Graceland: Family Affair

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The three of us sit in complete silence on the way home. Mike's face is still flushed red with anger and he's still reeling from the run-in he had with Ricardo. I keep replaying it in my mind, trying to convince myself that I'm not a complete wimp. I should have been able to handle that myself, but when Ricardo grabbed me, I was terrified. Which makes me wonder – how can I protect Mike when I can't even protect myself. We pull up at the house to find Johnny and Jakes waiting in the driveway for us. The three of us climb out of our car, not saying a word.

"Why the long faces?" Jakes asks. "I thought it went pretty well –"

"You know, Mike, try and restrain yourself next time you decide to lash out at a Mendoza!" Paul finally snaps after holding it in.

"Oh, here we go..." I mutter under my breath, knowing that he was incapable of just letting this one slide.

"Look, he was trying to make a move on Sarah...and that wasn't part of the deal..." Mike explains as he tries to calm Paul down.

"You could have blown the whole thing!" Paul yells, walking towards Mike so that there face-to-face and inches apart.

"Can we take this inside?" I say quietly, gently touching both of them on the arm.

"It really wasn't that bad..." Johnny tries to defend Mike.

"He called Mike a 'little hothead'!" Paul mimics Ricardo's Mexican slur. "You took it too far, Mike!"

"Inside, please?" I try again.

"I was just trying to protect your sister", Mike says, trying to keep his cool. "I was ensuring her safety...it's not fair that we have to expect her to just let that kind of thing happen to her..."

"You're lucky that they still asked us to come back next week after your little episode!" Paul raises his voice again.

"And Ricardo is lucky that I didn't do to him what I really wanted to do...I held back, so count your blessings..." Mike says sincerely. "I could have punched the guy!"

"You could have ruined everything!" I give up with trying to move this inside and just walk away towards the front door by myself. I can't believe that Paul is being as petty as this. "Don't walk away from me, Sarah! I haven't even started with you yet!" He shouts after me.

"Lay off, Paul..." Jakes says in a low tone as he, Johnny and Mike follow me into the house.

"Because, you know –" Paul carries on as if Jakes hadn't spoken, following us and closing the front door behind him, the five of us standing in the living room. "When I told you two to act like a couple, I didn't mean start planning to have babies! Don't you think it's going to look suspicious when no baby appears?!"

"Hey!" I snap, turning on my heels so that I'm not facing him. "You're the one who had the smart idea for Mike and me to have children! Well, you got your wish!"

"What have we missed?" Mum jokes from the sofa. I'd completely forgotten that my parents would still be here.

"How long have we been sat here?" Dad laughs. I'm not in the mood to react to either of their jokes.

"If it had been up to me, Paul, we'd have just been newly-weds! But, nooooooo...you just had to change it! 'It'd make it more realistic and believable if you have kids'!" I try my best to do Paul's voice. "Remember?! Or do you have a little bit of selective memory?!" I say sarcastically. "And as for Mike confronting Ricardo – he was only protecting me, which is more than you did! He was doing what any loving husband would have done in that situation!"

"Well he shouldn't have! He could have put all of us in jeopardy, and all our hard work up until this point would have been for nothing! He shouldn't have tried to interfere with that!" Paul yells back.

"Excuse me?!" I stand there open-mouthed in disbelief at the statement that has just left Paul's mouth. I fold my arms across my chest, waiting for an answer from him.

"That's not what I meant –" He says almost inaudibly as he looks to the ground, realising what he's just said.

"Then what did you mean?! Are you seriously suggesting that I should have just let that sweaty, smarmy little creep of a man do whatever he wanted to me for the sake of my job and some stupid mission?!"

"It is not a stupid mission!" He shouts back.

"I can't believe that you're more protective of a mission than you are about your own sister! What is with that?!" He doesn't say anything, realising the enormity of everything that he's just said. "You are crazy!!!" I point a finger at him, starting to shake in anger as I back away towards the stairs. "You know what, you've changed, Paul! You're not the brother, the Agent, or the man, that I thought you were! I can't believe a word you say! Because I can't tell anymore, Paul – I can't tell whether it's you or the drugs talking!"

"Drugs?" Mum says in shock as she slowly stands up from the sofa. Jackson looks up from his phone and Ethan looks up from his colouring, dropping his crayon onto the dining room table. They both look crushed. They're children – they shouldn't have had to hear that. Dad sits there, staring at Paul intently, unable to remove his eyes from Paul's face as he waits to hear what he had to say for himself. "...Paul?" Mum turns to look at him, her face pleading with him to tell her that she misheard or just imagined the words that just fell out of my mouth. I feel a stab in my heart as I look at the pain and hurt on her face when I realise that I'm the one who put it there. One accidental slip of the tongue in the heat of the moment, and I've broken my Mother's heart.

"...Mum..." Paul says, fighting back the tears as he tries to say what he needs to. He's going to have to tell her the truth about everything. He takes a long pause, the tension building in the room. Tears start to sting in my eyes as I realise what I've done and the hurt that my thoughtlessness is going to cause. "...I was a drug addict..."