Page 9 of Haunted Mediation
“No—”
“I was wondering if you were heading out anywhere,” she said, “because I’m supposed to be meeting some friends for this trick-or-treat thing. Mom was going to drive me, but she got called in for an emergency, so now I have no way to get there.” She pouted her lipstick-coated lips.
“Oh, is that the trunk-or-treat event the community center is hosting?” James asked, and Leon had to press his lips together, so he didn’t sigh again.
Hailey grinned. “Yeah, that’s it! It’s only a twenty-minute walk, but Mom doesn’t want me walking alone at night. I thought maybe if you were already going somewhere, I could hitch a ride or walk with you!”
“Why can’t you call a ride share?” Leon asked, crossing his arms over his chest in a way that reminded him a little too much of his two current house guests, though in different ways.
“Mom read some news article recently about this guy who would drive women out into the woods, and?—”
“Okay,” Leon said, not needing to add more fodder to his already superfluous nightmares.
Hailey’s mom was an ER doctor who was exposed to more horrors in a day than anyone should experience in a lifetime. To top it off, she tended to listen to local news on her way to and from work, as well as read some of the more sensational headlines, and she worried about her only daughter a lot.
To be fair, Leon found himself waking up at night worrying about Hailey, too. He’d known the two of them for over seven years, back when Hailey was a bright-eyed fifth-grader who hid behind her mom when Leon introduced himself. She’d grown a lot and was now almost eighteen, but to him, she would always be the neighbor kid he babysat when her mom got called into work.
“‘Okay,’ like, you’ll take me?” she asked, rocking forward onto her toes so she could bounce up and down, her red and blue pigtails bouncing with her.
Leon turned to face James. “Fine. You okay going to the bar in City Center?”
“Of course,” James said, standing up with Yarmen still cradled in his arms. The cat looked completely blissed out, not used to this level of cuddling from Leon.
“Fine,” Leon grumbled again, walking back over to the island to grab his beer glass. He chugged it, much to James’ evident disgust. “You gonna drink yours?”
James awkwardly shifted Yarmen into one arm so he could take two big swigs before putting the glass back down. “I think that’s all I can manage.”
Leon picked up the glass and finished the rest for him before grabbing Yarmen one-handed and tossing him onto the couch.He landed with a soft thud, his tail twitching in the air as he walked over to his preferred corner and sat down.
“Do you need to call your mom and let her know we’re walking with you?”
“Oh, I already told her that was the plan,” Hailey said brightly.
James failed at stifling a laugh, and Leon glared at him and then at Hailey, and finally at his boots, which he shoved his feet into with a little more force than necessary.
“You know, I used to get paid for putting up with your shit,” Leon said as he grabbed his leather jacket and stuffed his wallet, phone, and keys into his pockets.
Hailey was still holding the door open, and she’d already pulled out her phone to text or tweet or snap or whatever it was the kids did these days. “You’re such a liar. You stopped taking payment from my mom after the second time you babysat me.”
James made another noise that sounded dangerously close to an “aww.”
Ignoring that, Leon asked, “Are you going to be warm enough to walk in that?”
Hailey nodded her head absently as she stepped into the hallway, and James and Leon followed her out of the apartment.
Leon turned to look at James, who was only wearing a thin blazer. “Areyougoing to be warm enough? Do you need to borrow a jacket or something?”
James screwed up his face. “I’m fine,Dad, thank you.”
Well, fuck Leon for caring, then. He yanked the door shut and turned the key in the lock.
“Oh my god, I know, right? He’s such a dad,” Hailey said, putting her phone in a pocket of the skater skirt she was wearing before pulling out a pack of gum. “Although, for you guys, is that more like he’s such adaddy?”
James spluttered, and Leon cursed himself for ever having answered the door. He should have just pretended they weren’t home.
“Don’t ever say that again.”
“What? I don’t yuck anyone else’s yum,” Hailey said, folding the piece of gum into her mouth and immediately attempting to blow a bubble. It snapped before it was fully formed, and she pulled it back into her mouth to try again.
