The Accidentals(14)

Like what else? I wait for him to elaborate.

“How’s the chicken?” he asks instead.

Angry Rachel lets out a silent scream.





“Two things,” Frederick says after they clear our plates away. “I’m going to New Orleans tonight.”

My stomach drops. “Okay.”

“Christ,” he says. “I’m coming back.” He lifts his chin and looks at the sky. “Not that you’d have any reason to believe me.”

My face feels hot. I take another sip of my soda.

“Look,” Frederick says, picking up his beer. “I canceled a bunch of gigs already. But this one would piss off too many important people. But I think they’re done with me by Sunday night.”

A concert? I wonder. Headlining a music festival? Later I can look this up on his website the way I used to. Hell, I can even use the fancy new phone he gave me.

In a burst of courage, I ask a question. “Why did you cancel some things?”

He takes a swig. “So I could be here in Orlando for a couple of weeks.”

“Yes, but why?” The question finally flies out of Angry Rachel’s mouth. I clamp my jaws together again to prevent five more questions from following it. Do you really care what happens to me? Did you know my mother at all before you had a one-night stand? Why didn’t you call us for almost eighteen years?

Frederick studies his beer bottle as if the answer is written there. “Last week, Hannah gave you a swab…”

“For a DNA test.” I’d been surprised that a Q-tip against the inside of my cheek was all it took. How anticlimactic.

“It was for the judge. I hired a lawyer to try to get custody.”

My heart begins to ricochet inside my chest. “But Hannah said that wouldn’t work.”

“But maybe she’s wrong. You want to get out of that place you’re staying, right?”

“Of course.”

“The lawyer I found was more than happy to try.” He reaches around to pull something out of his back pocket. A folded paper. “No surprises here, but I thought you might want to see the lab report.” He smooths the paper onto the table.

The report is titled: “Motherless Paternity Test Results.”

Motherless.

“This number here is the only one that matters,” Frederick says, pointing to the bottom of the page. Probability = 99.998. “So that means…”

“I know what a probability is.” It comes out sounding snappish.

“Of course you do,” he says softly.

I don’t need him to tell me that it’s conclusive. I don’t need the test at all. If my mother admitted, however grumpily, that Frederick was my father, then he is.

“So…” I clear my throat. “Unless you have an identical twin…” I would have added, you’re stuck with me. But of course he isn’t. He can disappear any time.

He refolds the paper and puts it away. “That’s just for court, Rachel. I never had any doubt.”

Really? How did you know? And then where have you been?

And—the biggest question in my heart—how long are you going to stick around?

Carlos appears beside our table. “Ten after seven, boss.”

I thank Frederick for dinner like a good girl.





Chapter Five





I spend the first half of Saturday studying in a Starbucks, waiting for Haze to finish a shift at the Jiffy Lube. It’s the most civilized escape from the Parson’s Home that I could come up with. Unfortunately, I had to bring along a backpack crammed full of books and a giant garbage bag full of my dirty laundry.

I’ve never felt more like a homeless person than I do right now, concealing my laundry under the cafe table. To cheer myself up, I tap out a reply to Jake’s email.

Jake,

One thing you said put me in a tailspin—that some of the many rules are followed, and some aren’t. How does someone with a good-girl complex know what to do?

R.





I’ve only read a few pages of my book when a new message appears in my inbox. When I see Jake’s name, I feel a little rush of happiness. And it’s been a pretty long time since I felt that way. After glancing out the window to make sure that Haze isn’t here yet, I read it quickly.

Rachel,

Hi again! Sorry to confuse you. But it isn’t so tricky.

The academic rules are really important and nobody breaks those. They make you sign an ethics code about cheating and plagiarism and stuff like that. Cheating is a BFD here, so people don’t do it.

But the social stuff is squishier. Lots of dorm rules are bent all the time. Example: the dorm curfew rules aren’t followed. Anyone who’s caught in someone else’s room after hours can just say they were working on a group project, because homework is sacred. :)

The rules exist (I assume) so that the flagrant and irresponsible can be punished. Like the lacrosse players last year who were dumb enough to use the school’s own messaging system to advertise their kegger in a dorm basement when their resident advisor went home to his brother’s wedding.

In my experience, you have to be an idiot to get in real trouble. Anyone who’s the least bit careful (or has a good girl streak!) will be fine. -J.