“No.”
“Sometimes.”
Kerry gave Dar a look. “We are not.”
“You’ve never seen what I can do with a data analyzer, have you?”
Lena started laughing. “You guys are funny.” She relaxed into the leather seat. “So, anyway, I’m like really into this Internet stuff and I found some really cool places, with people…um...” She hesitated.
“Like us?” Kerry hazarded a guess.
“Yeah,” Lena said. “Anyway, we all get together and we chat, and do stuff, and a lot of them write these story things.” She rubbed her fingers together. “Some of them are okay, and some are pretty good, and some…ew.” Lena made a face. “So, I figured I could try doing it, too, and just see how it went.”
“Stories?” Kerry leaned against the seat and considered that.
“What? Stories about…school and things like that?”
“Uh, no.” Lena blushed. “Not about school. Well, one of them was. This girl wrote this one about her and two other girls and some gym equipment, but—”
Kerry cocked her head. “Gym equipment?” She looked at a laughing Dar. “What?” Her brow knit, then relaxed as she realized what sort of stories Lena was talking about. “Oh. Kind of…romantic stories, huh?”
Lena chewed her lip. “Well, I guess some of them might be called that.”
“So, did your parents catch you reading this lesbian erotica?”
Dar asked in a low, amused tone.
“No way.” Lena shook her head. “I’m way too careful for that, and my parents wouldn’t know what they were looking at in my computer anyway.” She folded her arms. “I wrote my first one, and I posted it, and you know, everyone liked it. It was so cool.”
“Hey, that’s great,” Kerry said.
“Yeah, except I printed out a copy to take to school, to show Casey and them, and it was on my printer, and my mother came in Thicker Than Water 31
and took it.” Lena looked out the window. “Wow, we’re driving onto a boat? Where do you guys live, Cuba?”
“That’d be a commute,” Dar muttered. “I’d say your mother got what she deserved if she walked in and just took what wasn’t hers.”
Kerry sighed. “Some parents are of the opinion that they own whatever’s in the house because they pay the mortgage. Boy, have I been there.”
Dar looked at her sideways, one eyebrow lifting.
“Yeah, you’re absolutely right,” Lena blurted. “That’s exactly what my parents think. My mom took it while I was in the shower and by the time I got out and got dressed, she was…” She fell silent for a second. “She started throwing things at me.”
Kerry took her hand.
“I tried to stay out of the way, you know? Because she does that sometimes, just goes off and shit. But she just kept coming at me.” Lena took a shaky breath. “She chased me into the garage, and…oh my God, everything was falling, and she threw a baseball bat at me. Then I don’t know what happened, something, and a sled we had up in the overhead fell down right on my dad’s car.”
“So that’s what broke the window,” Kerry murmured.
“It broke everything. And that sports car is his, like, best child,” Lena said. “She locked me in there, and the next thing I knew, the cops were there and they took me off.”
The ferry docked and the conversation ended as Dar piloted the Lexus onto the island and turned down the road leading to the condo. Lena slid over to one side and peered out of the window, looking around curiously until they pulled up next to the condo and parked. “Wow. Holy shit, Toto, we’re not in Hialeah anymore.”
They got out of the car and headed up the stairs.
KERRY LED THE way upstairs, leaving Dar to putter around and put on some coffee. Lena crept along behind Kerry, trying not to touch anything as she walked in the very center of the stairs.
“Let me get you something to change into; you can use the shower in there.” She gestured to the guest bathroom, tucked in neatly next to its attendant bedroom.
“Wow.” Lena peeked inside, then hurriedly followed Kerry into her own bedroom. “This is a way amazing place.”
Kerry pulled open a drawer and rooted around inside it. “It’s pretty big, yeah.” She removed a shirt and a pair of shorts. “Here.
These’ll be big on you, but not too bad. They’re old ones of mine from when I was a lot smaller.”
32 Melissa Good Lena took them gingerly and eyed Kerry. “You’re not fat.”
Kerry smiled. “No, but I used to be a lot lighter before I started all this wall climbing and weight lifting.” She turned Lena around and pointed her towards the guest bathroom. “There’s lots of soap, and everything you need in there. Help yourself.”
“Okay.” Lena carefully folded the clothes over her arm.
“Um…thanks, Kerry. I thought I’d be all tough and that, and just stay in there. You know, like—wow, so this is jail.”
One of Kerry’s pale eyebrows cocked. “Why? You’re not stupid.”
Lena fingered the clothes. “There were some really fucked up people in there. I figured I’d better find a way to get out before something stupid happened.” Her eyes lifted. “So, thanks.”
“No problem, but one thing is puzzling me,” Kerry said as they walked down the hall. “I don’t remember giving out our phone number here.”
“Oh.” Lena managed a wan, but cheeky grin. “Casey got that out of the church Rolodex. We were all, like, curious to see if we could figure out where you lived and stuff.”
“Ah,” Kerry replied. “I thought that was locked up in the office.”
Lena grinned again. “And?”
Kerry sighed. “That’s supposed to be private information.
You could have just asked.” She folded her arms.
Lena looked nonplused for a moment. “I didn’t…I mean, we didn’t think of that. It’s just that, like, no one tells you anything when you’re our age, you know? It’s like everything’s such a big secret, and if you want to know stuff, you have to go find it out yourself.”
“Mm.” Kerry understood that, having grown up in a very political household.
“What is up with adults?” Lena asked. “It’s like, even in school, they say they don’t teach things so we don’t get ‘ideas.’ I thought the whole thing school was for was to, like, encourage us to get ideas. So they don’t tell us about important shit, like what sex is all about. How brainless is that?”
“Very brainless,” Kerry acknowledged wryly.
“Um…listen.” Lena cleared her throat. “My cousin’s got a place right down from the ferry base in Miami Beach. I can stay with her, if you can give me a ride back over there. I feel kinda bad about getting you guys all out at night and stuff.”
Kerry pondered. “If you’re sure that’s okay, yeah, we can do that.”
Lena shrugged. “I’ve been, like, talking to her anyway. After you said all that stuff about being out and all that, I figured Thicker Than Water 33
maybe I’d give it a try.” She scowled a little. “Didn’t work out as good as it did for you, though, huh?”
Kerry exhaled. “Go take a shower. It didn’t work out well for me in the beginning either.”
“People suck,” Lena commented. “I guess.”
“Yeah. Sometimes they really do,” Kerry said quietly, remembering waking up in a cold, sterile hospital room. “But that’s why getting away from those people is sometimes the best thing you can do.”
Lena nodded, started to turn, then stopped. “But hey, you know? Sometimes it’s okay. Look at what happened to Barbara, yeah?”
Kerry blinked. “What happened to Barbara?”
“Oh, yeah. I guess you didn’t hear. That guy at work likes her. He made her, like, an assistant manager. How do you like that shit?” Lena seemed amazed. “So I guess you were right.”