Page 54 of Beautiful Life

“What trouble now?” I ask.

“She scared. Says she has people after her. Says she needs money to pay them off,” my mom explains, looking uncomfortable for the first time since we walked in after she broke into my apartment.

“You mean she owes her dealer money?” I surmise. “Unbelievable. You came all this way and think you’re going to get money out of me to pay off my sister’s dealer? What’s it for this time? Is she still a ‘recreational’ user or has she moved on to the big stuff? Huh, mom? Prescription drugs? Blow, acid? What’s she into now?”

“She needs help, Leigh-Leigh.”

“Don’t you dare call me that. I can’t believe you came to me for money, and for drugs of all things!”

“She said this is it, Leigh. She said she’ll get help—she’ll quit.” My mother’s voice starts to panic.

“Right, I’ve heard that before,” I say.

“Get out,” Tony demands. “She’s not giving you a dime. Get out now.”

“But I don’t have anywhere to go.” She starts talking directly to me. “I’m staying with you, Leigh.”

“There’s no way you’re staying with Leigh,” Tony stresses.

“Leigh, you have to help her,” my mom starts to plead. “I asked Preston, but he said you got plenty of money in the divorce and sent me on my way. She’s scared. You have to do something.”

“I’m not giving her money,” I say.

She throws her arms out. “What else is there to do?”

“You can stay here,” Tony butts in. I turn to look up at him, not believing what he is saying, but he lets go of me, moves me back and steps in between my mother and me. He turns to me. “You’re coming home with me. She can stay here.” He looks back to my mother as he digs his wallet out of his pocket. “Is Tina still in Florida?”

“Yeah, near Destin,” she answers, looking relieved she isn’t being kicked out.

Tony sighs and pulls his business card out of his wallet and shoves it toward my mother. “My cell is on this card. You get Tina’s information to me. Then you communicate with me, not Leigh. You get that? I don’t know what we’ll do, but Leigh is not paying off a dealer. We’ll come up with something. You can stay here and eat this food, but that’s it. If Leigh doesn’t want to see or talk to you, she won’t.”

“What are you going to do?” My mother panics.

“Get me her information, anything you know about the situation. Text it to me. I’ll be in contact with you tomorrow,” Tony says. He leans down to pick up our dinner and turns to me. “Get your bag, sweetheart, but leave the groceries here with her and give her your key.”

I don’t pick up my bag because I can’t move. I stand here and stare up at him. I cannot believe my mother is here and she wants money to pay off my sister’s drug dealer. How did this happen? I just had the best weekend of my life and it ends like this?

My freaking family, so screwed up. They found a way to mar what should have been the most precious memories I’ve ever had.

“Gem,” Tony calls. I focus on his face as he leans close. “Let me take you home.”

I woodenly bend to pick up my bag, toss my key to the coffee table, and barely look at my mother who is now carefully surveying Tony and me. I move to the door with Tony behind me. Without another word, we leave, Tony pulling the door shut behind us and walk away from my new apartment. I go directly to the passenger side of Tony’s Explorer, he beeps the locks and I climb in. He’s right behind me standing in my open door, hands me the Mexican take-out and lifts his hand to my cheek. Not saying a word, he steps back and swings my door shut.

How does he do that? He always knows when to get in my face at the same time when to give me the space and silence I need. If I wasn’t already freaked out, that would freak me out more.

But I take advantage of the silence he knows I need, dropping my head back to the seat rest, not believing the nightmare we just walked into. Thinking I was happy was crazy. Asinine. This is my life and as much as I want to get away from it, it always finds me—catches up with me, messing up everything beautiful I think I’ve found.

But the worst part is now I’m dragging Tony away from the beauty and down the ugly road that is my life.

Ugly.

Always ugly.

Chapter 14 – You’ve Claimed It

Tony

“I’ll call DEA in Tallahassee first thing in the morning. They can reach out to locals in Destin, see if they can find her. I’ll give them the background. We’ll see if they can do me any favors and find out if she’s really in trouble. If she’s a junkie like you’re sayin, she could be making this shit up just to weasel money out of her sister or she could really be in deep with her dealers. My guess, it could be a bit of both. Let me find out what I can and I’ll get back with you sometime tomorrow.”

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