Sweet Sixteen, Chapter 14 ~ Rusty

“Nice of you to come home.”

Elly sighed.  She hadn’t even made it all the way in the door.  “Hey . . . Dad . . . .”

He looked deceptively calm, sitting down with Muttface curled up at his feet.  The old dog barely opened one eye and merely flicked his tail in response to Elly’s entrance.  Russ smiled briefly, but looked anything but happy.  The smile was more of muscle twitch signaling he was trying to not pop a gasket, than anything.  It was a twitch reserved for arguments with her mother, and anytime there was a boy in Elly’s life.

“Where were you?”

“Jani’s.  Lost track of time . . . .”

He shook his head.  “You weren’t at Jani’s.”

She decided it would probably go worse for her the longer she denied it, so she looked at the floor, shrugging, then tilted her head to the side and mustered her best contrite look.  “I’m sorry Daddy,” she said sweetly.  “I know . . . I’m sorry.  I was out with Sien and I just . . . you know, ’cause it was a school night . . . I knew Mom would want me to be studying instead.”

“Uh huh.”  He stood up and crossed his arms.  “Well you’re two hours past your curfew, so you’re grounded.  For a week.  No—” he paused, and she thought he looked almost gleeful “—two weeks.  And I don’t want you seeing that boy anymore.”

“Sien?”

He frowned.  “Is there another?”

“Tuh!” was the only response Elly could muster.

“He’s a bad influence on you.”

“Ha! Oh, I’m sure,” Elly scoffed, thinking she knew exactly what he was afraid of.  Wouldn’t do for her to find out the truth about everything, would it?

Russ gave her a stern look and continued; “Lying about where you are to hang out with him?  Staying out way past your curfew?  That’s not like you and it’s obvious he’s the reason.”

Elly just uttered an exasperated laugh and said, “Whatever.  I already decided not to see him anymore, anyway.”

“Really?”  Russ raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah.”  Elly turned towards the stairs.  “He’s a jerk.”

“What did he do?”  His tone turned dark.

Elly huffed.  “Nothing.  He just doesn’t—”  She stopped, frustrated with lying to a father who’d been hiding the truth from her all her life.  Why keep up the charade that they were a normal family?  Why stand there and take punishment when he owed her a lifetime of apologies for a lifetime of lying?

Still, she bit her tongue.  She was in no mood to argue, or explain, or discuss any weighty issues.  She’s had her fill of that for one night.

“I’m just not the girl he’s looking for,” she finished, and stomped up the stairs.

On Saturday, Hollie looked out her bedroom window to see Kiki’s car pull up.  Ade climbed out of the back seat and the car jerked away, heading off towards a hair appointment.  She often dropped Ade off at the Markson home when she went places, and Hollie certainly didn’t mind.  She jumped from her bed and bounced down the stairs, meeting him at the door.  He had something under his arm, wrapped up in a plastic bag; it looked mostly flat but with a bulge here and there, and she assumed it was whatever “project” he was working on lately.

“Here.”  He started unwrapping his package in a rustle of plastic.  “This is for you.”

He held up a board, and glued to the board was a Barbie doll, or rather, parts of a Barbie doll.  The arms, legs, and head were separated from the torso and set in a haphazard pattern.

“What is it?”

“It’s your Barbie.”

She just stared at the board, noticing that the doll pieces were painted silver and black, and he elaborated patiently, “It was in my closet.”

Hollie knew it had been in his closet, she had asked him to keep it there a couple of days ago.  She had gone over to his house, and Grandpa had then taken them to the mall and bought them presents.  Adrian got a painting kit and Hollie got a fashion Barbie with long, silky black hair.  She had wanted to take it home, but feared her parents noticing the new addition to her toys and asking her about it.  She knew she couldn’t tell who had given it to her, and she didn’t want to lie if they asked, so it seemed best to just not have it around.

“What am I supposed to do with it?”

“Put it in your room.”

He still held it outstretched, so she took it and stared down at the mangled, glittery remains of her Barbie.  “Um, thanks.”

“This way you can have the Barbie at your house and if your parents ask about it you can say it’s from me.”

“Okay,” she agreed, forcing a smile.  “I’m gonna go put it upstairs.”

She fled up to her room and stood for a moment trying to decide where to put it.  Adrian probably expected her to hang it on the wall or prop it on her desk, but she didn’t want to do that because she didn’t want to look at it.  She almost shoved it under her bed, then switched to a shelf in the closet, then took it out again and with a resigned huff set it on the desk.  She’d have to leave it there for a week, maybe, before Adrian would notice that she wasn’t displaying it.

It had been a nice Barbie, one she didn’t have but had wanted, and Grandpa had given it to her.  She had other toys, lots in fact, but none of them were from Grandpa.

I don’t know why I don’t yell at him, she thought, walking down the stairs with her arms crossed.  Well, that wasn’t really true, she did know why — Ade got all weird if you questioned or criticized his art.  Even if the art seemed more like something totally random, ugly, and destructive. She didn’t even want to know what he’d done with the clothes and accessories.

They went outside to swim in the pool, but Adrian looked pensive about something, and spent a lot of time just floating and looking at the sky.  Finally Hollie swam over to where he lay on an orange raft.  She hooked her elbows across an inflatable mermaid, and asked, “How’s stuff?”

“Stuff” was code for how things were between Adrian’s parents.  She worried there was tension again, and that was never good.

But Adrian shrugged and said, “Fine.”

“You’re mopey.”

He sighed, then turned a little to look at her.  “Dad and Grandpa go places a lot.  Just the two of them.  They never let me go along.  And I know they go when I’m at school, too.”

“What kind of places?”  Hollie frowned.

“Doctors,” Adrian replied succinctly.

“Doctors?”  Hollie’s frown deepened.  Sitting around at the doctor’s office was intensely boring, she didn’t see why Adrian should be miffed about not going along.

“Yeah.  I’m not supposed to know, but I’m not as stupid as they think.”

For a few moments Hollie silently contemplated the ripples in the water as she kicked her legs.  “Is Grandpa sick?”

“I think so.”

Hollie lay her head on the mermaid tail, and began to worry.