Page 19 of Pit Stop

Fourteen

Odette

Onyx and I drop Odin off at school. She climbs out of the back seat and plops into the passenger seat. I can feel her eyes burning into the side of my face, but I won’t meet them. Things haven’t been the same since I learned about her time with the SK. She didn’t trust me enough to come to me, to try and let me help and in the long run it tore what little family we had left apart. As we pull onto the main road and leave the high school behind, Onyx sighs. “You got back with Lyle.” It’s not a question, it’s a comment. Based on the disapproving tone, I’d say she’s unhappy with that decision. I shrug my shoulders and stare straight ahead. Onyx scoffs. “You’re just going to sit there and shrug your damn shoulders. What is going on?”

Anger simmers in my veins and I roll my eyes. How does she have the audacity to ask me questions? She lied to me and Odin for months. Sure she thinks it was justifiable but it wasn’t. The outcome destroyed us. Now, she’s sitting here, in my car, judging me for the way I try to keep our family together. “You have a lot of nerve.”

She lets out a low whistle. “So, she does speak.”

My eyes roll and a sound of frustration and disgust escapes from me. “Yes, I speak. I actually tell people what the hell is going on in life, especially if it could possibly affect them too.”

Onyx lets out a growl. Now, she can feel as frustrated as I do. “You just don’t get it, Odette.”

“I’m not sure what there is to get besides my sister and best friend lied to me when we were supposed to be a team.” The slash of betrayal and distrust cuts through me. The simmering anger became full on boil, running over into the cuts, burning them from the inside out.

“Pull over!” Onyx’s voice booms through the car. I flinch and a whimper slips through my lips. I feel her eyes whip into my direction. “Pull over, Odette. We can’t have this discussion like this.”

Tears once more prick behind my eyelids and I pull along the side of a street. Cookie cutter houses that cost much more than they should line the neighborhood. We used to live in one of these. Odin probably doesn’t remember since he was so much younger. He was barely a toddler when our parents were killed. My heart aches as I stare at these houses, vivid reminders of all that has been lost. Then I look at Onyx and realize I’m so hurt because she was on that list too. She was lost to me when they sentenced her to jail. It was like losing all over again and I’m so tired of losing. “What do you want me to say, Onyx?”

Silence fills the tiny car. The air supply feels as if it dwindles down to nothing, so I push the button to roll my window down. Humid, salty air floods inside and I breathe deeply. “Why Lyle?”

That’s a question I’ve been asking myself daily since the moment I moved in. Taking a deep breath, I shrug my shoulders. “I didn’t have a lot of options. Odin and I needed a place. My job didn’t give me enough to cover everything.”

“But after everything he’s done... his line of work…”

My eyes move to look out the window. “I didn’t say I was proud of it or that I even liked it.” Tension filled pause consumes the space between us. “Lyle is the last person I want to be indebted to, but I didn’t have a lot of options.”

Onyx slams her palm down on the dashboard of my car. “I left you money. Why didn’t you use that instead of Lyle?”

My head whips around on her so quickly I’m surprised that I don’t give myself whiplash. “You wanted me to use the money that you left for us... the money that technically sent you away in the first place? Yeah, no thank you, I’ll pass.”

“Ugh! You’re so damn stubborn.”

Onyx and I both stare each other down, neither of us blinking, both of us barely breathing. “I did what I had to for us. Don’t think for a single second that being near him doesn’t make my skin crawl. Don’t think I’m happy about the current situation, but it was either lower my damn stubborn standards or dropout of college. Did you want me to do that? To throw all that hard work and time down the drain? Everything you did would have been for nothing.” Silence descends upon us once again. After a while I pull back onto the road. “We should get going.”

Onyx remains quiet while the music from the radio plays softly throughout my car. It’s a throwback day on one of the local radio stations. Bowie James, from the infamous James brothers in the street racing world, is the DJ. His voice is smooth with a slight rasp. It’s pleasing to my ears. I turn onto the college campus and park in the student parking lot. I leave the keys in the ignition. “Where are you going?” Onyx asks.

“I have class today. I’m glad you’re back and okay but I have to be here. Two big tests. Feel free to take my car if you need to for anything. I can make it back to Lyle’s, but Odin needs to be picked up at three-thirty. Don’t forget.”

As I turn with my backpack in hand, I hear the car door open. Onyx calls my name, “Odette.” I turn around and she marches towards me, determined in her steps. Once she’s close enough she hands me the keys. “I don’t need these.”

“What are you going to do?”

She scans the parking lot. “To fix all of this.” I watch as she turns around and walks away. I’m afraid of what fixing it will entail this time, but I can’t worry about that now. I have to get through my classes and these tests then I can worry about my actual life.

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