Page 9 of Always Yours

It’s not unusual for me to call on a Sunday night, because it tends to be when I have the most downtime. I’m sure he thinks this is my normal, I miss home, I miss you, the weather sucks and so does the food convo, but I’m about to hit him with something I don’t even know how to go about explaining.

“Hey, El,” my dad says, switching over to speakerphone and I hear my mom shout a hello from a distance, adding that she just walked in. “How’s it going?”

“It’s okay,” I say stalling, and Will rolls a hand in my direction as if to tell me to get on to it. He’s been telling me to just come out with it because shooting the shit with them will only make it worse.

I suck in a deep breath and start, “So, Dad, something happened.” And that’s when the line goes silent. Whatever my mom was doing in the background has been halted and they’re both in panic mode at my words.

“Are you okay?” my mom asks, and I can hear the concern in her voice, so maybe this is good.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m totally fine… But my car isn’t,” I say, and I realize as the words leave my mouth I’ve made it sound like I’ve been in a car accident.

Will slaps a hand to his face and shakes his head, swatting at him, I stand and start to pace the small living room.

“What do you mean the car isn’t okay?” my dad asks, this time all cheerfulness is gone.

“It got sprayed by a skunk,” I blurt out knowing that isn’t exactly the truth.

“Oh jesus, Ellen,” my mom admonishes. “Take the damn thing through a carwash.”

I can picture her running her hand through her hair and shaking her head. I’m sure Lauren is standing by eavesdropping on the entire conversation and making mentalnotes of all the stupid shit I say so she can remind my parents later.

“It sprayed the inside,” I admit, my whole face wrinkling up at my words.

“How in the hell did it get inside your car?” my dad asks, his voice booming and when I look right at Will, he widens his eyes at me.

“It was under my car…” I start but the tears start to fall and my voice becomes shaky. “And I…I opened my car door and scared it. Instead of running away, it jumped in my car.”

“Goddamnit, Ellen. I never pegged you for the village idiot, but you let a damn skunk into your car?”

“I didn’t let it in my car!” I cry, my words strangled by my sobs. “It just got in there.”

“Is it still in there?” my dad questions and I shake my head even though he can’t see me, because right now I’m having a hard time getting the words out.

“No,” I sputter out. “This boy helped me get it out of there.”

“Oh christ. This was about a boy, wasn’t it? Were you drunk?” I can hear the annoyance in my father’s voice, but I also hear my mother whispering to him in an attempt to quell his overzealous responses.

Obviously I was drunk because a sober person wouldn’t have happened upon a skunk, let it in their car and then closed the door.

“What?” I say, the fake appalled tone in my voice isn’t fooling anyone and when Will starts laughing, I have to look away from him.

“Whatever. I can see this is going nowhere, but this conversation isn’t over. We’ll talk about it when you’re home in February. I’ll call the insurance company and get someone out there to take a look at it,” my dad goes on, letting out an annoyed huff at the end.

“Thanks, Dad.”

4

Will

By the time I get back to my apartment, it’s cold and dark. When I walk inside, the residual smell of skunk hits me, somehow making me smile.

“Why the fuck does our apartment stink?” Greg calls out as he walks out of the kitchen.

I grin. “Hi to you, too,” I reply sarcastically. “And it’s from the skunk.”

“What?” he says, a shocked look on his face. “There was a fucking skunk in our apartment?”

I laugh. “No, in the car, but it sprayed us good and I guess when we came inside, it also made the apartment stink.”

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