I drove past the vet office on my way to Lori's house. Ivy's truck was gone, and in its place was our old ranch Jeep. She and Crane
would have used her truck to travel to visit her parents, most likely.
Once at Lori's, when I'd parked, she came out to greet me, still in her good mood of earlier.
"We're going to have fun!" she proclaimed.
I laughed at her and we went up to her bedroom after I'd said hello to her mother. We passed her brother in the hallway on the way,
and he stopped Lori by giving her hair a tug. She said 'ow!' more than once, as she came to a stop.
"Let go!" she was calling out.
"Shut up," Darren said, and then he tugged her hair again. Now, one or more of my own brothers have tugged my hair in the past,
but only to tease, and only lightly, never to try to hurt me. This was different. Darren was actually pulling at her hair.
"Got any money?" he asked Lori now.
Now that he'd let go of her hair, Lori took a step or so back from him, and gave him a dagger glare.
"No, I don't!"
"Come on," Darren said, in a coaxing tone now. "I know you do. I need about twenty for tonight."
"I don't have any," Lori maintained.
Darren narrowed his eyes at her, looking disbelieving. "Whatever," he said, and let his eyes drift to me.
"Looking good, Harlie," he said, then.
I didn't answer him, I just gave him a frosty look meant to let him know the depth of my dislike for him.
"Come on," Lori said, and tugged me on to her room, where she closed the door, and then let out a long sigh.
"Why did I have to get him for a brother?" she moaned. "He's got to be the worst brother in the world."
I personally agreed that he was definitely in the top tier of worst ones, but I didn't say that.
"Why is he asking you for money?" I asked, instead. I meant, really? Darren is only like a year or so younger than Evan-which
would make him in the area of twenty-one or twenty-two. He has a job. Why would he ask his lot-younger sister for spending money?
"He always does," Lori said, with a sigh. "I never give it to him. I hide it."
"You have to hide it from him?" I asked, sitting down on the edge of the second twin bed in the room.
"Yeah. He'll come in here and look for it, so I have a really good hiding place."
"Wow," I said, feeling even more sorry for Lori than before. I might have loaned Guthrie small amounts of money in the past,
but never often, and never lately. It was me who asked to borrow money from him some, or Ford, or Daniel, like I had recently.
"You're so lucky, Harlie," Lori said, flopping down on her own bed. "Your brothers are actually nice to you."
She was right, and I was aware of that.
"They are," I agreed. "Mostly, anyway."
"Well, I mean-sometimes Adam or Brian might ground you or something-but that's because they have to be like your dad, in a way. But they're
better at being a dad than mine. At least they say they're proud of you sometimes, and they let you have your own truck and all that to drive," she pointed out.
I started to speak up, and she waved a hand at me. "I know-Doc G gave the truck to you, but they could have used it for themselves, and only let
you drive it sometimes-my father would have said I wasn't responsible enough to have my own truck like that. If somebody gave me a car or truck,
he would probably lock it up somewhere until I was twenty or something."
She sounded so woebegone that I nearly laughed, and then I didn't. She was serious. And her dad was intimidating, for sure.
"The others are nice to you," she went on. "Guthrie, and Ford. And you're always saying how great Daniel is."
"They are," I agreed.
"And Evan is, too," she said. Lori has always had sort of a crush on Evan. I could never really figure out just why. I mean-now I get it more than
I used to, but in the old days I couldn't fathom it. Evan is athletic, especially at rodeo, and he can be a lot of fun. Now that he's older, he's
different, too. In a good way, I mean. Unless it was like it was earlier today in the kitchen, when I swear he was deliberately trying to goad me.
"Sometimes they're bossy, though," I said. "Especially Evan."
"Maybe-but if you needed him to help you-you know he'd come right off and do whatever he had to do," Lori said, and I had to
agree with her. I knew she was right about that.
We sat around a while, and then we got dressed to go out. I was already dressed in what I was going to wear, the jeans and yellow
shirt, but I did put on a lot more makeup than I usually wear. I left my hair down my back instead of putting it into a braid.
"Your hair's so beautiful, Harlie," Lori said. "I wish I had hair like yours. Instead of this flat, brown stuff I've got."
"Your hair is pretty," I said, loyally. "It's not so fun to have curly hair-it's always getting in the way."
When we were ready, we went downstairs, and talked to Lori's mom for a few minutes before we left. Lori drove her mom's car, and
we went to the Dari Kurl for awhile. The talk there was still about the party being held that night. We ended up at Butch's, and Lori took
in the order of a hamburger and fries that she'd ordered at the Dari Kurl to give to Trent.
We found Trent and Guthrie, already involved in a game of pool in the back. Trent, in typical teenage boy behavior, kissed Lori for
five minutes, and then stuffed himself with the food that she'd brought him.
We sat and watched them play their game of pool for awhile. I drank a Coke, and we talked to some of the other kids that
were there. Not surprisingly, there was less of a crowd tonight than usual.
Lori and I went out driving around for a while, and then ended up at the Dari Kurl again. Not to eat, but to talk to people.
We were sitting on the hood of the car, when somebody came from behind me, and touched my elbow. Just real lightly. I turned
to look and saw that it was Kristen. She was dressed in a short gray skirt, and a white blouse, with ankle boots.
"Hi," I said, in greeting, before I took a good look at her face. There was enough light around that I could see that she'd been
crying.
"Harlie, I need to talk to you," she said.
I said okay, and slid down from the hood of the car, telling Lori I'd be right back. Kristen and I walked off to the side, where the Dari Kurl
keep their dumpsters at. There was still a pole light here.
"Are you okay?" I asked her.
"No."
"What's wrong?" I asked her, not sure that I wanted to know the answer.
"I need a ride. I've got to talk to Dean."
A ride? Again?
"I'm with Lori," I said. I had no intent to give her a ride, even if my truck had been parked right there.
"Can Lori, then? I've got to get to him," Kristen said, with something that sounded like desperation.
"Lori won't," I said. "She won't want to get into trouble taking you out to Dean's grandma's house-"
"Not there. He's at Reed Road," Kristen said.
Ah, at the infamous party. How predictable.
"At the party out there," I said, and she nodded. She rubbed at her nose.
"Please? It won't take long," she said.
"That's not the point," I said, trying to sound firm to her. "If he's out there, and you want to be with him, then why aren't you there, already?"
"Because he didn't take me!" Kristen said. "He got mad and-he just went without me."
"Then leave him there," I said, bluntly.
"I have to talk to him. I have money for gas. Look," she said, and pulled her shoulder purse she wore off to burrow thru it.
She took out some folded money, I couldn't tell how much, and tried to hand it to me.
"There's the money I borrowed from you before," she said. "Now you can give it back to Daniel-there's enough there for that, and
to pay for gas to take me out to Reed Road."
"Why are you chasing after him?" I asked her. "If he left you like he did, then just let him go."
"You don't understand, Harlie. I need him." The way that she said that, well, it made a chill go up my spine.
"Why do you need him?" I asked.
"Because-he makes me feel beautiful-like he loves me-"
"You don't even know him that well," I pointed out.
"Don't be all holy, Harlie, about something you don't understand."
"What don't I understand?" I demanded. "I know how it is to have a boyfriend, you know-"
"Dean's more than that," she said, and shook her head. "You wouldn't understand-" She took a step or so back, and
seemed sort of unsteady. I put out a hand automatically to steady her.
"Just give me a ride," she said. "I won't ask you for anything, ever again, Harlie. You don't even have to talk to me after this if you
don't want to."
"Oh sure," I said, doubtfully.
"Fine," she said, drawing herself up. "I'll find somebody else to take me." She walked off, into the crowd of kids, still looking unsteady.
I walked back over to Lori, and the other girls she was talking to.
"What's she want?" Lori asked me, in a low tone.
"She wants a ride to Reed Road."
"To the party?" Lori asked, her eyes wide.
"Yeah."
"Is she okay? She looked sort of funny," Lori said.
"She's been drinking. Or something," I said. I wasn't sure if it was alcohol or pills that made Kristen so unsteady on her feet. But I also didn't know
if Lori knew about Kristen's problem with pills or not, and I owed Kristen some loyalty, I thought.
We sat there a while longer, and then, when the crowd was thinning out a bit, we talked about going back to her house, and
watching a movie. We got in Lori's mom's car, and were driving out of the Dari Kurl, and down the street, when we passed Kristen.
I knew it was her by the headlights.
"It's Kristen," I told Lori, and she pulled the car to a near-stop, and I rolled my window down to talk to Kristen.
"What are you doing?" I asked her.
"I have to talk to Dean," Kristen said, still walking.
"Wait," I said, and when Lori stopped the car, I got out.
"You can't walk all that way," I said.
She didn't answer and I kept step with her as she kept walking.
"Come on," I said. "We'll take you home."
"My mom's not there. She got an overnight job. I don't want to be there with Frank," Kristen said.
"Then maybe you can come to Lori's," I suggested.
"Harlie, I can't," Lori said, from behind us, where she'd gotten out of the car, and was following us. "My mom said only you-"
"Well-" I hesitated. "You can come to my house, then."
"I'm not going to your house, Harlie," Kristen said. "So all the McFaddens can look at me and judge me."
"They won't," I said, hurt that she had hard feelings toward the family like that. "It's just Brian and Clare there tonight-"
"And Guthrie?"
At my nod, she said, "Well, Brian already thinks I'm a hopeless case, and Guthrie hates me." To my horror, right there under the
street light, she began to cry.
"He doesn't hate you," I said.
"I need to talk to Dean," Kristen said, thru her tears.
Lori and I exchanged a glance, and I guess we both had the same thought, because the next thing was that Kristen got into
the car with us, and we went to the gas station to put gas into Lori's mom's car.
7