Chapter 17

Monday morning, Richie reached over Caitlin to shut off his phone alarm clock. Oksana cuddled up against his back, preventing him from falling back.

“Guys,” he moaned, “Guys, I need to get up.”

“Shut up...” Caitlin groaned. “I don’t have to be up for another fifteen minutes.”

“Just fuck her sleeping corpse for fifteen minutes and wake me up when you’re done.” Oksana slobbered on the back of Richie’s shoulder.

“We all have to go to class this morning,” Richie said. “And get showers. C’mon Caity. Let’s get up and get cleaned up.”

Caitlin elbowed Richie in the belly, but she didn’t have the room to accelerate her arm. She barely managed to tickle him.

“Why couldn’t you take Richie to your place, Ox?” Caitlin said.

“It’d be hard to explain to mom why her lesbian daughter was bringing dick home,” Oksana said. She yawned and retreated back off the bed. Richie was able to roll off of Caitlin and follow Oksana. “That shower’s not big enough for three of us.”

“The basement shower doesn’t work,” Caitlin groaned, rolling back. They had taken the spare room that wasn’t quite soundproofed from her mom and stepdad overhearing. “We have to go upstairs. Or we could stop at Richie’s on the way to school.”

“I’d rather not,” Richie said, sighing. “I don’t think the two of us can sneak by Darlene to shower together, Oksana. I’ll stay with Caitlin. Tell me when it’s free.”

“No, don’t worry about it,” Caitlin said, swinging her legs out of bed. “I’m going to have to put up with Lawrence anyways, let’s just go shower together and have another threesome.”

She stretched, still yawning and waving her plastered wrist.

“Aren’t you supposed to keep that from getting wet?” Richie worried. “Fuck.”

“Stop worrying your pretty empty head about everything.” Caitlin walked by him and picked her pjs off the floor as she went. “You’ll get wrinkles and scare off the boys.”

“And girls.”

“Dude if we’re not scared off by now,” Caitlin hip-checked Oksana, “he doesn’t have to worry about sending the girls running.”

“I guess that’s fair,” Oksana laughed. “I figured the rose-colored glasses would be lifting by now and I’d realize I had been staring a cock straight in its eye. But nope, still flying high.”

“And you’ll fly when I want you to fly and land when I tell you,” Richie said. He had slipped into his boxer’s and had his jeans and shirt tucked under his arm. Oksana frowned, realizing she was just hanging out naked. She looked down at her discarded BK uniform.

“I really need to start taking spare clothes with me when we’re going to be on shift together.”

“It wouldn’t hurt,” Richie agreed.

“I don’t have a bra for you, but if you want a top and ... I might have some shorts that’ll fit your hips.”

“It’s ten Celsius out,” Oksana said, picking up her phone.

“Dress for the weather you want,” Richie said. Half-dressed they followed Caitlin through the basement to the stairs. She shushed the two teenagers following behind her and ascended to the kitchen first.

“Hey mom, me and well ... We need a shower. Is Lawrence...”

“He’s already taken the truck,” Darlene said. “Sweetheart. I know Harper and Richie are your friends, but you’re gonna get hurt being the third wheel to them. I see how you feel about Richie.”

“Well ... I guess so,” Caitlin said. “But...”

Darlene dropped her voice. “I’ve been making friends with Harper’s mother, you know? I think she’s hoping you wedge them apart if only so Harper will head back home.”

“She’s not home?”

“No need to hide things. You weren’t the only girl’s voice last night,” Darlene said, though her face was twisting unhappily. “Don’t think I approve.”

“I wouldn’t,” Caitlin said. “But it’s my decision to make. What I meant was that Harper–”

“I really don’t want to get deep into the details,” Darlene said. “I’ll put on coffee for you three, but then I’m out the door. Don’t miss class.”

“I won’t,” Caitlin said.

“Alright,” Darlene said, getting up. She walked across the kitchen from the table to the counter by the window. She took the urn out of the coffee maker and started filling it from the tap. “The coast is clear, get your asses to Caity’s room!”

“Mom...” Caitlin grumbled.

Richie slowly ascended the stairs and peeked his head around the corner to see Darlene’s back. He nodded behind him and rushed quickly through the kitchen in his boxers. Oksana looked to make certain for herself.

Darlene tutted and put the urn down. Oksana pulled her head back, having seen the ghostly reflection in the kitchen window.

“You mean Harper wasn’t here last night, it was that ... Not-Harper girl from the hospital,” Darlene pinched the bridge of her nose, not looking her daughter in the eye. Darlene wanted to keep the heat from her cheeks.

“My name is Oksana!” Oksana shouted. Richie returned to the entryway at the dining room.

“Mrs–”

“Don’t,” Darlene raised a finger to Richie’s voice and gestured him, forcefully, out of the kitchen. “Oksana, you get your ass in gear too.”

Oksana gulped and bolted through the kitchen. She held her uniform to her chest and her panty clad butt zipped by. Her socks slipped at the dining room hardwood from the kitchen tiles.

“Don’t break your neck!” Darlene called. Oksana kept running.

Darlene crossed the kitchen and put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder and stuffed her down in the seat. Darlene dragged a second chair along so she could stare into her daughter’s eyes.

“Does this end with you taking Richie for yourself?”

“No.” Caitlin said, sitting up straight and setting her jaw.

“For fuck’s sake,” Darlene slid backwards. “I could understand it if you were making a play on him ... Is this just some couple of weeks to get whatever this is out of your system?”

“I hope not,” Caitlin couldn’t maintain her backbone with that question.

“Fuck...” Darlene said. She got up. and stroked her fingers through her hair and walked back and forth. She stopped. “You’re gonna have to make your own coffee.” She started off towards the kitchen door, slipping on her shoes and grabbing her purse as she went. She opened the door and barely got her left leg off the ground, let alone through the threshold.

Caitlin joined in the screaming as four fat rats charged in the open door and into the house.

Perla picked up her phone. Oksana was calling. She frowned. Why not text? It seemed rude just to call out of the blue. Her face dropped. Was there another car wreck like with Caitlin or–

“Oh my god! Are you OK?” Perla had her phone answered and to her ear before she could get up from the kitchen table.

“What’s wrong Perla?” Luis asked from his breakfast.

“RATS!” Oksana shouted over Perla’s father.

“What?” Perla asked.

“Oh my god! One almost got in the car! Gross! Gross! Gross!”

“Rats?” Perla asked as soon as she had closed the kitchen door and hurried away from her father.

“Big fat ugly disease carrying rats!” Oksana was clearly in tears.

“It’s OK, they’re just rats,” Perla said. “Where are you?”

“We’re, uh, we’re in the car now! Oh my god! MOVE YOUR ASS! Shit, sorry Caitlin.”

“Caitlin...” Perla said, frowning and closed her bedroom door behind her.

“Yeah, go! Go! Go! Richie! Oh my god, thank fuck!”

“You’re OK now?” Perla asked.

“Is there one in the car!” Oksana shrieked.

“No! Calm down,” Caitlin said, sounding equally as breathy.

“Alright ... Oksana ... Oksana ... Oksana...”

“Oh, hi Perla. I need to ask, ughk, you a favor,” Oksana said, hiccuping in the middle of her sentence. And a few times after.

“You sound like you need a hug,” Perla said, sweetly.

“I’ve got more hugs than I can handle,” Oksana said. “I need clothes. Can you ... Uh ... But I’m late for class.”

“You want me to bring something out to the college?”

“Just grab me a sweater and a bra ... I managed to borrow one of Caitlin’s shorts before we–”

“Shorts?” Perla frowned. She looked out and saw it was raining. “Is it even above freezing right now?”

“It’s like 12 out.”

“I’ll bring you jeans too. Do you have clean socks? Panties?”

“Oh, god no!” Oksana laughed. “Uh ... If mom and dad are at work ... My sisters should be at school. There’s a spare key magneted to the barbecue on the back deck and–”

“I’ll handle everything,” Perla said. “Where should I meet you at school?”

“I guess the cafeteria? North side by the student union? Do you know where that is?”

Perla, and a good cross-section of her friends in high school, had been hitting university parties since they had been fifteen. “I know the campus.”

“Thank you, you’re a lifesaver!” Oksana finally started to sound like she was OK. Her diaphragm even eased up on her lungs. “How can I pay you back?”

“Just be a friend,” Perla said, and it meant something more to her in that moment than she had ever thought. “I’ll be there shortly.”

“You’re the best.”

“I love you.”

“Uh ... Richie she–”

Perla hung up before Oksana could finish her question. Now it was Perla’s turn to breathe erratically.

Flo opened the door for Don. He looked haggard. She was practically floating. She let him in and he slugged over the threshold. Trevor sat in the kitchen pulling on his sneakers.

“You finally let him do it himself,” Don said, reaching down and roughing up the boy’s hair. “You doing OK, buddy?”

“Yeah Dad,” Trevor said.

“You don’t mind being a few minutes late to work?” Flo said. “I can drop him off.”

“It’s not like they can write me up or sanction me for genuine childcare needs,” Don said. “Besides it’s important to see us getting along if not staying together.”

“I know,” she said. “But there are only so many hours in a day.”

“I need to thank you, Flo,” Don said, changing the subject. “Your lawyer recommendation was great.”

“My lawyer got me your house,” she said. “Seemed to know what he was doing. So when he recommended Mary...”

“I thought you found her through the babysitter?”

“Same thing actually, I was panicking about finding a babysitter for that first hearing and Thomas called Mary because she had teenage daughters.”

“Right,” Don said. “Though, I didn’t really try to keep the house.”

“Sometimes you need to know when to let go,” Flo nodded.

Trevor was pulling on his second sneaker. He started on the knot recanting to himself: “The rabbit runs around the tree...”

“You look like you’ve gotten,” Don stopped himself for a moment and chose his next words more carefully with Trevor in the room, “a good time. With a gentleman.”

Flo snorted and laughed.

“Wasn’t a gentleman?”

“No, he was,” Flo nodded. “But some of his girlfriends weren’t.”

“What? You and ... Seriously?”

“What can I say? It was as fun as you used to suggest.”

“Once, I asked once for a threeway,” Don said, but the word threeway was little more than an inaudible breath.

“Maybe I was a bit of a square,” Flo said, smirking as she read the look on Don’s face.

“Four? Like a double date turned swap thing?”

“Nine’s also a square number.”

“And now you’re pulling my leg,” he laughed. “You almost got me. I’ll stop prying, I’m just glad you’re taking care of yourself a little too.”