Page 5 of Bad to the Bone

I stride right down the hall and into her room. She’s standing in her underwear in front of her bed with her hands on her hips, comparing two track suits. I watch her chew her bottom lip, unaware of my presence.

“I like what you have on,” I finally say, startling her.

“You would, pervert,” she complains.

I wrap my arms around her body and try to act normal.

“I actually cooked tonight,” she grumbles. “So, you have to at least pretend that you enjoyed it.”

“I will,” I assure her, rocking her gently in my arms.

“Are you alright? You seem a little off,” she says.

“I had a fight with my dad.”

“He doesn’t know about -”

“No, nothing like that. He wants me to stick close since he’s in the middle of this mess.”

“Has he figured out that you were the one who made this mess?” She turns in my arms and cups my face in her warm hands. A small smile plays with the corners of her mouth and I know I can’t bear to tell her what I’m thinking.

“Of course he knows it’s me, he just can’t prove it. Besides, I didn’t create this mess. He did. If he didn’t have so many skeletons in his closet, there wouldn’t be anything for me to find.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” she kisses the tip of my nose.

“Me too,” I say, smacking her on the ass before I scoot out of the bedroom.

Shannon is in the living room, curled up at the end of the sofa, flipping through channels. She looks up and smiles when she sees me, and my stomach does a backflip.

“You don’t look too hot,” she says, frowning as she speaks.

“I, uh, have to ask you a question. It’s going to sound really weird and I can’t really explain right now, but can you just answer me?”

“Okay?”

“What do you know about your father. Your biological father.”

“Nothing, really. I know mom had a really hot fling with some guy. She thought it was love and so she ran off to be with him. It was a big secret about where she was and what she was doing. My grandparents thought she was in a cartel or a cult or something. Turns out she was just a stupid girl in love. But, when she told him she had a bun in the oven he left her two hundred dollars and a ticket back to her hometown. I guess he wasn’t really into the whole family vibe. I assume that two hundred dollars was for the abortion that she never got.”

“She wanted you? Even if the guy wasn’t around?”

“Maybe. I think she also wanted to stick it to her old man, too. They had bad blood as well,” she says with a shrug.

“Do you know who he was, or what his name was?”

“Why?”

“I just need to know,” I hiss.

“Need to know what?” Kim’s voice echoes down the hallway as she comes padding out of her bedroom. She decided on a maroon sweat suit with dark blue stripes down the side of the legs and around the elbows. With her hair pulled up in a haphazard bun and her face freshly washed, she looks like the innocent she is, and my heart begins to beat wildly.

Family. We could be family. A real family, not like the farce that goes on in my house. Suddenly the thing that should unite us all feels like the only weapon I have against the man who made it happen.

“I was just asking about Shannon’s applications,” I lie. It’s the first one of what might be hundreds one day.

“You need to know about her applications?”

“She was playing coy. If we’re going to the same school I need to know ahead of time so I can keep an eye on her.”

---