Highly Illogical Behavior(33)
SIXTEEN
LISA PRAYTOR
It had been a very important weekend so far and despite being dangerously sleepy, Lisa drove Clark home with a rush of energy and excitement pumping through her veins. She knew he was on board now, especially after seeing the way he’d hit it off with Solomon. Lisa was overwhelmed with the feeling that she’d done something great by introducing the two of them. Now they’d have each other to talk holodecks and spaceships and she’d have her ticket out of Upland. Everybody would win.
“Thank you,” she said to Clark when they got to his dad’s.
“For what?”
“For this weekend. For not being too pissed at me to meet him.”
“I’m still a little pissed,” he said, smiling. “But I had fun. It’s so . . . easy with him. Like I’ve known him forever. I think maybe I’ve been needing a Solomon Reed in my life.”
“Is that right?”
“He’s way better than my other options.”
“I’ve met them, yes,” she said. “TJ was asking about you at school yesterday. He made some stupid joke about you being a ghost.”
“Good,” he said. “I don’t have anything to say to those guys anymore.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because they’re jerks. Seriously, if they aren’t making fun of someone then they’re talking about whose girlfriend they want to bang.”
“Gross.”
“Yeah it is. And, look, I laugh sometimes. But then I feel like shit all day afterward. I’m not like them. And I don’t want to be.”
“I don’t want you to be, either,” she said.
“Well, while you’ve been hanging out with the coolest crazy person in history, I’ve been pretty much sitting around the house doing nothing. I know this is a big deal to you, but you can’t just disappear. What if I don’t get into a school near you, huh? You want to spend our last year together hanging out with someone else?”
“Look, I’m sorry. But, now you can come with me. See? It works this way.”
“So, it’s share you or be alone?” he asked, complete amazement in his eyes.
“No. That’s not what I meant. Just, forgive me, okay? I’ll do better. I will.”
“Fine. You know Janis is pissed at you, too, right?”
“I have several unanswered texts that would indicate so.”
“You should go see her,” Clark suggested. “I know she’s ridiculous, but you’ve been friends your whole lives.”
“I haven’t even told her about Sol. Like, not a thing.”
“Well, there’s only one way to fix that. I’m sure she’ll understand.”
“She’ll want a boon,” she said. “Justice is very important to her.”
“Me too,” he said, leaning over and kissing her forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Dr. Praytor.”
The next day, Lisa woke up to a fight in the kitchen between her mother and Ron. This one was a doozy—slamming cabinets, yelling, a threat or two. She stayed in her room until it was over. But even then, she took her time going down the stairs, hoping to go undetected.
“Lisa?”
“Damn,” she said to herself, rounding the corner into the kitchen. “Yeah?”
Her mom was sitting at the table in a silk robe and house slippers stirring a cup of coffee. This wasn’t going to be pleasant, Lisa knew, but she had to do it. She couldn’t just leave her mom alone like this, not after the fight she’d just heard.
“Are you okay?” she asked, sitting down across from her.
“Been better.”
“I don’t really know what to say, Mom.”
“I know, sweetie. Me neither.”
“Did he leave?” Lisa asked, reaching for her mom’s cup of coffee and taking a sip.
“Yep.”
She started crying, holding her chin to her chest, but not moving a muscle. Just quiet little whimpers that made Lisa so angry. Why did she do this to herself? Why keep marrying the same man over and over again? Lisa didn’t know how she could still be so surprised. Ron was a carbon copy of the one before him. And Lisa was pretty sure they were both just less charming versions of her dad. Sometimes she wondered if maybe she was crying over him, after all these years—if every new guy was just a poor replacement for the first one who left her.
Lisa reached a hand over and placed it on top of her mom’s. She held it there, her thumb gripping her mother’s fingers tightly, and then let go.
“Let me tell you about Solomon,” she said, standing up to pour herself some coffee.
“Who?”
Lisa explained the whole situation to her mother, trying to distract her the only way she knew how—with something that closely resembled gossip. Her mom had wondered why she’d insisted on switching dentists, so this cleared some things up. Lisa, of course, left out the part about the scholarship essay. She couldn’t risk being talked out of it, not after everything had been falling into place so well. And now with Clark on her team, she felt like getting Solomon out of that house was inevitable.
“Wait, wait,” her mom interrupted. “You and Clark are hanging out with this kid?”