Strays

Chapter 2

When Lindley finally made it home, the sun was finally beginning to rise. She opened the creaking door, the screen door hitting her heels gently. Mike was in the kitchen holding a glass of orange juice in his painter's jumpsuit.

"Nice of you to finally come around," he grunted. Her mom popped in from the back room, hearing Mike's greeting.

"Miss Lindley Everleigh Johnson, where were you last night?" She was putting on earrings getting ready for work. Lindley was suspicious at her going in to work during the day—either she had pissed someone off at her job to get the bad shift, or they were hard pressed for money and she was taking extra shifts.

"I'm sorry, Mom," Lindley answered, attempting to read the room as she walked in. "I was at Old Rick's and I fell asleep."

"You shouldn't be spending so much time at a bar," Mike said, the sound of his keys indicating that he was leaving a melody that always brought an unconscious smile to her lips. "You expect your mother and I to just believe that you 'fell asleep' at a bar until 5 in the morning?"

Lindley ignored him and walked toward her room. Mike reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her. "Don't walk away while I'm talking to you."

"It's none of your business," snapped Lindley. The crack of Mike's hand across her cheek snapped Lindley's Mom to attention. She looked over at where her daughter was pushing herself up from the ground.

"Lindley, don't talk back to Mike," she said with an exasperated sigh. "Mike, don't discipline my daughter."

"Someone needs to," he grumbled as her stormed out of the house.

With Mike outside, Lindley's Mom paused, watching her daughter walk into her room. She should say something, she thought, but she also knew there was nothing she could say.

Lindley was already in her bed when she heard her mother close the front door. She pulled the blanket over her head and took a deep breath.

"Just one more semester," she whispered to herself. "Then I can leave—get the fuck out of West Texas." Her mind conjured the faces of the newcomers in Ole Rick's. Fucking idiots, she thought. Coming to a place like this, where there are people like fucking Mike.

Mike and her mom had been on and off for a while before he moved in. He was only one of a list of frequent fliers in Laura Lynn's bedroom. She met plenty of men at her work who would make her big promises. Mike promised to provide for her, marry her, and let her daughter continue to live in Laura Lynn's home until she finished college. Only one of those promises was kept. The only thing Mike truly had to offer, in Lindley's opinion, was to serve as a reminder of why she was working so hard. All the jobs, the late nights at the library, the scholarships—it was all to get away from this life. There was more than this out there, and Lindley wanted it.