Deceptive Cadence (3 page)

He rolled his eyes and smiled. “Yeah, Cay.”

Most of the grade knew by recess. Tyler told everyone he could that he dumped me. I let it happen and didn’t fight it. At lunchtime, people swarmed me, giving their condolences. I did the best I could to fake it, but Geri saw through me.

She eventually managed to pull me aside. “You
so
dumped him! I just know it! Why are you taking all this?”

“He was pretty angry, so I’m just letting him have this. Maybe it will die down faster this way.”

She pursed her lips and folded her arms. Then, a light flashed in her eyes. “You’ve got someone else in mind already!”

Austin, yes, but to Geri he would be an imaginary friend.

“No, I don’t.”

“You
so
do!” She slapped my shoulder with a grin. “I can see it written all over your face!”

“I really don’t.”

“Oh!” She leaned closer, her eyes sparkling. “It’s some loser, huh? That’s why you’re afraid to admit it.”

I huffed. “Yeah, it is.”

She giggled. “Okay, you don’t have to tell me. I
don’t
wanna know.”

She wrapped her arm around mine and we rushed back to the group.

I found the first week fascinating. Being among so many people I hadn’t seen in years and reliving experiences I’d forgotten felt bizarre. But, everyone thinking Tyler dumped me changed everything. By the end of the week, he felt as if justice had been served and wasn’t angry with me. He was still upset, but unlike the first time around, he wasn’t spreading vicious rumors about me.

Friday night arrived, and I felt pretty good about what I’d changed already. But I noticed that not everything changed. In fact, most events stayed the same. I still joined the same sports team, had the same conversations about the same guys my friends were crushing on, and during classes, I still became easily distracted. I had no idea why. High school classes seemed easy after finishing my bachelor’s and starting my master’s.

I sprawled across the couch in my pajama pants and school blouse when Harper walked in. She tossed my legs off the couch, snatched the remote from me, and changed the channel.

I stared at her. Had she really just done that? I shook it off. “Harper, I was watching that.”

“
Pft
, I don’t care. I’m watching this.”

“Are you serious?” It felt childish and stupid. I couldn’t believe I was playing this game with her again. “Can’t you just let me finish my show? It’s got like five minutes left.”

“Well, mine’s just started.”

I groaned and stood. I had no desire to argue with her, and since I knew how it always ended, it wasn’t worth the fight. As I left the room, she sneered, “Yeah, that’s right, you better know your place.”

An overwhelming urge to smack her across the face hit me. Without even knowing it, I rushed at her. I grabbed her hair and yanked it. She screamed and shoved me off before she jumped on top of me. “You little brat! You messed up my hair. I’m going out in like ten minutes!”

“You’re the brat! You’re not even going to finish your show. You’re so selfish.”

We struggled on the floor before Mum rushed in and hollered, “That’s enough!”

Harper leaped off me. “She started it. Look what she did to my hair!”

“Are you kidding me?” I cried. “Mum, she’s―”

“I don’t want to hear it. You’re both grounded for a week.”

“Mum!” we both whined in unison. Grounded? That
sucked
. I thought those years were long gone.

“Harper, you can go out tonight, but cancel the rest of your plans for the weekend.”

Harper huffed and glared at me. “This is all your fault!”

“Me?” I gasped incredulously.

“Enough, Harper. Now both of you get to your rooms,” Mum snapped.

We skulked to our bedrooms across the hall from each other. Before I turned to my door, I paused and looked at Harper. She was very pretty. She had long slender hands and legs, and she had light brown eyes rather than the blue that Dusty and I shared. With her hair dyed dark, she looked nothing like me. No wonder she pulled off being an only child at school. “Harper?”

She huffed and glared at me.

“I’m sorry I messed up your hair.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Just don’t talk to me.”

She slammed the door in my face.

I slipped into my room and tried to recall when we stopped fighting. I was fairly certain it was after she graduated. I groaned, knowing I had to endure two more years of her sour demeanor.

I collapsed on my bed and huffed. I stared at my knees for a moment before lifting my legs. Unlike Harper’s, they were short and stubby, but still slim compared to before I came back. I dropped them down and thought of Austin. He had great legs . . . he had great everything. While I was pregnant, I teased and said that I hoped our child would inherit his legs rather than mine.

He pinned me on the couch and ran his hands over my legs. “I love your legs.”

I gazed into his brown eyes and stroked his cheek. He leaned over me and kissed me with such love I thought I’d melt.

Rolling onto my belly, I reached under my bed for the scrapbook. I slipped it out and opened to Austin’s pictures again. I found one with him doing his homework, wearing the ugliest and biggest glasses I’d ever seen. I giggled at how goofy he looked. He wore glasses just for reading, but by the time I met him, he’d developed some sense of style and wore much smaller and fashionable glasses. I pulled out the picture of him with Melody and placed it beside his to compared the two. I loved how their eyes matched.

Harper’s door banged and she rushed down the hallway. She didn’t even say bye to Mum when she called to her. I wondered if I could somehow change things with Harper, make her nicer earlier.

Mum’s footsteps came down the hallway, so I slipped the scrapbook back under my bed. She tapped softly on the door. “Cadence, can I come in?”

I sat up. “Sure.”

The door crept open. “Can I talk to you?”

I shuffled onto my pillows so she could sit on the bed with me.

As she sat, she sighed.

I looked her over, thinking about how much she had cried in the hospital. I had inherited most of my appearance from her, my sandy colored hair, my blue eyes, and chubby legs. We’d always been close, which made many of my friends envious. But that day in the hospital haunted me. I’d never seen her cry so hard. With Melody being Mum’s only granddaughter, as Harper had all boys, she held a special place in Mum’s heart. That, along with how close we were, she was easily just as devastated as me.

“Cadence,” she said gently. “I know you didn’t start that fight, but you should have been the one to end it.”

My cheeks warmed. “I know.”

“You know you are more levelheaded than your sister. I don’t mean to expect more from you than from her, but I do.”

I sighed. “I’m sorry, Mum. I’ll try to do better.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.” She touched my face. “Now, come out and have dinner with us.”

I swung my legs around and stood beside Mum. As she walked out, I wrapped my arm around her waist. She looked at me surprised, but smiled and squeezed my shoulders.

At the table, I sat beside Dusty. He ignored me as he focused on the food. When Dad signaled for us to serve ourselves, he leaped up and dug in.

“I can’t believe you’re smart enough to be an architect,” I muttered as I watched him.

Mum chuckled. “Architect? Wow, Cadence. I didn’t realize you had that much faith in your brother.”

“What’s an architect?” Dusty muttered, his mouth full of food.

I raised an eyebrow. “How do you not know that?”

He shrugged. “Why should I care? I’m gonna be something where I don’t have to do much to get there. Like a truck driver.”

“Wow.” I grunted, having forgotten how lazy he’d been.

“Anyways,” Dusty said through his food, “I heard
you
got
dumped
.”

I shrugged and focused on eating.

“Tyler dumped you?” Mum asked.

“Who’s Tyler?” Dad asked, his voice rising.

“Tyler is the biggest hottie ever,” Dusty teased, making kissing noises at me.

“You’re so immature.” I shoved his shoulder.

“You better not be kissing boys, Cadence!” Dad’s eyes narrowed as he pointed his fork at me.

“Yeah, you’re not allowed to do that until you’re fifty!” Dusty laughed.

I scowled. “Dad, I’m not kissing boys.”

“Hon, it’s okay.” Mum touched Dad’s shoulder. “It was just a fling. It only lasted for about a month.”

“A month!” Dad jumped to his feet.

“Dad!” I covered my face. So, I hadn’t blown his overprotective nature out of proportion.

“Cadence, I’ve told you no boyfriends! You are fourteen years old and don’t need them yet!” He sank back onto his chair. “You know what boyfriends lead to. Boys your age only want one thing.”

“Gross, Dad,” Dusty grumbled.

“Please don’t start on the sex talk again.” I groaned, remembering the thousands of times he’d climbed that particular soapbox.

“Oh, I will, Cadence. I don’t want you getting pregnant before you’re married, and sex, as you know, leads to getting pregnant. That’s what sex is intended for, not for you and your friends to get their jollies off.”

“Oh my gosh!” I covered my face as I turned bright red.
Did he seriously just say that?

“You are not having sex until you’re married.”

“Dad, I’m not anywhere near having sex! It was just a thing. He liked me and I liked him, but it’s over now.”

“It better be over or I’m going to go down to that school to castrate him and anyone else who looks at you!”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, David!” Mum grabbed Dad’s arm. “You’re being a bit overdramatic, don’t you think? Cadence is a smart girl and she knows what she should and shouldn’t be doing.”

I couldn’t help smiling at her. I hadn’t realized how lucky I was to have them both as a teenager.

Dad growled something under his breath, then pointed at me with his fork. “No more boyfriends. I don’t want you turning out all foul and irritable like Harper. Don’t think I don’t know what she does.”

A question that had bothered me for years, but I was always too afraid to ask, bubbled to the surface. I couldn’t help blurting out, “Why do you let her go out and do things, then? Why are you so hard on me when you know she’s the one who actually drinks and smokes and who knows what else?”

The table fell silent. They gaped at my outburst, then Dad turned bright red with rage. “Go to your room!”

But I wanted to test this one. I had stewed over it for years as a teenager, but this time around, I wanted to know. “No! You know I would never do those things, but you’re always on my case about it and never on hers.”

Dad launched to his feet and pointed to my room. “Get to your room
now
!”

I scowled, knowing I wasn't going to get an answer. I stormed out and headed to my room. I paced back and forth. The second chance suddenly didn’t seem so appealing. Having to relive being under the rules of my parents, having to face injustices I’d managed to let go of, and the hormones, oh the hormones! Even with my rational, more mature twenty-five-year-old reasoning, the hormones seemed to thrust me into an emotional haze. It was ridiculous. How did I live with it the first time?

I stopped pacing and fell to my knees. I pulled out the scrapbook and read the next week’s journal entries, reading clear into the following Sunday before I stopped and took a deep breath. I needed get control over my erratic emotions and focus. I needed to fix things I had done wrong, not create problems that hadn’t existed in the first place.

I flipped to the pictures and looked at Austin again. I found one of his sixteenth birthday. He stood beside his mother in the kitchen while she made her famous stroganoff, grinning from ear to ear.

I smiled and slipped out the photo Dad gave me in the hospital. Austin and Melody’s matching wide grins and identical brown eyes gazing at the camera sent a chill through me. Melody loved her daddy more than anything. He was the only man in her world; she guarded him from her cousins jealously.