Episode # 22 (8.1)
November 14, 2010 07:16 AM
* * *
Tori walks into her apartment, a smile on her face. Tim glances up from the bag that he is packing. He looks far less happy than his younger sister.
Misha sits down on the edge of her bed, gently shaking the occupant. Isabel rolls over and slowly opens her eyes. Misha holds out a coffee, warmly smiling at her friend.
Molly slowly opened the house door and crept in. She glanced into the living room, where Shane was sleeping on the couch. For a moment she watched him, contemplating waking him up. She shook her head and walked down the hall, heading into her bedroom. Molly collapsed unto the bed, running her hands through her hair, her face distraught. From his spot on the couch, Shane stared forward, looking as if he hadn’t slept the entire night.
* * *
Tori draped herself over the couch, lazily regarding her brother. He finished tossing his dress shirts into the suitcase and zipped it up. “When are you leaving?”
“My flight is in three hours. I called a taxi because I had no idea where you were,” Tim shot her an accusatory look.
“Sorry, I found someone to occupy my time.” Tori purred out those words.
Tim watched her, “Was it your secret whatever?”
“Perhaps,” Tori stretched, then smiled, wickedly, “Are you jealous?”
“Hardly.”
“From what I saw of Isabel’s little scene after you left, things didn’t go so well.”
“Little scene?”
“She went off on her family in front of the entire town. It was so scandalous.”
Tim looked ready to defend her, then slumped. “Whatever, it’s her business. I can’t wait to be a continent away.” He lifted the suitcase, testing it’s heaviness. “I should congratulate you, I guess, at least one of us got what we wanted.”
“Don’t worry, big brother, there are plenty of fish in the sea.” Tori stood up and pulled him into a hug. Tim reluctantly returned the hug, not seeing the big grin on Tori’s face.
* * *
Isabel was leaning against the headboard, a pillow behind her back, coffee cup and coaster in hand. Misha was sitting on the edge of the bed with her. Isabel took a sip of the coffee, then with her freehand rubbed her head. “Ugh.”
“Are you all right?”
“Headache.”
“Stress?”
“I guess.” Isabel looked at her, imploringly, “I’m guessing it’s too much to ask for last night to just be a dream?”
Misha nodded, “There’s not much you can take back at this point.”
Isabel regarded that statement. “I don’t know if I would take anything back. The way they acted,” She felt herself getting upset and breathed deeply. “The thought that they believed I couldn’t handle myself is just, well, infuriating.”
“Well, you definitely showed them the fury.”
Isabel blushed, “I made a fool of myself in front of the town.”
“Oh, whateves. Who cares what the town thinks? They’ll find someone else to talk about in a week and you know it. What’s important is that you made sure your family respected your freedom.” She smiled, “And you learned who your real friends were.” If Isabel picked up on that subtle dig at Molly, her face didn’t show.
“But Julio . . .”
“Was a little angry, true.”
“I should call him.”
“What? No!”
“No?”
“He’s a man, Isabel, and his pride was wounded. Give him a little space and he’ll come around to realize that he did nothing wrong. You start calling now and you’re going to come off as desperate and pathetic. You are neither!”
“Well, I know that, but-”
“No, buts. No phones.” Misha was firm and Isabel relented to her friends advice. She took another sip of the coffee.
“Eventually I have to deal with home, though.”
“Well, yes. Eventually.”
* * *
Jillian hesistated, her hand hovering in the air. The door to her daughter’s room was firmly shut. She took a deep breath and knocked. Silence. She tried knocking again. More silence. Jillian finally reached forward and tried the handle, half expecting it to be locked. Instead the door easily opened. Cool air brushed past her; Isabel had left her window open the night previous. Besides the rustling of a soft breeze, the room was silent. Isabel had not come home.
Jillian fought back tears and closed the door. Jason emerged from his own room, looking slightly disheveled. He stopped when he saw his mother. “Oh, hey.” Jillian nodded at her son. Jason glanced at the door, “Did Iz?” He left the question unfinished.
“No.” Jillian sadly shook her head.
“She’s probably just cooling off somewhere, mom.” Jason tried to be consolitory. “With Misha, in fact.”
“Most likely,” Jillian’s voice sounded, flat however. “We should have,” She stopped, collected herself, “We should have told her.”
Jason bit his lip, “Yeah, we should have.”
“What if she never speaks to me again,” Jillian felt the tears coming on and pinched the bridge of her nose to fight them. Her voice still quivered with tears, however.
“Mom, stop, you’re overreacting. Iz was upset, but that had a lot more to do with Tim than with us. She’ll come around and she’ll realize that you were just trying to help. She knows you love her, Mom.”
Jillian nodded, though Jason couldn’t tell how much she believed.
Jillian looked over at Alicia’s door, ajar. “Did your sister come home with you last night?”
Jason shrugged, “Not with me. But she was pretty shaken up. I’m sure she just stayed over with the Hathaways.” Jillian noticed the wallet in Jason’s hand; one that she didn’t recognize.
“Is someone-” Her eyes flicked to his door.
Jason followed his gaze and then smiled, softly, “What, No. Nothing so exciting. Gave a ride to a friend last night and he left his wallet in my car. I’m going to go return it.” Jason made his way towards the stairs, “But mom, it’ll all be ok.”
“I hope so,” She replied softly.
* * *
Jackson and Nicki emerged from the basement, one after the other.
“What are the odds of mom having some leftovers in the fridge, I’m starving.”
Nicki rolled her eyes at her brother, “Considering how much you ate last night, that surprises me.”
“Your point? That was last night and this is the morning.” Jackson rubbed his stomach, “I have to refill and recharge.”
“For what? We both know you’re just going to head back into the basement and sleep another few hours.”
“People need energy for napping, Nicki, it’s a proven fact.” The siblings arguing came to a halt as they entered the kitchen. Their parents glanced up at them from the table. Shelly had a half eaten hard-boiled egg before her; she looked tired, her glasses resting at the bridge of her nose. Edmund sat with his paper before his face, munching occasionally on a piece of toast. Neither said anything to their children, although Shelly gave a tight smile.
“Morning,” Nicki and Jackson offered in unison. Jackson walked over to the fridge; for once Shelly wasn’t leaping up to offer anyone something. Nicki studied her mother, then helped herself to a banana. Deciding to break the silence, Nicki spoke, “So we should probably start thinking about costumes for next year. You know, now that we are the defending champions.”
Shelly animated slightly, “That might be fun. Winning twice I mean.” She glanced over at her husband, searching for a response, but received none.
“As long as next year’s costumes don’t involve me dressing like a rabbit.” Jackson squeezed his mother’s shoulder, tenderly. She smiled up at him. Their father continued to flip through the paper, not addressing his family. Nicki watched the proceedings with concern; nobody mentioned his drunkenness the night before.
* * *
Jason hesitated in his car. He sat outside Darren’s apartment, the place where the night before the other man had leaned over to kiss him. Absently rubbing his lips, Jason leaned forward to look up at the apartment building. “Better now than at work on Monday,” he said out loud and picked up the wallet. He flipped it open to once more check the apartment number, than turned off the car. He jogged up the walkway and quickly found the ground floor apartment. For a second he hesitated, than knocked. Jason stepped back from the door and began to sway, looking around him as he waited.
There was a turn off the lock and the door swung open. He was about to say hi, but instead drew it back in, surprised to find Samantha glaring at him. “Yes?”
* * *
Nicki slowly crept down the basement steps, trying her best to avoid making too much noise on the creaking, old wood panels. As she made it to the final landing, she saw Allan’s head pop up from the couch and mentally kicked herself. He pulled himself up, using the back of the couch to do so, revealing his shirtless physique. Nicki caught herself staring at his pectoral muscles and quickly turned to head upstairs.
Allan, through groggy, called out, “Oh, hey, what time is it?”
She paused mid-step, then reluctantly turned back around. “9am. If you want to go back to sleep, you totally should. I know not many families get up as early as ours.”
Allan was rubbing at his eyes. “Where’s Jacks?”
“He’s upstairs with my parents. It’s, eh,” Nicki stepped down and actually moved into the basement. “Let’s just say your family wasn’t the only one with issues last night.”
“At least yours kept their issues to themselves. I think the town’s gonna be talking about the McCaulley’s for quite a while.” Allan leaned back, stretching and Nicki, despite herself, was throwing glances in his direction. She wondered how she’d never noticed how fit he was before. Nicki took a seat in the chair opposite from Allan, pulling her legs up underneath her as she did.
“But you’ll deal. You guys always have your stuff out in the open like that. You fight and then you get over it.” Her eyes flicked to the floorboards above. “It’s a lot better than secrets, believe me. Bottling stuff in only leads to trouble.”
“Yeah, that’s all fine, but you know what? I still wish that Isabel had maybe shared a little less last night. Or at least in a less public setting.”
Nicki smiled, despite herself. “It was kinda dramatic.”
“Ya think,” But Allan was smiling also and began laughing. Nicki soon joined in.
* * *
“Uh, hello?” Samantha eyed him suspiciously. Jason numbly held out the wallet to her.
“I, uh”
“Who’s at the door?” Darren’s voice called out from the inside.
“Your coworker, Joseph.”
“Jason.” Jason automatically corrected.
Samantha gave him a cold look, then called back over her shoulder. “Jason.”
Darren was behind her, “Oh, hey, Jay.” He gently moved her aside, much to Samantha’s annoyance.
“You left this in my car.” Jason handed the wallet to Darren.
“Oh damn, yeah, thanks about that.”
“Not a problem, so I uh, guess I’ll see you on Monday.” Jason turned to leave.
“Hey, wait.” Darren sidestepped Samantha and stepped outside, shutting the door behind him. “I want to say thanks for the last night.” Jason raised a brow. “The ride home, I mean. It would have been a bitch of a walk back here otherwise.”
“Wasn’t like I could leave you there.” Jason glanced at the closed door, expecting Samantha to emerge, harpy-like any moment. Darren followed his glance.
“Last night I eventually called her over, to fix things. Don’t like her being mad at me too long,” Darren cracked a smile, which Jason did not return.
“Look, I gotta say, about last night-”
“Thanks again for the ride, man. It really was boss of you.”
Jason shook his head, “I mean, about what happened afterwards.”
“What are you talking about.”
“In the car?” Jason was perplexed.
“Oh, me leaving my wallet. You get double bonus points for bringing that back, though you could have just given it to me at work. I could survive being poor for a weekend!” Jason couldn’t tell if Darren was purposely steering the conversation away from the kiss, but it was beginning to seriously bother him. The door behind Darren cracked open before Jason could say anything.
Samantha stuck her head out, “Baby, what’s taking you so long?”
“Coming now, babe.” Darren smiled at Jason and shrugged, “I’ll catch you later, bro.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Jason rolled his eyes and walked away from Darren’s apartment. Darren paused before entering, watching Jay walk off, a frown on his face.
* * *
Alicia stirred on the couch, then shot up. She looked around, confused, before slowly remembering where she was. The Hathaways. Lynne glanced up from the coffee pot she was cleaning.
“Morning Sunshine.”
Alicia dropped her feet to the floor, shaking away the cobwebs in her head. “Uh, morning.”
“Don’t remember how you got here?”
“No, not really.” Alicia admitted. She hadn’t been drunk, but the last thing she remembered was- her head shot back to Lynne. Lynne was calmly putting the coffee pot back into the machine.
“You’d fallen asleep in the garage of all places. I guess that’s where you went after-”
Alicia nervously waited to see what would follow “after”.
“The whole thing with your family.”
Alicia tried to hide her relief. “Yeah, that.” She sighed, “That was the McCaulley’s in rare form.” She wondered what had happened to Shane. When had he left? Right after she fell asleep? Had he been disgusted? Alicia looked conflicted, but she got up and walked over to the table. Lynne handed her a bagel.
“Well, you can stay here for a little if you want. I can give your mother a call if you want to wait for things to calm down at home.”
“No, that’s fine, Lynne. Thank you, but, I really should eventually get home.” She held up the bagel, “After breakfast maybe,” and followed with a weak smile.
Lynne nodded, “I’ll drive you home when you’re ready then.”
Alicia nodded, although her mind was not as calm as her exterior.
* * *
Tori’s mobile rang and she picked it up, checking the number before sliding it up and answering. “Hello, I was waiting for your call. Last night was perfect.” She smiled, falling back unto her couch and playing with her hair with one hand.
On the other side of the phone, Levy sat nervously perched at the edge of his bed. “I wanted to say last night was-”
“Fun?”
“Yes, but we have to be careful.” Levy got up and glanced out the door at Lynne, who was making coffee. “Nobody can find out.”
Tori laughed, “Clandestine? I love it. So when do we meet again for another secret rendezvous?”
“Soon., I promise. I, I have to go. I’ll call.” Levy hung up, nervously glancing out the door once more to make sure nobody else had been listening. Although he looked guilty, he glanced down at his phone and a hint of a smile played on his face.
Posted at 11/14/2010 by beck | Comments? (64)