Where the Staircase Ends(47)

Sunny covered her eyes with her hands and made a horrible moaning sound. It gave me some satisfaction to see her like that. She really was an ugly crier. Her face was so puffy she looked like she fell into a pile of poison ivy that had a hornet’s nest hidden in it. Ha.

Miss Violet Beauregard pushed her way into the room, her bat ears twitching at the sounds coming from Sunny’s mouth. She launched onto the bed to lick Sunny’s tears, so consumed by her crying that she forgot to growl at me.

“Sunny, stop it.” I finally said, not able to handle the sound of her moans any longer. “It’s okay. I don’t hate you.”

She made a few more moaning noises until I finally reached out to hug her as proof that I meant it. The dog acknowledged my presence with a snarl, its one good eye narrowing on me while the lazy one rolled to the side.

“It’s okay, Sunny. Please stop crying.”

I rested my cheek on the top of her head and wrapped my arms around her small frame. She leaned against me, and we stayed that way for a while before she finally spoke.

“You really aren’t mad?” She pulled away from me and wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands. Her brows were pressed together in disbelief, as if she couldn’t comprehend why I wasn’t going to lay into her for what she did. I was a little bit tempted to throw a few snarky comments into the mix. It wasn’t often that Sunny apologized for something. It was a golden opportunity to give her a ribbing for a change, but I didn’t feel up to doling out a lecture. She was obviously upset enough for the both of us.

“Let’s just say I’m over it, okay?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest, giving her a stern stare. “But he’s not a very nice guy, Sunny. Are you sure you want to start seeing him?”

She shrugged and looked down at her hands. “I was drunk and stupid. It should never have happened. Besides, I don’t want your sloppy seconds,” she added, nudging me with a grin.

I laughed and then looked back at her seriously. “Were you at least, you know, safe?”

Sunny looked away from me, and I knew the answer without her having to say anything.

“Sunny!” I chided. “What if something happened?”

“I’m sure it’s fine.” She turned her head away to check the time on the digital clock on her nightstand.

“That’s probably what every single girl on the show 16 and Pregnant said right before they saw a plus sign on their pregnancy test. Come on, you’re smarter than that.”

“And you’re not my mother,” she snapped. Then she shook her head and said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just upset.”

“Look, I’ll go with you. We can go to Walgreen’s and get a morning-after pill or something.”

She rolled her eyes at me, but I stared her down until she shrugged and said, “Fine, I’ll go. Just drop it, okay? I don’t want to think about it anymore.”

“Are you sure? Do you want me to come with you?”

“No. I’ll be fine. Can we stop talking about it already?” She rubbed her temples and gave me a pleading look. I didn’t really want to talk about it anymore either, so I nodded my consent.

“I need some Tylenol and greasy food. Let’s get Amber and Jenny and go to Whataburger.” She pulled herself off the bed and shook her arms and legs, ridding herself of the previous night. “And please don’t say anything to them about this, okay? I don’t want them to know. Jenny can’t keep her mouth shut to save her life, and I’d rather not have to relive the whole incident through rumors in the hallway.”

“Okay,” I said. She had a point. You didn’t tell Jenny something unless you wanted everyone to find out. And with the way rumors worked at our school, it would morph and twist into something worse than it really was. By the end of a day people would probably say I’d been in the room watching. Ugh. It was better to keep it between the two of us, assuming Logan could keep his fat mouth shut.

We went downstairs, Miss Violet Beauregard yipping excitedly at our heels, and found a very angry Jenny pounding on the locked patio door, the towel from the night before wrapped tightly around her half-naked body. She wore a miserable scowl and there were chair marks on her face.

“Open the Goddamned door!” she shrieked when she saw us come into the kitchen. “Who the hell locked me out here last night? What the crap, people!”

And just like that, everything seemed like it would go back to normal.




*




When Sunny didn’t show up to school on Monday, I didn’t think anything of it. It wasn’t completely unlike her to skip out on classes after a weekend of heavy partying. Plus my mind was on other things, like Justin. That morning he had shown up at my house, his backpack slung over his shoulder and a grin stretched across his face.

“I thought I’d stop by and see if you wanted me to walk you to school,” he said when I answered the door and my mouth dropped open at the sight of him. My hair was dripping wet and my skin clear of any makeup, so I immediately started looking for a rock to crawl under.

“Who’s this?” My mother asked when she saw him standing there with his hands in his pockets. “And why aren’t you inviting him inside?”

“Good morning, Mrs. Anderson,” he said politely, stepping across the threshold as I held the door open for him. “I’m Justin. I hope it’s okay that I stopped by so early.”