“You shouldn’t have done that.”
I startle, whirling around toward my neighbors’, and find a girl with light brown, shoulder-length hair, maybe a year or two younger than Bailey and Payton, watching me from the other side of the fence.
That’s two times in half an hour that I’ve been startled by the neighbors, which makes me question if they’re going to end up being obnoxious.
“It’s okay. I live here,” I tell her.
“I didn’t mean the garage door.” She takes a step toward the fence. “I meant, you shouldn’t have said that shit to my brother.”
“Who’s your brother?” I wonder as I wipe my dusty hands off on the sides of my shorts.
She smiles, but it’s more mocking than friendly. “They guy you told to go screw himself and that you were going to kick in the dick.”
“Oh.” So, this is blondie baby douchebag’s sister. I guess I can kind of see similarities in their features. “That’s actually not what I said.”
“You sure about that?”
“I just told him the best place to go find a girl who would enjoy his douchebaggery would be on go-screw-yourself lane and don’t ever call me sweetheart or baby again or I’ll kick him in the dick drive.”
She studies me cautiously. “That’s pretty much the same thing.”
“Close, but not quite.” I move to step into the shed/garage.
“Well, just a little warning,” she says, and I pause. “My brothers don’t like when one of them gets insulted or hurt, and they’ll probably get you back for it when they hear about it.”
“Brothers?” I question, glancing back at her with my brow arched. “Why does it involve all of them when I only insulted one, and only after he insulted me first?”
“That doesn’t matter.” She glances over her shoulder at her house, then looks back at me. “My brothers are sort of a package deal. Insult one, you insult them all. And some of them take that stuff pretty personally.”
“Okay.” Why is she warning me? If that’s what she’s even doing.
She must read the confusion on my face because she sighs. “You’re new around this town, aren’t you?”
I nod. “We just moved here from Sunnyvale.”
“Okay, well, here’s a little bit of advice that’s going to put you ahead of the game. My brothers are known around Honeyton as troublemakers. And they more than exceed their reputation.”
A drop of worry prickles inside me, but I shrug it off. I refuse to be worried about some asshole. I’m tougher than that and have had to deal with guys like him before. Sure, I’m not a fan of doing so, but that doesn’t mean I can’t handle it.
“Well, just so you know, I’m a retaliating sort of girl,” I tell her. “Maybe you should warn your brothers about that.”
Her lips almost quirk into a smile, but she wrestles it back. “For your sake, I’m not going to. It’ll only make things worse.” She offers me a partially remorseful look then whirls around and hikes back to her house.
Blowing out a breath, I shove thoughts of the neighbors behind me and duck inside the shed/garage, determined to find a way to get ahold of the landlord.
The space is pretty much empty, so I quickly give up, close it back up, and head back to the car.
“Hey, so, do you want to stay here with Bailey and Payton and keep an eye on our stuff while I go drive around town and try to find Dad’s truck?” I ask Londyn.
“Sure.” She starts for the porch, but I capture her arm.
“Keep an eye on the neighbors, okay?” I say quietly. “The girl who lives there just gave me some weird warning about how her brothers are going to pay me back for insulting blondie earlier.”
Her lips curve downward. “That’s a little creepy.”
I let go of her arm. “Just make sure to keep an eye out.”
She nods then motions for Bailey to follow her.
As Bailey passes me, she pats me on the back. “Glad to see you’re still good at making friends, sis.”
“Don’t you know it,” I tease back.
But all my humor dies as I climb into the car and note someone watching me from the upstairs window of the house next door.
Great, only an hour here and I’ve already stirred up drama.
4
HADLEY
Searching for my dad ends up being a bust.
After driving around for over an hour, I give up and return to the house, convinced he must have left town or something. The area is too small not to be able to find him, and from what I could tell, I looked practically everywhere, except for in the hills.
By the time I pull up into the driveway, it’s late and everyone is getting grumpy. I decide to break in through a cracked open window since we can’t afford to crash in a hotel.
Once we get all our stuff inside, we dig out some sleeping bags and set them up on the dusty brown carpet in the living room.
“This is by far the worst move ever,” Bailey mutters as she wiggles around in her sleeping bag, trying to get comfortable.
Payton sneezes from all the dust floating around. She has her flashlight app on, giving us a bit of light since the place doesn’t have the power turned on yet, even though I called and had it scheduled to turn on. It’s too late to get it taken care of now.
“I don’t know,” she says, rubbing her nose. “Move six was pretty bad.”
I fluff my pillow then lie down. “Was that the one where the toilet flooded the basement two days after we moved in?”
“Yep.” Payton sneezes again, her eyes watering. “Everything smelled like moldy shit for a month.”
“Move five was pretty bad, too,” Londyn says as she slips into her sleeping bag that’s beside mine.
“Which one was that?” I ask, setting an alarm on my phone so we can get up bright and early and figure out what to do about our situation.
“The one with the rat’s nest in the attic.” Londyn rolls to her side, facing me. “Honestly, none of them have been that great.”
“Yeah, I know.” I wiggle around, trying to get situated on the thin carpet.
I did a quick walk-through when we got in and discovered that only half the rooms have carpet, the other half have linoleum flooring. The kitchen is bigger than what we’ve had before, but it doesn’t have a microwave or dishwasher, and there’s only one bathroom.
“At least we have a roof over our heads,” I attempt optimism.
“One day, I’m afraid we won’t,” Bailey mumbles, curling up into a ball and pulling the sleeping bag over her head.
“That will never happen,” I assure her, reaching over Payton to give her shoulder a squeeze. “I won’t let it.”
“You won’t always be here,” Bailey whispers. “You have one more year left of high school, and then you’re going to take off to college and we’re going to be stuck here with Dad.”
Guilt tightens my chest. I want to tell her everything will be okay, but the words won’t leave my lips. The truth is, I have no idea what will happen once I pack up my stuff and take off for college. I haven’t really thought about it too much, never allowed myself to think about it. But deep down, I know the change is going to affect them big time, and that makes me feel guilty.