Page 228 of Ominous: Part 1
Jesus, just let me do this so I can pretend I’m too busy to talk.
But I screw on a polite smile and say, “It’s okay, I’ve got it.”
“Absolutely not.” Eric’s voice is a little sterner this time. “You two go hang out at the pool or something.”Or something.Like he doesn’t want to be alone with his son just yet, after all.
I straighten from putting silverware into the little basket for it in the dishwasher and turn to see him striding toward me and gesturing toward the back door.
Eli is smiling at me, but it isn’t a nice smile.
It’s awe need to talksmile.
I nod toward his dad, then say, “If you’re sure…”
“I’m more than sure,” Eric replies warmly, and his arm almost brushes my shoulder as he walks past, but it doesn’t. It’s just enough for me to feel the heat from his body.
I release a quiet breath. I don’t particularly want to be alone with his son right now either.
But together, without a word between us, Eli and I step outside under the darkening sky, the heat enveloping me as I wrap my arms around myself.
Neither of us dressed for the pool, we walk around it, the sharp scent of chlorine familiar to me, but not enough to ward off the cold in my stomach, knowing Eli is going to ask what his dad and I discussed, and I’m not going to lie.
Probably.
We stroll to the pool house where Eli opens the door and gestures for me to enter first. I do, catching the scent of laundry detergent, wondering if the housekeeper cleans this place too, and saying a small prayer of gratitude this neighborhood isn’t on my mom’s list of clients.
Eli doesn’t turn on any lights, and only a sliver of orange sun streams through the wall of windows.
I hear the lock flip behind me as I head toward the daybed, sitting on the edge of it with my arms crossed over my stomach as Eli looks at me in the dimness of the small house. I remember doing coke with Dom here, and it was only a few weeks ago, but it feels like a lifetime.
I’ve learned so many secrets, some earned, some stolen, I’m a different person now than I was then. Is this what it means to meet your soulmate? You grow by leaps and bounds instead of tiny increments? You age years instead of days?
But I don’t think that’s a soulmate exactly.
Something darker. Something worse. The opposite, perhaps. What is the term for it?Something terrible.In Greek mythology, we were created with four of each limb, two faces. Zeus cut mortals in half, fearing their power.
But there is no power between me and Eli.
There’s only ruin. Perhaps there’s more to the myth. Maybe Zeus spared our split, because he always knew we’d self-destruct alone. He had nothing to fear from us. We burn out before we can rise.
Eli reaches into the pocket of his slate gray pants, and surprising me, he pulls out a joint, a lighter right after, bright green. He inhales, the cherry glowing bright before he pushes the lighter back into his pocket. I glance past him, toward the house, but he scoffs at my concern.
“It’s the least bad thing I do,” he says quietly.
The least bad.I press my knees together, thinking I need to leave soon. Mom will have questions for me, I have a feeling. If not tonight, tomorrow morning on the way to school.
I’ve barely responded to her messages, I’ve been spending so much time with him I haven’t kept up my lies very well, I don’t think. We took showers, separately, after Dominic left. I brought one of the books Janelle gave me and read it on the back porch, and after a while, Eli jumped in the pool, timing himself as he dunked his head under again and again. We had frozen lasagna for lunch, and we’ve spoken little. But he never suggested I go home. I never asked if he wanted me to. Even in our stormy silences, we don’t want to be apart, do we?
“What did my dad want?”
There it is.“He wanted to know if I saw Dom, and how he was doing.”
Eli doesn’t react. “And what did you tell him?” He inhales from the joint, and I turn my head, putting my fingers close to my mouth as I stare at the wall. I want to move, to pace, but I try to stay still, the medicine doing its best to keep me this way.
“I said yes, I saw him, and he was doing… fine.”
“Fine, huh?”
I don’t look at him. “What did you want me to say? That you cut him? He banged his head against the wall and had a breakdown in your dad’s house?” I rip a nail off with my teeth, no longer caring if Eli sees.
