Embittered Ruby (3 page)

Mom looked confused. “They’re old enough to throw away the trash.”

“You can’t let them run around here like they did at home. It’s just not safe, remember?” Hadn’t Mom heard her own lecture? “I’ll go with them.” Carmen shrugged on a sweater and grabbed an armful.

Two trips down the back stairs, and they were finished. Carmen stomped back to her room without a word.
Don’t follow. Please don’t follow
. She had stuff to take care of and needed complete privacy. Once in her room, she pulled the door shut and locked it.

No such luck. She sensed them on the other side of the door before she heard the knock. Why couldn’t she get even a moment to herself? “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to say sorry for tricking you about the bed. And thanks for helping with the trash.” Kimberley spoke through the door. At least she didn’t ask to come in.

“Me, too.” Harper giggled. “But it was funny.”

Carmen opened the door a crack. “Thanks for the apologies. Now can I just have like fifteen minutes alone? Please?”

“Okie doke.” Harper grabbed Kim’s hand and scurried away, pulling the door shut behind her.

Finally. Carmen ran to her dresser and rummaged through the drawers then turned to the closet and dug through the three unpacked boxes of books. Not there. She pulled her purple nylon tennis bag from under her bed and plowed through the deodorant, granola bars, hairspray, and extra socks. Not there either. Where were they? She’d already missed two of her birth-control pills, and they were still nowhere to be found. In an entire year of taking them, these were the first ones she’d missed. If she found them, she’d just double up for two days—no problem.

But if she couldn’t find them, then what would she do?

Carmen rubbed her chin and turned in a circle, looking at everything in her room. Had she said something to Nate about where she put them? But she couldn’t ask him—then he’d know she’d missed some, and they were supposed to get together after tennis practice tomorrow. He had a special evening all planned while his parents were away, and then he intended to stay over with her at Dad’s. Carmen sure didn’t want to mess everything up.

Where were those pills?
Think. Think
.

E
ggplant parmigiana
. Their third dinner in Hackensack. If they couldn’t live like rich New Yorkers, they could at least eat like them. Once in a while. Carmen blew on the steaming sauce before slurping a sample from the spoon. She kissed her fingertips.
Perfecto
.

The oven timer dinged. Carmen pulled open the squeaky door and slid out the tray of garlic bread, the cheese brown and bubbly. “It’s ready, you guys.”

Harper slid into the kitchen on her socks and skidded to a stop just before slamming into the countertop peninsula. “Mmm. Bread!” She reached for the least-brown piece.

“Harper.” Carmen reached a plate under the bread to catch the cheese about to ooze to the floor. She placed a serving fork in the salad and tossed it with the Caesar dressing just as Mom came in.

“I smelled it all the way in my room—hoped that’s what you made. This’ll be great.” She picked up a plate and served herself.

Kimberley strolled into the room, bouncing her head to the tunes on her iPod. “Just salad for me. I’m watching my weight.”

Hah. Little did she know, the Caesar salad with dressing, cheese, and croutons was about as bad as the full dinner.

Kim added a hunk of cheesy garlic toast to her plate.

“Uh, Kim. So much for watching your weight.”

Kim shrugged and sashayed from the kitchen, right past Mom, to sit cross-legged on the couch—her Juicy sweats most likely riding too low in back like they always did.

Harper sat on the floor near Kim and put her plate on the coffee table. She picked up the remote as she chewed her first bite.

They would never have gotten away with skipping a family dinner at…home. Carmen glanced at Mom, eating alone at the dining-room table as she thumbed through the pages of her latest Mary Kay catalog. Sure didn’t look lonely or depressed.

Fine. Carmen had no plans to stick around and force family togetherness if no one else wanted it. She grabbed her dinner and a Coke then went to her room. No one said a word to stop her.

She shut the door and slid to the floor with her back against the edge of the bed, drew her knees up, and rested her plate on them. She forked a bite of cheesy eggplant and twisted it until the molten strands gave out. After letting it cool for a couple of seconds, she scraped the bite from the fork with her teeth. Ouch! She shuffled it around on her tongue and huffed air to cool it more. Delicious. Carmen didn’t need anyone else to confirm it for her to know the truth.

Her pocket vibrated. She wiped her hands on the carpet and dug for her phone. A text message from Dad?

T
RAVELING
. I
‘LL PICK U GUYS UP IN THE MORNING INSTEAD OF TONIGHT
.

What? Didn’t such a major change of plans at least warrant a phone call? Carmen touched and held the number F
IVE
button then pressed the phone to her ear. It rang one time.

“You’ve reached Daniel Castillo…”

Voice mail? But he’d sent a text message only seconds ago, so his phone must have been on. How could he send his own daughter straight to voice mail on purpose? And what’s worse, how could he miss the first night of the first weekend of visitation?

“Kim!” Carmen shouted down the hall. “Did you get a text from Dad?”

“Let me check,” Kim yelled back. “No. Why?” Great. He expected Carmen to do his dirty work.

Nate’s evening class ended at eight. What time was it anyway? Carmen touched the display on her phone to bring it to life. Nine o’clock already? He’d been out for an hour and hadn’t called or texted. What could he be doing? Was he avoiding her? Could she really blame him considering her attitude lately? She sure hadn’t been the picture of pleasantry during the past week since the move.

Should she call him? Maybe he was staring at his phone wondering why she hadn’t called him. It wasn’t 1950; girls were allowed to call boys. Carmen pressed the number Two speed-dial button and waited for him to answer.

“Hey. I was just thinking about you. You excited about tomorrow night?”

Carmen breathed a sigh of relief. He sounded normal. She eased the door closed and sank onto her bed. She nestled her head between the four extra-fluffy pillows. “You kidding? Of course I am. Any time with you is awesome.”

“Mmm-hmm. Where’s everyone tonight?”

Carmen imagined Nate sprawled on the floor cushions in front of the TV in his room. Too bad he wasn’t curled up there with her. “Mom’s out at a Mary Kay thing at an old friend’s house. I’m babysitting—the girls are watching a movie.”

“If only I lived closer. I’d be over.” Nate’s hypnotic voice lulled Carmen into a dream state.

“I know. It’s going to be impossible to get used to this. Two weekends a month?” Carmen sighed. Even though they’d be together more than many couples, four days a month wasn’t nearly enough for them.

“How’s it going to work exactly? Your dad is going to come pick you up on Fridays, right?

Hadn’t they been over this a ton of times? “Yeah, every other Friday. He’ll pick us up at four o’clock. Then on the off weeks, Mom will bring me up for my tennis lesson on Saturday mornings. But I’ll have to come right back home with her after.”

“Hmm. If you can get your mom to let me stay overnight like your dad does, I could bring you back home from your Saturday tennis lessons on those in-between weekends and then spend the night. But I don’t see her agreeing to that.”

No way Mom would ever let Nate stay overnight. Besides, where would he sleep? Top bunk? Not likely. The rickety flea-market sofa with the duct tape holding the back together? Hardly. “I’ll see what I can do. Not promising anything, though.”

“Yeah. I get it. Never know, though.”

“Plus, don’t forget, this weekend could have been longer if Dad hadn’t blown us off for tonight. He was supposed to pick us up today, but he said his trip went long.” She didn’t fully believe him, though it was difficult to get the details from nothing but a text message. “So he’s not coming for us until it’s time for me to get to tennis in the morning.” If he made her miss tennis…Carmen shuddered. The team was already frustrated enough that she couldn’t be there during the week and could only come for the Saturday lessons. She was lucky to still be on the team. If she weren’t a good player, she’d have gotten kicked off for sure. Hopes of a college scholarship for tennis were probably out the window. But at least she could still play.

“Right. But hey, let’s focus on the good news. We have tomorrow night all to ourselves.” Like convincing a child it’s an okay thing there’s no Santa. “Oh, and in other good news, you’ll have lots more to tell Nosy Nellie with all those people you’ll be meeting.”

“Hey. You leave my journal alone. And she’s just Nellie. Not
Nosy
Nellie.” Carmen laughed.

“Someday you’re going to have to let me see her.”

Carmen loved to hear him call her journal a
her
just like she did. “What’s funny is Mom made me start writing my thoughts about other people to Nellie as a way to break my obsession with gossip. All it did though is make me really, really good at it. Now I can pick out the worst in anyone just so I have something to tell her.”

“Okay. Now I really want to see your jour—Nellie. What have you written in there about your horrible boyfriend?”

“Oh, you know. It’s just girl talk between me and Nellie. She thinks I should dump you after all I’ve told her about you.”

“Hey. No fair. I’m going to start my own journal.”

Oh, the threats. “Ha. Then maybe your gossip journal can date my gossip journal.”

“Right. Then we’d have no secrets anymore.”

“Yeah. Scratch that idea.” Nate would be horrified if he saw her journal. Not about him—he was perfect as far as boyfriends go. But everyone else was fair game. Especially his mother.

“Hey. What secrets are you keeping?”

“Oh, that’s for me and Nellie to know and you never to find out.” Carmen laughed.

“It’s great to hear you laugh, C.”

Should Carmen tell him about the gang members who had taken up residence on the street outside her apartment? What about the recent fact she’d lost her birth-control pills and had missed four doses already? Hah. Carmen wondered which of those two bits of information would be worse news to her boyfriend. Who was she kidding? She knew the answer.

Speaking of which, where had her packet of pills disappeared to? If she didn’t want to tell Nate she’d missed some, and if she didn’t want to upset him by avoiding him all weekend, she might have to stay home tomorrow night after all. How did it even work when a person missed birth control for several days in a row? Surely people did it all the time. She’d have to Google it when she got off the phone. Couldn’t very well ask Mom what to do about it since she didn’t even know Carmen took them—it was against her religion. One which she believed Carmen at least sort of shared.

Banging came from the family room, followed by a loud crash. Footsteps pounded down the hallway and stopped right outside Carmen’s room before the door flung open, the doorknob banging on the wall, fitting right into the hole a previous renter had left behind from an apparent fit of rage.

“She won’t stop throwing the pillows at my head.” Kimberley shoved her finger in Harper’s face.

“Well she’s making fun of my movie.” Harper whopped Kimberley with a bed pillow.

“Only babies watch
Finding Nemo.”

Great
. “Hang on, Nate.” Carmen covered the phone receiver and glared. “You two better get out of here right now. I’m dead serious.”

“Or what? This is my room, too, you know.” Kimberley jutted out one hip and put her hands on her waist. “In fact. Come on, Harper. Let’s play a game up here.” She climbed onto the top bunk and reached down.

Harper dropped the pillow and tossed her teddy bear up onto the bed then clasped Kim’s hand and scrambled to get onto the bunk, suddenly united with her sister in joint purpose to torment Carmen.

Wonderful. “Nate, I’m going to have to go. The urchins have made their move.”

“Okay. Call me before you go to bed if you want to.”

Their tradition. Carmen loved the sultry, raspy whispers into her cell phone under the covers before she drifted off each night. But everything had changed. “It depends if Kim falls asleep before I do or not.” Carmen couldn’t have those conversations with Nate with her sister listening in from three feet above her.

“True dat. I’ll be around if she does.”

For now, but how long would his patience last? Gorgeous college hunks didn’t have to deal with all the hassles of dating someone younger. One day even Nate would tire of it.

“Love you.”

“Love you, too.” Carmen clicked the phone off and pried herself off her pillows. She didn’t want to hang around in there with the two stooges.

“Ooh. Love you, snookum.” Kim smooched the air.

“Love you, too, pumpkin.” Harper kissed her teddy bear.

“You two need to grow up.” Carmen slammed the door behind her, not quite sealing off the giggles.