The Education of Sebastian & the Education of Caroline (96 page)

Mom sighed. “That’s still the deal.”

It really sucked ass. For the last two years Seb and I had planned what we were going to do when we went to UCSD together. We were going to room together, take the same Liberal Arts classes, hang out, surf. Now that was all gone.

“And there are some other rules,” said Dad. “No drinking in the house. I don’t mind you guys having the occasional beer, but stay off the liquor. In fact, don’t let Seb drink too much anywhere. He doesn’t need to end up like his mom.”

That
hit home. Seb’s mom was a whoring lush.

“Yeah, got it. Anything else?”

“No smoking weed. I find you’ve been doing that again, I’ll be taking the keys to the van. Got it.”

“Sir, yes, sir,” I muttered under my breath.

“Excuse me?” he snapped.

“Yeah, I got it, Dad. I’m not a kid.”

But the truth was I kind of felt like one, especially when I thought about Seb’s problems. He’d left home at 17, and would be enlisting soon. No drunken college nights for him, no all-nighters cramming for a test. He’d do his basic training, then he’d be shipped off to wherever the Marines wanted him. Smart money said Iraq.

He’d fallen in love, got his heart stomped on, and the shit beaten out of him by his own father.

Compared to that, being told not to touch Dad’s whisky and stay off the weed, hell, I had no problems. None.

When I went up to my room, Seb was lying on the cot again, but I could see that he’d stowed some clothes and a few books. Funny enough, the place looked tidier, even though it had more stuff in it.

“Hey, man. ‘Sup?”

“You cool with this, Ches? I’ll only be in your hair for a few months—just till I leave for basic training.”

“Sure, of course it’s cool. You’re my brother, man.” I laughed uneasily. “Mi casa, su casa.”

He sat up, staring out at the night sky.

“I can’t believe she’s gone. I keep thinking she’ll find a way to get in touch. Write me or something. But it’s been two weeks now.”

“You know she can’t, buddy.”

He sighed and looked down at his hands.

“I know, but I can’t help hoping that she will. Fuck, I know that makes me sound like a pathetic pussy but … I miss her.”

He scrubbed at his eyes and I didn’t know what to do.

So like a complete dumbass, I said something to make it worse. “I saw Brenda today. She was looking for you.”

His eyes narrowed dangerously. “That whore better stay out of my way. Fuckin’ bitch. This is all her fault,” and he punched his pillow hard.

I cleared my throat a couple of times. “Any luck with the job hunt?”

He blew out a long breath, then nodded. “Yeah, starting at Stone’s Reef in the morning.” He flashed a small smile. “In about five hours.”

“Seriously? Why so early?”

“Gonna be a good swell—they want to be open for breakfast.”

I don’t know if he slept that night, because every time I woke up, I could see that his eyes were open.

After that, we got into a rhythm. We worked when we had to, surfed when we could, and didn’t talk about Caroline Wilson or what had gone down. But it was there, simmering under the surface. And Seb was just plain miserable. He never wanted to hang out with the guys anymore, and I felt he only just tolerated my company sometimes. He preferred to be by himself, and when we surfed, he was always the furthest away from us. Fido was pretty cut up about that.

But my best friend was hurting and I didn’t know what to do to help.

One thing that definitely
wouldn’t
help was Brenda fuckin’ Wiseman.

Even after I’d told her that Seb didn’t work at the country club anymore, she kept coming around and bothering me, trying to find out where he was working now.

Girl wouldn’t take no for an answer.

I was just taking my break when she turned up
again
.

“Ches, can’t you at least give him a message from me? I really need to see him.”

I sighed heavily. “He doesn’t want to see you, Brenda. He doesn’t want to talk to you, and you know what, he doesn’t even want to
think
about you. You fucking cheated on him with Jack Sullivan, and then you shit all over his new relationship. Believe me when I say you’re better off
not
hearing what he thinks about you.”

Her eyes watered, and I held back a frustrated curse. I hated it when girls cried. It was like the ultimate weapon against a guy.

“Does he hate me that much?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” I said, not caring to sugarcoat it.

“That … that woman, Mrs. Wilson. He was
really
into her? But she was, like,
old?
”

I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. “Yeah, he was
into
her. He loved her.”
And still does
.

Brenda looked shocked. “He told you that? He told you that he loved her?”

“For fuck’s sake, yes!”

“Well, she couldn’t have loved him back, because I heard she just drove away and left him.”

I grabbed her arm and pulled her around to the side of the pool where there were fewer people who could overhear us.

“Jesus, are you so freakin’ dumb? Caroline—Mrs. Wilson—was forced to leave because Seb is underage. It was either that or get arrested.”

Brenda’s eyes widened and her mouth popped open in a silent O. Then she pulled herself together.

“Well, she was way too old for him anyway.”

It was all I could do to keep from slapping her.

“I had no idea you were such a selfish bitch, Bren. If you hadn’t screwed around on Seb, none of this would have happened.”

I wasn’t sure how true that was because there was no doubt how deep Seb was in with Caroline Wilson—and always had been.

I walked away from Brenda, but as I looked back, the breeze caught the summer dress she was wearing, and it wrapped tightly around her body. At first I thought she’d put on weight, but the blood drained from my face as I realized that her belly wasn’t just fat—she was pregnant.

She saw the look on my face and paled.

I marched toward her, and she took a step back, as if looking for somewhere to hide.

“You’re pregnant.”

It wasn’t a question.

She nodded slowly.

“Are you saying that it’s Seb’s? Is that why you’ve been stalking him?”

She bit her lip and looked down.

This time I did grab her arm and gave her a small shake.

“Tell the fuckin’ truth for once. Did Seb knock you up?”

She yanked her arm free.

“No!” she shouted. “I wish it was him, but it wasn’t. I wish…” her words broke off and this time she really was crying.

“Ah shit,” I said, quietly.

I led her out to the staff parking lot and she sat in my van, crying and ruining her makeup. What a fucked up story.

Jack Sullivan had given her some skunk—much stronger weed than she was used to. They’d had sex, even though she was still going out with Seb at the time. When she woke up in the morning and realized she wasn’t a virgin anymore, she was afraid to tell him what she’d done. So she broke up with him instead.

To try and make herself feel better, she’d gone from party to party, getting high, getting drunk, sleeping with guys, including several more times with Jack. She’d gotten pregnant at the exact same time that Caroline Wilson came back into Seb’s life.

In Brenda’s fucked up mind, that meant that Caroline was her competition, so she’d gone out of her way to get rid of her.

“I know Seb won’t … be interested in me now,” she cried. “But I just hoped … I thought if he slept with me one time…”

“You’d tell him the kid was his. So Caroline being around messed up your plan to get Seb to sleep with you. That is fuckin’ low, Brenda.”

“I know, but I was desperate,” she gasped out between sniffing and hiccupping.

Chicks don’t cry as pretty in real life as in the movies.

“What do you think is going to happen between you if you do see Seb again?”

She looked down.

“I don’t know. Nothing, I guess. But it would be nice to have the chance to see … if there’s anything still between us. We were … we were good together.”

“He moved on,” I said, gently.

She sighed.

“Yeah, I get that. Although I still don’t understand what was so great about
her
.”

I couldn’t face getting into
that
conversation again.

“Look, I’ll tell him you need to talk to him, but after that it’s up to him.”

“Thanks, Ches. I owe you.”

“No, Brenda. You owe, Seb. Big time.”

Boy, I really wasn’t looking forward to telling Seb about any of this. I waited till we were in the van on the way home from a late night stealth mission. I’d parked on the beach and left the van’s lights on, so we’d have something to aim for, as we caught wave after wave in the oily black ocean.

It had been good, almost like old times, but Seb knew me well enough that he could sense the tension in my body.

“You look like you’ve got a stick up your ass, so why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you,” he said, eyeing me steadily.

“Uh yeah, so … I saw Brenda today.”

“Again?”

“Yeah, she still wants to talk to you.”

“Un-fuckin’-believable.” He paused. “You told her no, right?”

“Well…

He rolled his eyes. “Since when did you get to be on her cheer team? You hated the bitch even before I did.”

“I just think you should hear what she’s got to say. She knows she screwed up and she knows you’re not going to take her back.”

“Then why bother?”

“Just talk to her, man. It’s important.”

“Ah fuck it. Okay, tell her to meet me at the surf shack after work. No, wait. I don’t want her knowing where I work. Tell her the park. She can have five minutes.”

He looked pissed about it, but at least he agreed.

It was two days later that he had his talk with Brenda. He came home looking upset.

“So, how’d it go?”

He shook his head.

“Fuck, I can’t believe it, man. She’s fuckin’
pregnant
.”

“Yeah, I know. It was kind of obvious when I saw her up close.”

“She told her parents yesterday. They’re freaking out. She said they asked her what
I’m
going to do about it.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, she hadn’t even told them we’d broken up, even though it was like five months ago.”

“But she’s put them straight now?”

He shook his head, looking irritated.

“Not exactly. She wouldn’t tell them who the father is. I’m not even sure
she
knows. She thinks it’s Jack Sullivan, but she’s not sure.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, but because she’s not saying, her parents won’t believe that it’s
not
me. She had to stop them going over to see my old man.”

He shook his head in disbelief.

“That’s why she’s been trying to talk to me.”

“What are you going to do?”

He gave me a look.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do? It’s not my kid. If it was … if it was mine, I’d look after them, or something. No kid should come into the world unwanted. I should fuckin’ know. But I’m not gonna fall on my sword for her either. She fucked up when she told my mom about Caro. I can’t forgive her for that.”

“I can’t believe you never slept with Brenda. I always thought you guys were doin’ it like bunnies.”

He shrugged. “We were going to. It was supposed to be this big deal.” He side-eyed me. “Because we were both virgins. We did some other stuff, but we never fucked.”

I slapped him on the shoulder. “Well, I guess you’ve ticked that box now, bro.”

Instead of a fist-bump, he scowled at me.

“It wasn’t like that with Caro.”

My eyebrows shot upward.

“You’re telling me you didn’t sleep with her? Because, dude, I saw your back and she had some serious claws.”

His cheeks reddened. “I meant it wasn’t fucking. Well, yeah, it was. But it was more than that. When I was with her … it was like the whole world went away and it was just us.” He shook his head. “I can’t explain it.”

“Have you heard anything from her? From Caro?”

“Nah, man, and it’s driving me crazy, not knowing where she is or what she’s doing. Not knowing if she’s safe…”

“Maybe she went back to her mom’s.”

He studied the rug on the floor that was rough with sand we’d trekked in from the beach.

“I don’t think so. They weren’t close—not since her dad died.”