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Chapter Five

Joe managed to alude capture for two days. On the morning of the third day, he was brought home by two police officers. Dad had come home the moment mom called him. Unfortunately, things were tense between the two of them. Mom wouldn't go into details, but deep down I knew.

Jonah had been telling the truth.

"We need to call a house meeting," dad said. Jonah had been forced out of his bedroom. Brayden and Tristan were unsually quiet. I had Dracula open on my lap, quickly getting a line in at a time. It was the only thing to keep me from doing the girly thing and crying.

Joe hadn't said a word to anyone since he came home. He sat down across from me. I tried to catch his eye, but he looked away. I saw his fingers curl into a fist.

Mom looked sadder than I had ever seen her. She sat down at one end of the table; dad sat at the other end. They both looked down for several terse seconds.

"There's a little over a month to go before summer," dad started. He looked up. "Every single one of us is going to take the summer to work on ourselves."

"Is mom getting plastic surgery?" Brayden asked. Tristan shushed him.

"Not that kind of work," dad said. "Besides, your mother doesn't need it."

Mom usually would have smiled; her mouth didn't even twitch.

"You two are going to camp. When you come home you're going to spend a couple weeks at grandmas," dad said.

"Yesss!" Tristan said. He loved g-ma's. For that matter, we all did.

"Ally is going to Shelby and Mason's," dad continued. I nodded. We all knew that.

"Where are you going?" Brayden asked.

Dad and mom shared a look. "I'm checking myself into rehab," dad said simply.

"Rehab?" Tristan asked. "Why?"

"I've started to abuse some things that I've used in the past and I want to stop before it gets out of hand again," dad said calmly.

"Like what?" Brayden asked.

I really wasn't expecting dad to answer him. He ran a hand down his face. "Marijuana. And cocaine."

I gasped. Mom winced like someone had slapped her. Joe smirked. I. Wanted. To. Hit. Him.

"Why?" I asked. Dad looked at me. I knew that look well. That fear of rejection. The knowledge that you've disappointed someone.

"I don't have an answer," he said quietly.

"Let's talk about me," Joe said loudly. He hovered over the table, his elbows grinding into the hard surface. "Where the hell are you shipping me off to?"

"My suggestion was military school," mom said. I could hear the leftover hurt. Joe stared at her stoically. He turned to dad.

"I've reached out and made some phone calls. Your Uncle Kevin's talked me into sending you to spend the summer with him. He's rebuilding a barn and--"

"Okay. Wait. First off stop calling him my uncle. All this uncle-shit and aunt-shit. If all these people were really related there'd be some serious fucking incest going on."

"Jonah."

Joe ignored dad's warning.

"Second of all, there's no way I'm spending the summer in Kentucky with some old man, his wife, and his gay son."

Dad slammed his hands down on the table. Brayden, Tristan, and I all scooted down in our seats.

"You're going!"

"Like hell!"

Something told me military school was probably the better option.

-------------------------------------------

Even though we didn't get that far in the conversation, I found out mom was going to Europe for some needed R&R. She told me she'd be up to visit me towards the end of summer to spend time with Shelby, Brenna, and everybody.

Joe and dad fought like cats and dogs until dad left. He had three weeks of touring to go and then the guys were breaking so dad could go to rehab.

The thought made me sick. I hadn't noticed any signs. Dad was just dad. He was loud and crass but he had a heart of gold. None of that had changed.

Or maybe everything was changing. Maybe I wasn't just deaf; I was becoming blind as well.

"I want you to have fun," mom said. Time had become a weird mashed up mess. It was a kalediscope of tests, and last-minute papers, and the breathless countdownt to summer.

The summer I had been looking forward to so much was now shadowed in uncertainty. I had no idea if my family was going to be in one piece by the end of it. So much hung in a precarious balance over all of our heads like a dark cloud.

I didn't think I'd ever be prepared for the rain.

"You know, your dad was serious when he said we all needed to take the summer to work on ourselves," she said.

"What do I have to work on?" I asked. Mom played with my hair. I had twisted it; putting a few wooden beads at the end of some of the thicker strands.

"You need to work on you. I want you to let loose. Have fun. You spend too much time worrying about all of us misfits."

I looked at her in surprise. "But, that's my job."

Mom laughed. "No, that's my job Ally. Your job is to enjoy being a teen. Maybe go out to a party, hang out with friends. Lay outside underneath the stars. Don't get pregnant. That sort of thing."

I smiled. "You don't have to worry. Living with Shelby when she was pregnant was enough of a lesson."

Mom hugged me. "I know." She let out a sigh. I didn't know what she was thinking, but whatever it was, it was heavy.

"Hey mom?"

"Yeah?"

"You and dad..." I said. I cleared my throat. "You guys aren't going to get a...a divorce are you?"

Mom sank down on my bed. "Honey, your father and I have been married for fifteen years. When we got married, I promised him I'd stick by him through good times and bad. This is one of those not-so-good times. Divorce is not even a thought in my mind right now."

The tension I didn't even realize I was carrying lessened, but only just a little bit. I sat beside her.

"That's what Stefie's mom told her," I said quietly.

"Honey, the situation with Uncle Howie and Aunt Leigh is a lot more complicated. You know that."

I nodded. Stefie Dorough was a good friend of mine. Currently, her parents were going through the beginnings of a nasty divorce. Stefie was caught in the middle. If that wasn't bad enough, she was struggling with the onset of Lupus. We hadn't talked a lot lately. She lived in Miami; I was here in Tampa. We mostly sent short texts back and forth. Even so, I suddenly felt infinitely closer to her.

"Please don't worry yourself silly," mom pleaded. She stood up. "You have two days left of school, a lot of packing to do, and then you can get out of here for awhile."

I nodded. I glanced at my textbook and then back up. "Do you really think Kevin's going to be able to do something about Joe?"

Mom rolled her eyes heavenward. "We'll see. If he doesn't, then we're going to go with Plan B. Joe is not going to struggle like your dad. I'm going to make sure of that."

Her face was set with a determination I hadn't seen before. I exhaled.

As mom went down the hall to check on Brayden and Tristan, I stretched out on my bed and looked up at the ceiling. I liked to believe that mom was always watching us. I hoped that if she was, she'd keep an extra close watch over Joe.

He was in desperate need of an angel on his shoulder.