The Accidentals(20)

Chapter Seven





I’m sitting in a study hall when Frederick texts me. New driver today. His car is silver. Don’t look for Carlos after school.

You’re picking me up from school? I tap back. Haze will not be pleased. He wants to go for ice cream.

I hope so.

Well, that’s just a weird response. Where is Carlos? I ask.

He was just here with me as a favor. Had to go home to his family.

Why don’t you just rent a car? I ask, hearing echoes of Haze in the question.

I don’t drive.

Ever?

Nope. Don’t want to. Old dog. New tricks. Not that people don’t rib me about it incessantly. Hey—isn’t that one of your weird negatives? Because cessantly isn’t a word.

But ceasing is, I reply.

Thirty minutes pass without a reply, and like a dope I worry that I’ve offended him. But then finally my phone vibrates again. Only Frederick’s next message makes no sense. It reads: Motion for Custody Approved.

Wait. What?

The no-phone-calls-in-school rule means that I have to run out of the building to call him. “What does that mean?” I ask him the second he answers.

“It means I win!” he hollers. “The judge just granted me something called temporary emergency custody. And since you turn eighteen in three weeks, you’re done. It’s over.”

“But…how did that happen?”

“I’ll tell you how—Hannah Reeves. She stood there in front of that judge, and told him the way it should be. And he rolled right over. I wanted to give her a big, sloppy kiss.”

“Wait… I didn’t know about a hearing.”

“I didn’t tell you about it because I thought I could lose. My lawyer warned me that plain old logic doesn’t always prevail. As it turns out, a hot young social worker in a blue suit is what it takes. Meet me in front of school in twenty minutes. Let’s spring you from that place.”

“Um, technically my school day isn’t over for another forty-five minutes.”

He laughs in my ear. “It is now legal for me to teach you my slovenly ways. Come out whenever you want, but I’ll be there in fifteen. Oh, and Rachel?”

“Yeah?”

“This means we can leave for California just as soon as you take that last test. See you outside.” He disconnects.

I don’t bother going back inside. I stand there in the sunshine for a while, phone in hand, trying to figure out what just happened. Frederick went before a judge to claim me. He’d told the judge—or at least his lawyer said it for him—“She belongs to me.”

It’s all I’d ever wanted him to do.

Then he invited me to California. No—he didn’t invite me. He’d informed me that we’re going, as if it’s totally up to him.

Which it is, legally.

I can’t get my head around it. Did that just happen?

My phone buzzes with a new text, this time from Haze. Where R U?

Outside the east door.

Haze comes out five minutes later. “What’s the matter? You never cut out early.”

My grin is a foot wide, because the good news is finally sinking in. “I’m done with the Parson’s Home, Haze! Forever. Frederick is picking me up.”

He frowns. “To go where?”

“Well…” My heart thumps in my chest. “When I’m done with school, he wants to take me to California.”

He puts his hands on my shoulders, his face deathly serious. “Please don’t leave with him. You don’t have to.”

My stomach dives. “Haze, I can’t stay with you.”

“Why not?”

There are about a hundred reasons, and he won’t like a single one of them. “I want to see California,” I say instead.

At first, the words just echo between us. I’m a little shocked that I’ve made the decision so quickly. But I’ve waited my whole life for that invitation. Seventeen years of curiosity cannot be denied. This is my chance to finally understand how Frederick came to be my father.

“No, Rae,” Haze whispers. And then he does something I’ve never seen him do before. He tears up. “You can’t just leave.”

My throat begins to close up. “I have to,” I say. But it’s just an excuse. Going to California with Frederick is a choice I’m making, and we both know it.

“You really don’t have to.” His eyes glitter.

I hear the honk of a car horn and turn to look. Frederick has arrived.

“Fuck!” Haze shouts at the asphalt between us. “What I would like to do to that man!” He kicks his gym bag into the school wall.

“Haze,” I snap, hating this. “Stop it, okay? I was always going away. You know that, right? I was always leaving in the fall.”

He shakes his head. “That’s bullshit, Rachel. You would have come back sometimes. Now you never will.”

The car honks again.

“You know what?” I say, and my voice gets all high and weird. “It would be really nice if you could be happy for me. When everything went wrong, you were there for me. But when something goes right for a change…” I’m too tired to finish the sentence. And I didn’t want to fight. There are things he wants that I can’t give, and I don’t know the right words to explain it.