Don't Talk About Mickey

30 - A Last Hoorah

To my dearest readers, 

I know it hasn't been fair to you guys that I've been AWOL on my stories for almost two years. I also know I've lost a lot of readers because of it.  I've been through a lot in the last year--some really serious stuff. I wasn't able to focus on writing at all. But the good news is that unlike a lot of my other unfinished and unpublished stories, Mickey has always stuck with me. I've been determined to finish it no matter how long it takes. To those of you who are still reading: I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

-Liz

A Last Hoorah

The lifeless engine of Carly's car ticked as it rested in her driveway. It had been fifteen minutes since she arrived and she was still sitting in the driver's seat, the file practically burning a hole in her passenger seat. All her intuitions were true. Sebastian suddenly walking into her life--into her mother's life--wasn't a mere coincidence. He was using Eliza to get to Jack, using her prior employment at Slade Enterprises to get what he wanted. He'd been playing them all from the get-go.

The tears burned behind Carly's eyelids. This whole time, deep down inside, she wanted to be wrong about her suspicions. She wanted to believe there was a plausible reason why he had weaved this incredible web of lies. She wanted to believe that she was actually important to him, important enough to keep her hanging by a thread this whole time.

She wiped away the wetness on her cheeks with the back of her hands and contemplated what she was going to do with the file. Whether it proved that Sebastian was being set up and blackmailed, or if it were true evidence of his indiscretions, it implicated both Sebastian and Jack Slade in wrongdoings. Sam had suggested they take the file to the police as soon as possible, but something held Carly back. It wasn't a great time. Her debut was in less than 48 hours. She wasn't ready to see her mother's heart get broken. All excuses, all good enough for her to stuff the file in her glove box and forget about it for the time being.

A gust of hot, humid air stampeded through her car as she opened the door, nearly taking the breath out of her. Even at night, there was no solace to the Texas summer heat. She noticed the oil spot on the driveway where her mother usually parked. She was too tired to even wonder where Eliza went. She slumped at the front door, wishing she could walk in and everything would be normal. A chuckle escaped from her throat. Who was she kidding? Nothing was ever normal. Not when she lived with professional alcoholic and barely saw her own dad.

"What are you laughing about?" Sebastian's voice was curious and amused.

Carly turned her head, finding him standing at the edge of the porch a cigarette burning orange as he sucked it down. Patches of heat spread through the sides of her neck. Was he there the whole time? Had he been watching her while she was in her car? "Um," she said, reaching for an excuse. "Something Cody said earlier."

"Oh."

"I'm beat," she said, her hand gripping the doorknob. "I think I'm going to hit the hay."

"Something's different."

His remark stopped her dead in her tracks. "Huh?"

He threw the half-smoked cigarette and stubbed it out with his boot. "You're acting different" he said. "You're being...nice."

Nice wasn't exactly the word she'd put on it, but she knew what he meant. Usually during these moments she found herself alone with him, she was either upset or angry or being seduced by him. Or all three. Now she just wanted to crawl into a hole and attempt to unravel the knots her stomach had turned into. This was it, she thought. She had the means of ridding him from her life for good, but wasn't quite sure that she wanted to. The tears that she'd just managed to subside in the car threatened to break through.