Toxic Bad Boy (9 page)

My mom pursed her lips.
“Yes, that woman will finally be out of your father’s
life.”

I hadn’t wanted to ask my
dad about it because I knew he’d been nursing a broken heart since
Julie filed for divorce last fall. But, seriously,
everyone
thought he was
better off without her. I just felt sorry for Chance. Most of the
woman’s attention was focused on him now.

Not that it would take a
woman like Julie long to find husband number three. She was still
kind of young and attractive enough to catch some poor
sucker.

It would be a relief when
Gianna and I were no longer stepbrother and stepsister. The
relationship had always been awkward to explain and I’d enjoy just
calling her my girlfriend.

After my mom left, taking
the paintings with her, I entered the TV room looking for Ian. He
sat watching a Harry Potter movie. The facility had decided to have
a movie marathon of the series, even providing us with popcorn as a
treat.

As he ignored my presence,
I snapped my fingers in his face. “Hey!”

He turned to grant me an
aggravated look. “What?”

“
Whatcha
doing?”

“
Watching a movie, now get
lost if you can’t keep your mouth shut.” He turned back to the
screen.

Shaking my head, I ditched
him in the TV room and asked for permission to hang out in the art
room. A guard escorted me there and predictably I had the place to
myself.

Staring at the blank
canvas in front of me, I had the sudden urge to paint the night of
the attack. Dammit, now that my mom had brought up the idea, the
need to paint it grew.

In an attempt to avoid
painting the worst night of my life, I instead painted a picture of
Gage wearing a tuxedo, sprawled out on a dance floor as he bled to
death.

My mom wouldn’t want to show the judge this
one.

“
The wide world is all
about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever
fence it out.”

-J.R.R. Tolkien

JUNE

eight months down, 12
hours to go…

CALEB

My last night here and I
knew I wasn’t getting to sleep. Ian either. “Dude, I feel sorry
about leaving you in here all by yourself.”

The springs of his
mattress squeaked as he shifted up on the top bunk. “Really, my
heart is bleeding. I won’t be able to go on without you,” he said
sarcastically. “Two more months and I’ll be out of here, also.
Besides, you’ve been holding me back this whole time.”

From what? Winning the
inmate of the month award? Mr. Congeniality?

“
So after you get out
too...” I trailed off, feeling like a girl for even bringing it
up.

“
Caleb, are trying to ask
me to be your bestie in the real world?”

“
Not
my
best
friend,” I joked. “Remember, I’ve got Dante for that. But I
suppose you can be my second best friend.”

“
You are such a loser,” he
drawled condescendingly.

“
I hope your next cellmate
is deaf. I’m so happy to be getting away from you. At this point,
capital punishment would be preferable to staying here in the same
cell.”

“
Quit being a whiner,
Caleb. You’re the one who got early release. If I’d sat around the
last eight months with a paintbrush up my ass, painting my
feelings, I’d probably be getting out of here tomorrow.”

“
More like, if you hadn’t
gotten into so many altercations, you’d be getting out of here like
me.”

“
Whatever. What do they
expect a bunch of delinquents to do when they cage them together?
Act like boy scouts? We have to entertain ourselves somehow. Not
all of us can be the next Salvador Dali.”

“
Dali was gay.”

‘
Precisely.”

“
And painted in a
different style than me.”

“
Irrelevant.”

“
I dislike you intensely,
Ian”

“
I’ll miss you too, bro,”
he choked out with fake sobs.

What an
ass
. From where I lay on the bottom bunk,
I kicked at the underside of his mattress. To my disappointment, it
didn’t cause him to roll off the top bunk.

“
Hey, could you do that
again, Caleb? But this time, a little more to the right?” Springs
squeaked as Ian shifted up there.

“
Only one more night that
you have to refrain from killing him,” I muttered loudly enough for
him to hear.

He ignored my remark.
“When you come to visit every Saturday, will you sneak porn in for
me?”

“
I refuse to buy gay porn
for you, Ian. Ask that Gage guy you’re paying.”

“
Hmm, gay porn, something
with girl on girl action.”

“
Go. The Fuck. To Sleep,”
I ground out between clenched teeth.

“
Yeah, you’re right. Good
night, buddy.” Minutes later the bastard was asleep.

Just hours from now, I was
out of here. I was so freaking keyed up right now, no way could I
sleep.

A few days ago, I’d had my
hearing before the judge and the lawyer was worth every penny my
parents had paid him. He’d made me sound like the altar boy I
wasn’t, even brining up the
bright
future
before me in the art world. The
judge hadn’t been completely enthusiastic in his decision to
release me two months early, but I took his warnings and threats
happily.

The best part was Gianna
didn’t know yet. It would be a total surprise. It had taken all my
control not to blurt out about my hearing the last time she’d come
to see me. Especially when she’d showed me pictures from prom
night. Not that I cared about the actual prom itself. What I hated
missing was experiencing it with my girl. There was always senior
year, and I planned to make it awesome.

She hadn’t commented on my
deep examination of the pictures with her and Gage together,
looking for any signs I needed to beat him when I gained my
freedom.

I might have missed prom,
but at least I’d be home in time to make it to the last night of
her ballet performance. Tomorrow morning, my parents were picking
me up, when they had to fill out all the necessary paperwork for my
release.

After that, I planned to
buy something new to wear for our reunion tomorrow night. I’d use
my mom’s apartment to shower and change before heading to the
auditorium downtown where the performance was being held. Once I
was ready, I’d have just enough time to pick up a giant bouquet of
roses on my way there. I’d never been to see ballet, but in movies
the ballerinas were always given roses after dancing.

I was absolutely thrilled
about being a day away from seeing my girl as a free
man.

In the fall, I’d be
attending her new high school. It’d be a twenty minute drive each
day from my mom’s apartment downtown, but totally worth it. My mom
had taken care of all the paperwork already, so I was all set to
start classes in August.

With all the drama behind
us, being with Gianna would be better than before. Her mom no
longer had much of a say in her life. Josh was locked up with other
high risk juvenile boys in a facility near Boulder. With the
divorce now final we were no longer stepbrother and stepsister, so
nobody could act like there was anything weird about us being
together.

Out of curiosity, I’d
looked up the law a few months ago. In some states, it was illegal
for stepsiblings to date if they were underage and lived in the
same house. Something about protecting them from coercion. Not an
issue anymore for me and Gianna. Though, I would miss living in the
same house as my girlfriend. That had been convenient.

Surprisingly, I did fall
asleep, waking up a few short hours later ready to begin one of the
best days of my life. After showering and going back to my cell to
gather my things, the guards took me to see Dr. Adler. The short
session with her ended up being one last pep talk, pat on the back
and peace out.

Once finished with her, I
was taken to the administration offices where my parents were
filling out the paperwork for my release. My mom jumped out of her
seat up to give me an emotional hug even though I’d just seen her
three days ago. My dad looked at me like I’d just accomplished
something amazing when really all I’d done was screw up my life and
get lucky enough to receive do-over.

My parents so deserved a
better son than me. A son like that kid Gianna briefly dated, Seth.
Bet the guy was a real boy scout.

By the time we finally got
out of there, it was early afternoon. Walking out of the building,
I felt as if I was becoming a new person. Or shedding inmate Caleb
and returning to my real self. Especially since they let me wear my
own clothes home. It was so good to be in clothes that didn’t make
me feel like I was wearing pajamas all day long.

This was the absolutely
best day of my life. The sun shone brighter than ever and the world
was beautiful.

I still felt kind of bad
for Ian, but thank god he hadn’t made a scene when I was leaving,
holding onto my leg or some embarrassing shit like that. I was sure
he’d get all hysterical tonight when he was alone in our cell and
it really hit him that I was gone. Maybe I’d be nice and send some
girls to pick him up in two months.

It was a short drive to my
mom’s apartment in Denver. On the way there, I had my parents drop
me off at the 16
^th
Street Mall,
assuring my mom I didn’t need her help picking out clothes. I
sensed a lot of mothering coming on from her. Knowing her, she’d
need to baby me because I suffered through the big bad justice
system.

Strutting down
16
^th
Street, I passed by
a Hot Topic I figured wouldn’t have anything suitable to go watch
ballet in, so I crossed over to Gap. Wow, being in here, it was
almost like my mom really was picking out my clothes. Not my usual
style, but I wanted to look nice. I was already an embarrassment
enough to Gianna, I didn’t want to look like one too.

Some of the clothing in
Gap wasn’t bad, even though most of it was lame, like the gingham
dress shirts that resembled picnic tablecloths. I paired a
short-sleeved black shirt with a pair of light gray pants. On my
way up to the register, I snagged a gray fedora.

I pictured Ian in his
juvie issued jumpsuit and smiled.

The girl behind the
counter did her best to flirt with me and I tried to be polite
while she dragged out ringing me up. About to run out of patience,
the second she placed the receipt into my bag, I snatched it up and
rushed out of there. I didn’t have time for chicks with more tits
than brains. Horny as I was after eight months locked up, I was
desperate to see my girlfriend. It briefly crossed my mind that if
it weren’t for Gianna, I’d probably be planning a date with the Gap
girl with the intent of getting laid.

Out on the street again, I
hopped on a MallRide shuttle heading in the direction of my mom’s
place. At the furthest stop, I only had to walk a few blocks until
I reached her apartment, once again my main residence.

Inside the apartment, my
mom had the table laid out for dinner and my dad sat on the living
room couch watching TV. My mom had changed out of the clothes she
wore earlier into something dressier. My dad still wore the polo
and khakis.

“
What’s up?” I asked,
dreading the possibility of my mom crying again.

She bent over to take
something out of the oven. “Just thought I’d make a celebratory
dinner for us, now that you’re finally home. Go ahead and go get
ready, everything is almost done.”

“
Are you two going to
watch Gianna dance?” It would explain my mom’s change of
clothes.

“
Oh yeah, we thought we’d
go support her,” my dad answered while flipping
channels.

“
Okay, but I’m driving
separately. I miss my car and I want to take Gianna home
afterward.”

Carrying my shopping bag,
I went down the hallway to my room where I could shower again and
clean the last of the prison stink off me. Once I was done, I
called Dante.

He answered with,
“Yeah?”

“
It’s Caleb, this is my
temporary cell number. It’s prepay.”

“
What’re you doing with a
cell phone in juvie? Someone sneak it in to you?”

“
No sneaking required. I’m
out!” The shouting on the other end of the phone was so loud I held
the phone away from my ear for long a moment.

“
Man, I know you’re not
smart enough to break out. What happened?”

“
Early release because I’m
reformed.”

“
Reformed, my ass. Why
didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t Cece tell me? Doesn’t Gianna
know?”

“
It’s a surprise. But hey,
the reason I called was because I know tonight is the last night of
Gianna and Cece’s ballet thing. I need to know what
time.”