Page 22 of Stupid Dirty

“I am?”

“Yeah, well, you’re all stressed out and I don’t wanna leave you alone. I’d stay here, but I also don’t wanna leave my sisters alone for that long. Which leaves us with one option. I realize it’s not exactly the Ritz, but it’s better than freaking out in a dark house by yourself. Cool?”

Silas watches me for a while before he answers with a quiet voice.

“Cool.”

“Cade!”

The second I open the door to the trailer, light and noise spills out and Sky launches herself into my arms like a distressed monkey. I can already tell Silas is getting the all-circus version of the Waters family introduction.

“It’s a little late for you to be out here screaming instead of in bed, isn’t it, Sky?”

Pulling her face out of my neck just enough to look at me, I can see from her stormy expression that she’s not having a good night. Sky is the baby of the family. Maddi is the middle child and also the only calm, even-keeled person in this entire household.

Sky is an agent of chaos, like me.

“Maddi won’t let me go to bed until I’ve cleaned my side of the room. I need you to tell her to fuck off!”

And there it is.

Silas isn’t some wilting flower, but the sight of a nine-year-old screaming “fuck off” down the hallway will make anyone at least a little shook.

“Fuck, Sky, I brought a friend home. Can you please try to act like you haven’t been raised by a biker gang?” I set her back on the ground, but she completely ignores both me and Silas in favor of storming down the hallway and banging on her and Maddi’s bedroom door.

“Let me in, ass wipe!”

I try not to, but a laugh slips out of me. She’s like four feet tall and wearing a pink t-shirt with a cartoon frog on it! But she swears like a trucker. It’s kind of adorable, if you think about it.

Silas still looks more wide-eyed than amused, but I shake my head at him. “Ignore them.”

“You can come in when you get rid of your disgusting laundry that’s so gross it grew legs and invaded my side of the room.” Maddi’s voice is as calm as ever through the closed door.

I have no idea how she does it. There’s a line dividing the room in half—literally, I painted one a couple years ago because I couldn’t take all the fighting—and the two sides always look like the before and after shots from an episode ofHoarders. But Sky doesn’t always keep her shit to her side, and Maddi’s patience for her little sister can only go so far.

“Fuck off!” Sky’s getting louder and banging on the door with her tiny fists, which makes me think all the cursing is more of a bid for attention than her actually being angry.

Which I get. It’s easy to slip through the cracks and not get babied as much as you need. But pissing off everybody around you to get attention is a page out of mom’s playbook that I don’t really want her sticking with.

“Yo, Tarantino, will you please stop fucking cursing?” She squints at me like she doesn’t get the reference, so at least I haven’t fucked up that much.

We can saveReservoir Dogsfor her thirteenth birthday, or something.

“But—”

“But nothing.” I cut her off. “Go in there, pick up your shit, apologize to your sister.Nicely. And once you’re ready for bed, I’ll come in and we can read for a while. But only if everyone chills the fuck out. Deal?”

I can see the wheels spinning like she wants to kick off again, but she really does look tired. Mollified by the promise of actual, positive attention, she nods.

Mom chooses that moment to emerge from her cave, moving down the hallway towards the bathroom. She’s wearing an oversized AC/DC t-shirt that’s seen better days. It reaches down past her ass, thank God, because she’s not wearing pants. There’s a lit cigarette in her mouth and she doesn’t seem to notice Silas standing behind me. When she jars her hip against the doorframe, walking into the bathroom, that’s all the confirmation I need that she’s too drunk to be worth dealing with.

It pisses me off anyway.

“Thanks for your support, Mom. You clearly did a lot of active parenting while I was out. Have you considered a career as a mommy blogger?”

I don’t think she even hears me until she sticks her arm back out of the bathroom long enough to give me the finger. Letting out a soft snort, I can only shake my head.

“And I thought we agreed you were going to start smoking outside!”

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