Page 140 of Driftwood Daffodil 2

She gave me that dumbfounded look again. “Why would you have a detonation device on spray paint.”

“We were out of shaving cream.”

Once again, she asked, “What?”

Was it repeating day?

“We were out of shaving cream,” I explained. “So, I had to blow up paint.”

Guerilla warfare was messy.

There was a moment of silence where she stared at me before she shook her head. “Whatever. You better clean that up before Maw Maw gets home.”

“It’s fine.” I waved my hand. “Most of it got on my truck.”

It kind of looked like I ran over a bunch of Smurfs.

Veda didn’t leave after that, she continued to stand in the doorway. That’s when I noticed that the baby wasn’t with her, which was odd. She usually picked him up right after work.

I sat up and eyed her Sunnyside uniform. “Where’s Knox?”

“He’s at Winnie and Sue’s.”

“You haven’t picked him up yet?”

Last week she had a panic attack because she was two minutes late.

“Well,” she walked into my room and sat on the edge of my bed. “I thought we could talk.”

Talk? We never talked. Not even before everything happened.

“How was your day?”

My eyes narrowed. “Suspicious.”

Between my sister suddenly wanting to chat and Gio’s absence I seriously starting to mistrust this day.

“School isn’t supposed to be suspicious, Nova.”

“Clearly you’ve forgotten your high school experience.”

“I had fun in high school.”

That was because Veda was the quintessential popular cheerleader. Boys wanted to date her and she had a ton of friends – who ditched her the second shit got real.

“Maybe you should join a club?”

Really? “What about me makes you think I’m the club type?”

“You could be.” Veda shifted her gaze my way. “It wouldn’t hurt to have a little school spirit.”

Says who? “Unless that spirit involves alcohol, I’m not interested.”

“You can’t drink your way through your teenage years.”

“I’m pretty sure I can.”

“Alcohol just causes more problems.” She stared off at something across the room and muttered, “Trust me.”

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