“Yeah, that’s exactly what’s going on,” Reg grumbled. “I hoped when I got out of the hospital I wouldn’t have to take care of the yard for a week or two.”
“Geeze, you could have told me,” Nat said and rolled her eyes. “I would have, like, totally helped you out.”
“Helped who out?” Mom asked, coming back in with Reg’s drink. “Are you three plotting something behind my back?”
“Yeah, your surprise birthday party,” I said to change the subject. There was no way I was going to get roped into yard work because I’d decided to cover up the tension with a lie. So I guess I was a liar now. A liar who built one upon the other. I’d have to keep a notebook with me at all times to keep track if I kept this up.
“You know I hate those things,” Mom said and sat across from Reg, but we all knew she secretly loved them. Every year she hoped for something big for her birthday, and every year Reg fucked it up somehow. Last year he’d hinted for weeks that she was getting an expensive gift and Mom had seriously thought it was a diamond ring to replace her cheap wedding band.
Reg had shown up on her birthday morning with a new dishwasher.
That was the level of scumbag we were dealing with.
So I decided to take it upon myself to throw her a party at last. I felt much more social now that the pills were out of my system, and so much more emboldened now that I’d shot Reg point blank with the intent to kill him. That kind of thing did something to a girl, it turned out.
So I said, “I know you hate them, but I love them. So Nat and I are going to do something special for you this year.”
“The hell you are,” Reg grumbled and slammed his beer can on the table. “We don’t need any fancy parties around here, we can do the usual. I’ll order take out and we’ll watch a movie on TV.”
Mom sighed and looked at me, raised her brows and shrugged her shoulders in defeat. She was still a beautiful woman, even at her age. She’d had me when she was young, so she wasn’t even forty yet, but she looked like she could be my sister sometimes. But she had Nat’s honey blonde hair, where I’d taken after my unknown father’s dark features.
I wasn’t going to give in on this, though. I’d made up my mind and if I couldn’t go around shooting every one of the old men who were keeping me trapped in the Organization’s Dirty Kingdom, I was going to do something to make me feel like I was still in control.
“Yeah, but we are,” I said and turned to look at him. I saw him visibly shrink once my red hot angry gaze hit him. “Nat and I will take care of everything, all you have to do is show up.”
“I hate parties,” Reg said. “They’re fucking useless. They’re a waste of time.”
“Then don’t show up,” I replied and dismissed him with a sneer. “But we’re going to do this for our Mom, aren’t we Nat?”
Nat’s eyes were huge and she looked from me, to Reg, and back again. She smiled slowly until her face was split with a knowing grin and she nodded her head enthusiastically. “Yes, this is happening.”
She didn’t know how I’d gotten one over on Reg, or how I’d gotten so confident, but she was all over it.
“Yes, we are, big sis!” she exclaimed. “I’ll pick the decorations and help with the cake. We might need Kingston to pick it up, though. Maybe we could catch a ride with him.”
I could sense the undertone in her comment. Maybe she could tag along with Kinston and me, and then report back to her friends that she’d ridden in his truck even when he wasn’t dropping her off at school.
“Sounds like one heck of a plan. I’m just sorry it’s not going to be a surprise, now,” I told Mom.
She shook her head and said, “I’m not. This is already such a wonderful gesture from you two, I’ll give you a list of my friends you should invite and we’ll have a great time.”
“I’m sure we will, right, Reg?” I asked, twisting the knife in his back, wishing it was literal and not just metaphorical.
“Right,” Reg said sullenly as he sipped his beer and ate his dinner. “It’s gonna be a fucking blast.”
And then I knew he wasn’t going to be a problem. At least not much of a problem. I could probably keep him in line with some well-placed insults and the occasional outright aggressive comment.
It was the rest of the Organization I had to handle, now.
* * *
I decidedto go for a run later that evening, I was feeling so good about everything. Being off the pills mom had been giving me for my anxiety had no effect on me, other than making me less anxious. I still didn’t know who our family doctor was to find out exactly what I’d been taking, and when I went to look for them to take them to the pharmacy in town, they’d been missing.
I’d had them set out for me for years now. Mom had gotten me a sparkly unicorn pill holder and every Sunday evening, she would fill in all the little spots for the entire week. I’d never even seen the original bottle, and now I couldn’t remember if the original pills had been white or blue, or if they’d always tasted like cinnamon.
It was funny how the memory could play tricks on you at times.
I ran slowly towards the lake and decided to take the long way through the park, to expend some of the energy I had now. The high I’d gotten from defeating Reg was a little too good to let it go to waste. I should have stood up to him years ago, maybe I could have prevented him from drugging me and—