Six Going On Seven Chapter 6 ~ Out of Reach

Her mother forgot to pick her up from school.  Elly stood outside on the steps, looking back and forth up and down the road, realizing the truth.  She shifted her feet and bit her lip, fixing her gaze on the ground.  The buses had all gone; she’d missed the last one as she waited for Mom.  It was Thursday and Mom would have been off work at three o’clock, which meant she should have been at the school by three-fifteen, at least.  But Elly was sure it must be four by now; everyone else had gone home.

It would do no good to wait forever.  Elly put her shoulders back and walked down the steps as lightly as if she walked home alone every day.  She wasn’t sure how far it was, but at least she knew the way, having watched out the car windows.  If Mom came by the school after she’d gone, well, she just wouldn’t find her.

It was a nice spring day, sunny and dry with a very small breeze.  Elly smiled at strangers she passed and even patted a dog; she knew she wasn’t supposed to pet strange animals, but it was only a small one and the owner had it on an innocent pink leash.  All in all, walking home was easy.  Rather nice, really; she didn’t need anyone to pick her up.  She didn’t even need to turn invisible.

When she got home she saw Noah’s car in the driveway.  Hoped surged; Maybe Daddy’s home and they’re playing in the garage!

She ran to the side door and yanked it open, squinting as she looked around in the dark.  It was quiet but not silent — she heard soft noise from the back of the garage, and she fumbled for the light switch.

Light revealed Noah’s younger brother, Sam, sitting on the stool in the back, empty beer bottles littering the floor around him.  Elly frowned; he’d gotten into Dad’s secret stash and was sucking down a bottle at that very moment.  When the light came on he jumped guiltily and made a move as if to hide the bottle behind his back, but the stool wobbled and he fell to the side, staggering drunkenly into the wall.  Elly watched him silently as he grunted and slid down to sit on the floor, spilling beer on his pant leg.  The empty bottles on the floor clinked together and rolled away as he spread his legs out.  “Hiya . . . El . . . .”  He smiled dopily, seeming relieved that it was only her.

Elly sighed, swallowing her disappointment.  “What are you doing?” she asked, weaving her way through the music equipment.  “That’s my dad’s beer and no one’s supposed to know he has it.”

Sam’s smile widened.  “Um . . . .”

Elly shook her head.  “You made a mess.  Is . . . my dad home?”

“Nope.” Sam leaned forward, blowing strands of hair from his face.  “I’m, um, just cleaning up . . . .”

“You should not be drinking my dad’s beer,” Elly said patiently, taking a step back as he struggled to his feet.  “And you’d better clean it up, if my mom sees this you’ll get my dad in trouble, too.”

Sam laughed.  “Your dad’s in a shitload of trouble already, El.”

Elly sniffed, not liking the way Sam always called her “El;” the other guys just called her “kid” if they said anything to her at all.  She’d never quite understood what it was she didn’t like about the fact that Sam had always been a bit more friendly with her than Dad’s other buddies, but when he smiled or reached out to ruffle her hair she always felt the instinct to turn invisible.  She shrugged the feeling off as she watched him fumble with picking beer bottles up off the floor.

“I know,” she replied, then shed her backpack and bent down with a little huff.  “I’ll help you, you’ll just break the glass that way.”  In a matter of moments Elly was able to snatch bottles from Sam’s hands and round up even the ones that had rolled a few feet away; she dumped them all in the garbage.

She turned back to him.  “I’m telling my dad when he gets back.”  Elly didn’t know quite how to do that, since Dad didn’t know that she knew he had beer in the garage, but Sam didn’t have to know that.

“C’mon El . . . you wouldn’t do that,” he said, trying to sit himself on the stool again.  “We’re friends, right?”

Elly wrinkled her nose.  “I don’t think we’re friends.”

“Now why you gotta try hurting my feelings . . . .”

“I’m not.  I just don’t want to be friends with you.”

He sneered at her.  “Yeah, well . . . yeah . . . why would I wanna be friends with a little kid like you?”

Elly sniffed, catching a whiff of his bad BO, and frowned.  “You’re only 15,” she said, remembering how all the other guys, even 17-year-old Jake, called Sam a baby or “the boy” a lot.  She knew he didn’t like it.  “You’re just a kid, too.”

“I’m like, twice your age.”  He swayed where he sat, eyeing her unsteadily.  “Or . . . is that . . . half?”

“Twice.”  She wrinkled her nose again, at his stupidity.  “Anyway, I’m gonna tell my dad when he gets back that you stole his beer.”

“Hey, really, you don’t wanna do that,” Sam protested.  “I don’t . . . I don’t even like this shit.  Your dad needs some good shit, like Jack Daniels, not this fuckin’ beer.  Oooh, um, sorry, I didn’t say that.”

“Fucking?” she repeated, annoyed that he thought she was too young to hear words he and the guys used all the time.

“Aw, shit, don’t go using it, your mom’ll freak and wanna know who you heard it from, blah blah . . . blah . . . .”

Elly knew that if she swore Mom would blame it on Dad, but she didn’t tell Sam that.  “You’ll get in trouble,” she stated.

“Yeah, you don’t want that, hey?  Nice kid like you . . . look, El, be a friend and just don’t say anything about this—” he waved his hands toward where the beer had been hidden “—to anyone.”

Elly folded her hands in front of her and regarded him coolly.

“Tell you what, you keep this little secret, and I’ll let you in on some other secrets.  Fun stuff.  You’d like that, right?”

Elly shook her head.  “No.”  But she couldn’t help adding, “What are you talking about?”

“Not stuff for six-year-olds . . . .”  He shrugged, seeming to change his mind.

“I’ll be seven on Sunday.”  She tilted her nose in the air.  “And I’m old for my age,” she added very seriously.  Her instincts whispered to her that this wasn’t a good idea; talking to Sam and wanting him to tell her about “big kid” stuff.  When he just stared at her for a moment she felt the same urge to disappear she always did, but she brushed it aside.

“You’re a real pretty little girl,” Sam said, reaching out to touch her hair.  Elly sidestepped his fingers and he took his hand back, with a little smile.

“Maybe when you’re older, I’ll show you what I’m talking about.”  He shook his head.  “But you’re only six.”

She didn’t like the way he smiled, but she liked “only six” less.  She tossed her hair over her shoulder.  “Well, I don’t like you anyway and I don’t care.”

He stood up, taking a step to he side to steady himself.  “You’d be scared.”

Elly snorted.  “I’m not scared of anything.”  She didn’t get why he thought just telling her something would be so scary, anyway; she figured it was just another instance of older people thinking she was an idiot.  “You’re scared.”

“Yeah?  Ya think?  Make me a promise,” he lowered his voice and glanced over his shoulder at the side door.

Don’t do it, whispered her sensible self.  Disappear now and he’ll think it’s just because he’s drunk.  “Alright,” she said out loud, while telling her sensible self to shut up.

“You wanna be a big kid, right?  Big kids don’t have to tell their parents everything.”  He took a step toward her and she took a step back, but he put a hand on her shoulder.  “So if you want me to show you stuff, you can’t tell your mom or your dad.  And nothing about the beer, either.”

“I’m not a tattle-tale,” Elly said, shrugging his hand away.

“Okay, then.  You’re not gonna get all chicken on me and cry or anything, are you?”  He made a face, as if he were sure she would.

She sniffed.  “Of course not.”  If she didn’t like what he said, she could always just turn invisible.

“Then I’ve got something to show you.  Big girls like this.”  He grinned.  “You’re just the right height for this, too, maybe if you do a good job we can do something else.”

“Like what?”

“First things first.”  He fumbled with his pants, getting them unzipped after a moment, and she watched dubiously as he let them drop down around his knees.

“Um . . . .”  She looked away uncomfortably.  Sometimes she saw her parents doing things together where they took their clothes off — those were times she knew they’d be furious with her if they found her spying, because you weren’t supposed to take your clothes off around boys or watch them undress.  That’s what Mom said.

“See?  You’re chicken already,” Sam said when he noticed she wasn’t looking.

“I am not.”  She turned back to look, defiance for her mother’s rules and his taunts in her eyes.  “I just think it’s ugly.”

He flushed suddenly, and said, “That’s just ’cause you’re a baby.  Stupid kid.  I won’t let you touch it, then.”

“I don’t want to touch it.”  She crossed her arms.

“Sure you do, you’re just scared.”  Suddenly he reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand toward his crotch.

At that moment the side door swung open.  Sam dropped her hand and Elly took a step back, twitching into faintness.