Return to the Darkness - Ripley Proserpina Page 0,36
away, still avoiding eye contact. I hadn’t tried this hard to not look anyone in the eye since high school. Don’t notice me could be my nickname right now. I climbed in the car and Oliver was a second behind me.
“Tell me in the other world I don’t deal with people like that.”
I snorted. “You take care of their animals. Probably charge them too much. I don’t see you hanging out.”
He smiled, and it lit up the car. “I like that. I like that… dream. It reminds me of who I used to be.”
I took his hand. “Thanks for taking care of my cousin like that. It never occurred to me that you’d do that.”
Oliver sighed. “I know. That’s why I did. Smug bastard. But in retrospect, maybe I could have honored you better by living the kind of life where I’d be worthy of a girl like you. A woman. Sorry. Shit. Anyway, the kind of guy who would stand a chance with a person like you. That’s how I could have made things better. Not beating on a guy who wasn’t worth the effort.”
His hands shook, and as I held one of them in mine, I couldn’t help but notice. “How much are you jonesing right now?”
His laugh surprised me. “Jonesing?”
“Wrong word?”
I never got the answer to that because Aaron jumped in the car. “They’re wrapping it up. I hate this side of town. I feel like I lose my integrity every time I set foot in it.”
Oliver groaned, and I shook my head. “Rich doesn’t have to mean corrupt. Don’t be that person. It’s not cool to generalize. You wouldn’t like it if they did that to you.”
Aaron nodded. “Except that those two totally do. I have JFK’s clubs. Congratu-fucking-lations.”
Oliver sat back. “You two and your phrases tonight. The 1990s want their lingo back.”
Aaron elbowed him, and I laughed. Just in time for Thorn and Colton to get in the car. Colton looked back at us. “How much would you give me if I broke their windows right now with his stupid fucking club?”
“Aren’t you going to give it to some charity?”
Colton pulled down the driveway. “What charity? They’re so ridiculous, they wouldn’t even remark that they can’t remember that they know nothing about what I was talking about. No, this club is going in the dumpster outside of my office. Did you get the stones?”
I had. I reached into my pocket and pulled them out.
“Huh.” Thorn stared at them. “A little underwhelming. Do you feel anything?” He held his hand over them the same way you’d check to see if a burner on the stove was hot.
“No,” I answered. “But then again, I never did. The stones were the Chees area of expertise. They don’t really do anything for me.”
“Except suck you through time and space,” Colton said, speeding up.
Next to me, Oliver shut his eyes and sucked in a deep breath through his nose. “Are you going to be okay?” I asked quietly.
He nodded once. “The sooner you’re gone, the sooner I’ll be who I’m supposed to be. This version of me won’t exist. I won’t hurt. I won’t have some shitty past. Everything will be perfect.”
“Hey.” I touched his hand, threading my fingers with his. “Nothing is perfect. No matter where you go. My reality is settled, but who you are at your core doesn’t change.”
He opened his eyes. His pupils were pinpricks despite the waning light. “I can’t believe that.”
“So where to?” Thorn asked from the front seat. “What’s the next step?”
I stared at Oliver for a moment before answering. “How about a family reunion?”
Chapter 11
We pulled in the driveway of the very same house the Chees had lived in when I was a teenager. Across the street from them, someone had built on the lot where Gran’s house had stood. The street had definitely changed, and not for the better.
Even the Chee’s house, which as I remembered it had been well kept, looked run down with peeling shutters and stucco.
“They’re still living here?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Aaron’s answer was short. Concise.
Colton pulled behind an older model Toyota with a “baby on board” sign stuck to the bumper.
“Who had a baby?”
“Kelly.” Oliver pushed open the door, but rather than head toward the house, he bolted for some bushes and puked. “Fuck,” I heard him say.
“He’s pretty messed up,” Thorn said quietly. “He needs to get a fix, or he can really get hurt. Is he on anything, Aaron? Suboxone? One of those replacement drugs?”
“He’s