Playing Patience

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes,” Megan said through the phone. We decided to catch a movie, grab some lunch, and catch up on some much-needed shopping.

I spent ten minutes trying to powder away the ugly, swollen bruise on my cheek, and then I peeked in and checked on my mom. The room was dark and she was asleep. I watched her stomach move up and down as she breathed deep. As long as her stomach was moving then she was still with us. Afraid that I’d wake her, I softly closed the door then went downstairs to wait on the front porch for Megan.

“What the hell happened to your face?” she asked with big eyes when I got into her car. “Oh my God, did that happen last night? I was freaking out when I saw you handcuffed. Did your dad freak out on you?” We jerked down the road and worked our way to the movie theater.

I jumped all over her first question. I didn’t even think to say it had happened at The Pit the night before.

“Yeah, some bitch stepped on me and I hit my face on the concrete floor. It looks awful, I know. It hurts like a bitch, too. I still can’t believe I got arrested.” I looked out the window. “I told you going back there was a bad idea. My dad was so pissed.” I quickly changed the subject. “What happened with you?”

“Chet pulled me out.” She tried not to smile. “I ended up going back to Finn’s garage with them. They said Zeke got arrested, too. Did you see him?”

We pulled into the theater parking lot and she slammed her parking brake into place.

“Yeah, I saw him.” And I left it at that.

There was no need to go any deeper into that situation.

I was still pissed off about him baiting my dad. Part of me wanted to blame him for my painful table ride, but I knew I couldn’t do that. He had no idea how sick my father was. He had no way of knowing that by pushing my dad’s buttons he was typing in the combination to release a night of terror on me. I was almost positive, had he known what he was setting me up for, he wouldn’t have said those things. Zeke wasn’t a nice guy, but he was a good guy. Only a good guy would rush a strange girl to the hospital and only a good guy would save me from being trampled to death by a herd of Pit People.

I barely paid attention during the movie. My mind kept going back to Zeke. I kept wondering if he got out of jail. I hoped he didn’t get into too much trouble. If he did, he had no one to blame but himself for carrying drugs around, but still, I did kind of tell on him. Even if I was trying to help, in the end I just made things worse for him. The poor guy had only been trying to help me and I thanked him by getting him drug charges. I hated the idea of him sitting in jail while I was free to go to a movie all because of who my dad was.

At school on Monday, I found out that Zeke was released from jail. Megan and Chet had graduated to texting and I’d dropped a little bird in her ear to find out if he was okay. Apparently, he had to pay a big fine and had two months of community service to get through. Maybe I’d find out what kind of service he had to do and volunteer since, technically, I should have community service too.

After school, I went to the Clerk of Court and paid his fine out of my savings account. It was the least I could do and I’d seen Zeke’s home. He probably didn’t have money for gas, much less almost five hundred dollars to pay a fine.

I ended up getting to soccer practice late, which earned me ten laps around the field. I didn’t mind it. I used that time to zone out and go to my happy place. It seemed I was living in that imaginary world more than the real world these days.

After my laps, I practiced hard and then jogged home from practice. I wanted to be so exhausted that I couldn’t stand up straight when I got home.

Once I walked in the door I was bombarded by Sydney.

“What happened to your face?” she asked with wide eyes.

I rubbed my cheek. I’d heard that question so many times that day and different people got different answers. I was becoming the queen of lies.

“Oh, it happened at practice last Friday. I didn’t see you before you left to go to your friend’s house for the weekend. No worries, Syd. It’s healing nicely. So, what did you guys do this weekend? Lots of prank calls and junk food?” I asked as I scooted by her and went into the kitchen for something to drink.

My cheek forgotten, she started talking about all the fun stuff she and her friend Ashley had gotten into over the weekend. I loved hearing about her having a good time. I was happy to know my sister was growing up with happy childhood memories.

“And then her dad took us to that ice cream place down the road and we got sundaes. Hey, did you know Ashley’s brother goes to school with you? His name’s Jacob and he’s super cute. Maybe you guys could go on a date or something?” She poked my side and I jerked. She thought she was tickling me, but really my ribs were still sore.