Jael rounded the corner of the house in time to see Seth take off in his car. She took a step back. A cloud of dust billowed up behind it as he sped down the road toward the highway. She hoped Brianna wasn’t early. Uncle Seth would likely stop to play white knight to a helpless girl parked along the road. Just what they didn’t need.
She peeked around the corner of the house before moving on, slinking close to the side to avoid being spotted through a window. Bruno lifted his head as she neared the porch and his tail thumped against the rough wood planks of the steps.
“Shh,” she scratched behind his left ear the way he liked. “I’m going to be gone for a little while, but I’m leaving you in charge.” She gave him instructions and moved past the steps as quickly as possible toward the road. The kitchen window looked out on the backyard so she bent low until she’d cleared the far corner of the house.
Her parents were likely having dinner now. Sitting alone at the kitchen table, with nothing to talk about without her there to spur the conversation. She often wondered what they could possibly find to do when she was at school. Their lives seemed so full of bossing her around and making sure she ate right, did her chores, and completed a full workout of vampire slaying exercises each evening, she doubted they had time for anything else.
She took one last look back at the house, stuck her arms through the straps of the backpack she’d brought along, pulled it up tight, and started jogging. It was still quite hot out and even in cut-off sweats and a t-shirt she would smell like the inside of the boy’s locker room before she got to the highway. But she didn’t have time to go any slower. Brianna would be waiting at the corner in another five minutes if she timed it right and she didn’t want to run into her uncle if he decided to turn around and come back for dinner. She didn’t know why he’d taken off in the first place, but from the way he’d stepped on the gas she thought he was probably angry about something.
A semi truck trailer moved along the highway in the distance but she didn’t see Brianna’s big Caddy sitting there yet. Sweat dripped from under her hair and trickled down the sides of her face and the back of her neck. At this rate she would need a shower before she went to the game. Good thing she’d brought a change of clothes. She slowed to a walk and lifted her shirt to catch some air. There wasn’t a soul around to see her anyway.
A tumbleweed blew across the road a few feet ahead of her and continued on across the cracked ground, carried along by invisible currents. She stopped to watch it go, shifted the straps of the backpack more comfortably and wiped her dripping forehead on the sleeve of her t-shirt.
A horn sounded in the distance. The Caddy was suddenly there at the end of the road, waiting. She didn’t know how she’d missed it coming down the highway. Maybe it blended into the desert colors, or maybe she needed glasses. She waved and walked quickly toward the car. She glanced back at the house once more before swinging open the door and climbing inside the cool air-conditioned interior.
If this was her chance to be normal, why did it feel so strange?
“Hey, girl!” Brianna greeted her with a bright smile and a can of icy-cold cola. “Thought you might need this.”
“Thanks.” Jael took the can and drank half of it down in one long swallow. She set it in the cup holder and dug through her bag for the change of clothes. “You better get going. My uncle left a while ago, and I sure don’t want to meet up with him if he comes back.”
Brianna put the car into gear and made a huge U-turn back out onto the highway. She fiddled with the radio station with one hand and steered with the other. “So how’d you get out of the house without the sister wives tattling?” She laughed at her own joke.
Jael shook her head. “You’re hilarious.” She pulled her damp shirt over her head and threw it in the backseat. “It was simple really. I pretended to have the flu and went to my room. My mom didn’t even question it.” She pulled the clean shirt on and then struggled out of her sweats, replacing them with a pair of cotton skinny-legged jeans. “Maybe I should join the drama club. Apparently I’m a better actor than I thought.”
“I doubt it.” Brianna set the dial to a classical station.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“It’s just that you are such an open book.” She glanced between Jael and the road. “I can always tell when you’re not being straight with me and I’m sure your mom does too.”
Jael looked out the passenger window. “When have I not been straight with you?” she asked, afraid to meet her friend’s eyes for once.
“You’ve been really secretive lately, missing school and not saying why. I know you haven’t been sick. Do you ever get sick?” Her tone was teasing but Jael detected a hint of underlying worry.
“Not that I recall. I’m pretty healthy I guess.”
Brianna bit her bottom lip like she always did when she had something to say and was afraid to hurt feelings.
“Just say it, Bree.” Jael expelled a pent-up breath and twisted in the seat to better face her. “What is it?”
“We always tell each other everything, right?”
She swallowed. “Right.”
“Then why are you hiding things from me? I’m your best friend, Jael. Didn’t I just drop everything to come break you out of the convent or whatever they keep you in?” She thumped the steering wheel with the palm of her hand. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“I won’t.” Did she know about the nocturnal outings, hunting vamps and fighting in back alleys? How could she possibly have found out? Had she been seen?
“But you already are. I saw the bruises.” She pointed at Jael’s leg. “When you were dressing. Sorry, but it’s a little hard not to when you’re stripping in my car.”
“Bruises?” Jael frowned down at her leg as though it were a foreign object. “Oh…the bruises. It’s nothing. I ran into a garbage can, that’s all.”
“It’s one thing to lie by omission, but it’s totally whacked to lie bald-faced. You didn’t run into anything, Jael. Someone hit you. Was it your dad?” she asked, her eyes damp with unshed tears. She always was a tenderhearted one.
Jael shook her head, aghast. “My dad? Are you kidding? He would never hurt me. Or my mom either,” she added quickly. “These bruises really happened from a garbage can.” She lifted the hair on the side of her head and revealed the ugly cut she’d gotten from the lid of that can. “See, this is where my head met the lid of said metal garbage can.”
“Oh, Jael…that looks awful. You make it sound as though the can attacked you. But you don’t have to make up stories for my benefit.”
She started to protest, but was interrupted again.
“We were reading in health class about domestic abuse and how common it is for victims to stick up and even lie for their abusers.” She slowed as they passed the Sunburn welcome sign and the town speed limit went to 30mph.
“I’m not lying for anyone,” Jael argued, although she was technically lying for that rotten baggy-pants vamp who clocked her with the lid.
“Really? Then if you haven’t been sick, why did you miss three days of school last week and one this week?”
“I was tired.” She kicked off her sandals and put her feet up on the dash. “I’ve been staying up late a lot.”
“And your mom is okay with that? Skipping school to sleep in?”
“No, that’s why I was at school today. She made me come, and then Lyle asked me out and now here we are. So it’s actually her fault that I’m sneaking off to go to a game to meet a boy. If she hadn’t forced me to get up this morning…” she shrugged and grinned.
“Technically, Lyle didn’t ask you out,” Brianna said with a lift of her brows.
“Technically, best friends are supposed to support each other’s delusions and fantasies.”
They turned into the school parking lot and she parked between two pickup trucks. “Technically, I am. That’s why you’re here, remember?” She pulled out
the key and opened her door. “Ready?”
“Thanks, Bree. Technically and for real you’re an awesome friend.” Jael slipped her sandals on and climbed out of the car.