on the door frame she turned back to me as I attempted to find the courage to get out what I needed to say. "I know that what I did wasn't the smartest thing in the world and that things can't go back to the way they were but…I want to try at least."
Shrugging my shoulders I brought my gaze up from my feet to look at her. She didn't really say anything at first just sort of stood there staring back at me until finally she lightly rubbed my shoulder with this sad look on her face.
"Good night Kay," she whispered before she disappeared back down the hall.
Once she was out of sight I let out a heavy sigh as I closed the door and walked back over to bed. Standing at the foot of the bed I placed my hands on my hips as I looked down at my clothes sprawled out against the hideous bedspread and at that stupid bag of joints LaLa had snuck into my bag. Speaking of LaLa…
I reached into my pockets to get my phone remembering that I had promised to send him that picture of the ridiculously hot neighbor. Typing in my password I waited for the screen to load before I went through my pictures and clicked on the newest one. My face feel into confusion as I stared at the picture and nothing was in it. I would have sworn that he had been standing right next to the damn green garbage can when I'd taken it but nothing was there! Finally I just decided to put picture taking under the list of things I'm awful at and decided to get ready for bed.
I'd just have to get LaLa's picture tomorrow.
Thank you all so much for reading! If there is anything you'd like me to incorporate or anything you want to see let me know and I'll try and work it in :)) Reviews soothe my critical soul! MUCH LOVE!