Page 125 of Distortion
He grins. ‘Yeah, it’s been great! Everyone here has been awesome, too.’
I almost gag at the blatant company line. Perhaps he’s just not drunk enough to speak the truth yet. Surely he can’t believe that everything is wonderful here, can he? Over the past weeks, he and the other pledges have basically been slaves for the entire house as far as I can tell.
‘Hey, I wanted to say I’m sorry. I didn’t like being mean to you and calling you names and stuff. They told us that was part of it.’
He’s apologizing to my cleavage.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ I say, seeing my in. ‘I mean I could see how hard they made it for you guys, especially Shade. The Novelles .... well, you know how they are.’
I smile, I hope disarmingly.
‘Yeah,’ he agrees and then frowns at me. ‘Aren’t you a Novelle?’
‘No, actually my mom just married Shade’s dad. I’m no more a Novelle than you are. ThankGod. Right?’
I chuckle a little, and then I take a sip of my drink and I wait, letting the silence lengthen.
Normies don’t like the silence, I’ve noticed. They try to fill it with chit chat. Most of them can’t seem to help it. The blanks did it all the time while they went about their days, and I learned all sorts of interesting things.
‘Seriously,’ he murmurs.
I nod, saying nothing.
‘My parents and I were at that benefit. The one she was at before she ... you know.’ He frowns as if he’s remembering something.
My eyes watch him very carefully, and he doesn’t say anything more. I roll my eyes.
‘I mean it was so hard for John. To lose his wife, you know? Shade, too.’ I probe.
‘Yeah, I can only imagine. It was lucky Mr. Novelle wasn’t in the car when she went down that embankment, or he would have been killed too. And Shade and Andy. I heard from my brother who graduated last year that they were really broken up by her death, you know? Poor guys.’
She was my actual mom, I want to say, but I don’t.
‘Poor guys,’ I echo instead. ‘I mean she was the only mom they ever knew. For her to be taken so suddenly like that after a fun night with family and friends ...’
I might puke, but at least he’s nodding away so maybe it’ll be worth it.
Maybe I am a little mad at Shade and Andy that they got to havemymom in my absence after all.
‘It was just weird, you know?’
‘What was weird?’ I ask after a moment, hoping I don’t sound too excited.
‘I was out front having a smoke. At the benefit. My parents don’t know, so I was in the shadows away from everyone, you know?’
‘Right,’ I urge, taking another sip of the beer I don’t like while wishing he’d hurry the fuck up.
‘And, well, I’d had a few, but I could have sworn I saw John Novelle driving.’
I sit bolt upright. ‘What? But you just said hewasn’tin the car.’
‘Which was weird,’ he continues as if he hasn’t heard me, ‘because, and I remember thinking the same thing that night.Why would Mr. Novelle be driving his own car? He’s one of the richest guys for five hundred miles. Dude has like two chauffeurs.’ David chuckles. ‘He literally said to my dad once that he hates driving himself places. Crazy, huh?’
‘So John was in the car?’
David hiccups and then belches.
He doesn’t say, ‘excuse me’.
