The next morning, she went straight to the principal's office like she'd been instructed. She checked in with the secretary and waited. The principal didn't make her wait long.
"Abby." He said without a smile. "Come in." She did, and she sat down. Mr. Harvey, her algebra two teacher, was already in there with him. "We're just waiting on an officer to join us." He sat back in his chair and stared at her. He tried not to smile as he watched her sweat. She looked scared. Which was exactly what he wanted. An officer finally joined them. "So you know why you're here." He assumed.
"Yes." She replied, but it barely came out audible. She cleared her throat. "Yes."
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" This was absolute misery. Hell. She so desperately needed to get high right now. She shook the thought from her head.
"No." Her parents had asked them to make this as uncomfortable for her as possible. Scare her. Teach her a lesson. Good parents.
"Nineteen forged notes. Five failing grades. And you have nothing to say?" She shook her head. She just wanted the punishment so she could leave. "Being that you have already missed so much class time, it seems counterproductive to give you nineteen in school suspensions. We can compress them into fewer out of school suspensions." The thought of sitting at home all day with whichever parent would babysit her seemed like a nightmare. And the thought of wanting to get high hit her again. She shook it free with a deep breath.
"If I'm making up nineteen days of missed work, I'd rather be in school. This is my first time being in trouble in the eleven years I've been in school. Perhaps there is leniency for that. And I serve five days ISS. Go to class for five days. Serve another five. And if those fifteen days go well, the rest are forgiven, and I'm all caught up." There in that moment was born the Abby who could wheel and deal her way in and out of anything. The principal gave her idea some time to settle in. He knew the Demarco's would have strict consequences at home as well.
"Yes." He said, pretending to ponder the idea but knowing he didn't really have a better one. "I think that would work. Absolutely no tardies, absences or early dismissals in those fifteen days. And you understand if we require a call from a parent for every single tardy, absence or early dismissal in the future."
"Of course." She said. That was a given.
"As for legal action, forgery is a federal crime." The officer began. Abby had no idea how well she'd get to know this officer over the next nine months. "You can receive anything from probation and restitution to jail time." She debated how far they'd actually get in court for forging absentee notes to a high school, but she wasn't going to argue. She just wanted this to be over.
"I understand." She said.
"On a more personal note," the principal began, "if there's anything going on that you need to share, please do. This is oftentimes an indicator of new friends that are a bad influence, even drug use." He wanted to see her reaction, but he didn't want to flat out accuse her. That never went well, and it really wasn't fair. Yet. She nodded.
"Okay." He waited.
"So, there's nothing going on that took a straight A and well-behaved student and turned her into a nearly straight F troublemaker in a matter of weeks?" She looked away. Holding his gaze was impossible. It was all happening so fast. New boyfriend. Smoking weed to hang out. Drinking at parties. Smoking every day. Drinking just to hang out. Forging notes, skipping school. Using drugs. She got dizzy with the realization being thrown in her face.
"If I need help, I will ask for it." She lied. She was a liar. So many lies in one early morning meeting. She was dismissed. No one believed a word she'd said, and she knew it. She went straight to ISS where there was a pile of work waiting for her. She took it piece by piece. The morning flew by, and before she knew it, they were dismissed for lunch. But she wasn't hungry. She wasn't in the mood to mingle in the cafeteria, either.
...
Her parents looked around her room after she'd gone to school. It appeared everything a teenage girl's room should appear. Dirty clothes on the floor, her tap shoes and bass guitar in the corner. Stage make-up scattered on her dresser. Pictures of bands and friends stuck in the edges of her mirror.
"How do you toss a room?" She asked. He laughed and then stopped short. "It's okay. I meant it to be an ice breaker." They had decided to search her room for drugs or any evidence of such behavior while she sat with the principal and the police.
"Don't they usually find things in ceiling tiles?" He asked, looking up. She didn't have any.
"One less place to search." She said, looking on the bright side.
"Under the mattress?" He suggested.
"Her bed needs to be made anyway." Jennie rationalized. She went to the bed and pulled the sheets and blankets off. She shook them out. Nothing but a few pieces of clothing and her phone charger. Jason lifted her mattress and her box spring. Nothing. Jennie made her bed like a loving mother would while he searched her closet. They came up empty handed, a relief to them. But they knew deep down that it didn't mean much at all.
...
"Hey." She recognized the voice at the door. It was Sierra. Her best friend of practically her whole life. She gave a half-hearted smile and waved. "How many days?" She asked.
"Five now. Then I go to classes for five. Then five more in here. If all goes well, no tardies, absences or dismissals, the rest of the punishment is forgiven." Silence. Neither girl spoke right away.
"That sucks." Sierra didn't know what to say. She was disappointed in Abby. This wasn't like her at all.
"Yeah." Abby answered. Abby was losing her best friend, and she didn't know how to stop it. Maybe it was too far gone, and she couldn't. "The make-up work isn't as bad as I thought." She added to fill the silence. Relieve the awkwardness.
"Maybe tomorrow you'll eat in the caf?" Sierra asked.
"Maybe." Abby said. "I'm just not hungry, and I don't want to stop working. I want to get it all done as fast as possible." That sounded promising to Sierra.
"Okay." She acknowledged. "How pissed was dad?" Sierra and Abby had been so joined at the hip, that they referred to each other's parents as their own. They even joked that Aaron had two sisters.
"He actually took it better than I thought. Mom cried." Abby said with a tilt of the head and a small shrug indicating that it wasn't all that unexpected. Sierra smiled. Mrs. Demarco was the emotional mom, while hers was thicker skinned, emotionally hardened. She hated to admit that they'd played to that the last few years.
"Aaron seems... pissed." Sierra offered. Abby scoffed.
"Yeah. He was a little too blunt with his opinion. But I knew he would be anyway." Her reply contained a hint of regret. "I knew he was pissed." She corrected, insinuating that she knew he'd been pissed the last couple months, and that she's done nothing to change her behavior. Sierra envied them the connection they had, being an only child. Everyone who knew them well called it the twin thing. They knew each other's thoughts and feelings before they knew their own.
"I'm going to go eat lunch." Sierra said awkwardly. "I just wanted to hear how things went."
"Okay." Abby said, letting her off the hook.
"See you around." Sierra offered, walking away. It didn't seem right to walk away. They should be laughing while Sierra served the time with Abby just to be with her. But Sierra didn't want to, and Abby seemed like she wanted to be alone anyway.
...
Abby stepped outside the school doors seeing the sun and breathing fresh air for the first time all day. Her eyes adjusted, and she took a deep breath. Probably her last breath of freedom. Her parents had taken her phone and her car keys that morning, and then told her they'd discuss the rest of the consequences later that night. Can't wait, Abby thought. And then she saw him. He was leaning against his car, looking at her with a smile. He held a bouquet of roses in his hand. He was attracting stares from the other students as they left school. She walked towards him with a grin on her face. She jumped into his arms, and they embraced each other. They held on like it was the last time they'd ever see each other. Truth was, they always embraced like that. It set her on fire. Reluctantly, she let go and stepped back. He handed her the roses.
"For me?" She asked.
"For my sun, my moon, my stars." He purred. "My universe." She took them, giddy with young love, and feelings of complete acceptance and happiness. "I figured when you didn't text me this morning, or at all today, that your parents had taken your phone." He explained. "So, I decided to surprise you here." She beamed.
"That was so sweet of you. Today sucked. Suspension all day. I didn't even break for lunch. But I got a shit ton of work done." She heard the busses start up, and she knew she should be on one. But she loved when he held her hips when she stood in front of him. And he was doing it right then. He looked at her lips, and she knew he wanted to kiss them. He always looked at her lips before he kissed them. She closed her eyes, and he leaned in. She held the flowers in one hand and put her other arm around his shoulders. She didn't want him to stop kissing her. Ever. Eventually though, they had to stop. And it was quiet.
"Looks like you missed your bus." He whispered, breathing her in. She hadn't opened her eyes yet.
"Drive me home?" She asked, opening them. He kissed her again.
"Of course."
...
Aaron wouldn't be home yet. He had football until five. But Abby... her bus had come and gone, dropping off the neighborhood kids, but not her. While she was angry, Jennie couldn't say she was all that surprised. She waited. Several hours after Abby had been due home, Jennie heard a car pull up the driveway.
"Come in." Abby said as they sat in the car outside of her home. He'd rarely been to her house.
"Uh..." He hesitated. "I don't think that's a good idea."
"Why not?" She asked. He raised an eyebrow as if to say, you seriously don't know?
"Aren't you in trouble?" She shrugged.
"I haven't been fully punished yet. You can have dinner with us." He sighed and looked at the house. Maybe it would be okay.
"Alright. Only for you." He agreed. She smiled and squealed.
"Yeah!" She hopped out of the car, he got out of the car with less enthusiasm. They walked up to the side door, and into the kitchen. Her mother leaned against the counter, arms crossed, glaring at the door as it opened. They came in, Abby smiling and talking to Jace like it was any other day.
"Where the hell have you been?" He mother practically growled at her. Jace had a feeling this was what they'd be walking in to. Abby had been their angel, and now she wasn't. He'd been down this road before . Abby stopped short.
"I missed the bus. Jace brought me home." Her mother raised her eyebrows and looked at her phone.
"School gets out at two-ten. It is now five twenty-five." Abby shrugged, putting her flowers on the counter and looking for a vase. Jace hung back by the door, refusing eye contact with her mother. Smart boy, she thought.
"We drove around for a little while." Abby admitted. Which was the truth. Aaron heard them come in. He knew there would be an explosion when he'd come home from football practice, and his mother had been seething, pacing the kitchen. He hung in the hallway, close enough to hear but far enough away to remain unseen.
"You drove around for a while?!" Her mother was absolutely astonished that Abby seemed to be genuinely surprised that this was a problem.
"Yes. That's what I just said." Jace cringed.
"You just received ten days in school suspension for forging a couple dozen notes! You lost your phone! Your car! Did you really think joy riding with your boyfriend," She yelled gesturing to Jace in disgust "was the appropriate thing to be doing when I said come home after school?!"
"We hadn't discussed my punishment yet." Abby said, using air quotes for the word punishment. Her mother's head just about exploded.
"You have no idea how serious this is, do you? You're just going to blow it off like you've done nothing wrong!" Her mother remained in a state of disbelief. Aaron's heart pumped faster and faster. They never fought like this. Abby had also never done anything wrong before.
"I'm not blowing it off!" Abby yelled back. "Maybe you're just blowing it out of proportion!" Jennie's world swayed around her, the anger and the astonishment unraveling her brain. "Jace did me a favor by picking me up! Get over it!" Aaron cringed and put his palm to his face. He felt like he should intervene, but he didn't want to save her. She had really screwed up. He wished his dad were there. He'd stop this in a heartbeat.
"Are you kidding me?!" Jennie screamed in astonishment. "How do I get over my daughter skipping school and failing out after only a month? And no doubt using drugs and drinking alcohol!" Jennie immediately felt bad for the accusation when they had zero evidence of its truth.
"Oh, so now I'm on drugs because I'm not your perfect angel anymore?!" Abby screamed. It had turned to screaming, it was no longer yelling.
"If it's not drugs, then what else would make you completely unravel like this, throw your life away?" Jennie screamed in exasperation.
"I'm hardly throwing my life away because I skipped school a few times!" Abby shot back.
"It's not just the skipping school! It's the lying and the failing grades! The sneaking around! And for what?!" Her mother clarified. "For him?" Jennie yelled, pointing to Jace. Abby rolled her eyes.
"I do it for myself, because I want to, not because a boy tells me to!" Abby was insulted at her mother's accusation.
"I would never force Ab-." Jace spoke up, not sure if it was okay to speak at all, but not wanting Abby's mother to think that he was trying to control her daughter. The look he received upon speaking told him that he was hurting, not helping.
"And you can leave!" Jennie yelled to Jace over Abby's shoulder. Aaron almost felt bad for him.
"Don't yell at him!" Abby screamed in her mother's face.
"Excuse me?!" Her mother screamed back. Aaron had never seen them scream at each other, and it was only escalating. He really wished his dad were home. "You do not tell me what to do! I'm the mother, not the other way around!"
"You don't have to go." Abby said to Jace, her voice still holding anger, but with a gentle touch.
"Yes, he does. Jace, get the hell out of my house and don't come back. And stay the hell away from my daughter!" There was a nanosecond of intense quiet as they all digested the intensity of her hidden threat.
"You don't have to be rude to him just because you're mad at me!" Abby screamed in his defense. She and her mother were inches from each other. "Why are you being such a bitch!?" And Abby knew she'd crossed a line. One she couldn't come back from. Her mother shrank back, stung by the insult. Abby took a minute to settle down.
"Abby, I'm going to leave." Jace said, dying for a way out of this.
"Then I'll go with you." Abby said turning to him.
"Like hell you will." Her mother replied.
"I'll walk Jace out." Aaron said, entering the kitchen. He hoped Abby would settle down if he interjected, spent a moment with Jace. Abby looked between the two of them. She knew Jace wanted to leave, and she could tell from Aaron's look that Jace needed to leave. That she'd lost this argument. Abby turned to give Jace a kiss, tell him good-bye, but her mother grabbed her arm.
"You're not going with him." She reiterated with more control.
"I'll see you later, Abby." Jace said as he and Aaron opened the door.
"No, you won't." Her mother called out. Abby pulled her arm free.
"I'll go wherever the fuck I want." Abby declared, glaring at her.
"Well, I hope your room is where you want to go. Your father can deal with this when he gets home." Aaron and Jace stepped outside and shut the door. They walked in silence to the car.
"Do you really love her?" Aaron asked. Jace smiled.
"Absolutely." He replied.
"Then why are you letting her do this?" Jace didn't say anything. "I've never heard them yell at each other, much less hear Abby even think of calling our mom a bitch."
"Abby loves your mom. She always says good things about her." Jace defended.
"And now that she hangs out with you, she's screaming at her, lying to her, and completely disobeying her." Jace didn't have a defense for that. "I know about the drugs. Abby and I share everything with each other."
"It's not a big deal." Jace said. "A little weed, some alcohol at a party..."
"I know about the E. The pills." Aaron said. Jace wanted to tell Aaron off, but he also knew Abby adored him.
"That's just every now and then. Still not a big deal." It was to Aaron.
"I'd agree with you if she wasn't doing a complete one eighty of who she was before she met you."
"It's not a one eighty. She's still the amazing, talented, fun-if-not-a-little-shy-and-quirky girl I met last month." Jace smiled to himself as he looked at the ground while they walked. Aaron couldn't argue that.
"This just isn't gonna end well." Aaron warned.
"I just want to be with Abby. The rest of it, it doesn't matter to me." Aaron felt like Jace was trying to be romantic. But the rest of it mattered to him. And to his family.
...
Abby saw someone in the doorway. She assumed it was her dad. She'd already talked to Aaron, and her mother wasn't speaking to her. She finished up the song she was playing on her acoustic bass.
"Do you think if you play my favorite song, I'll go easy on you?" He asked. She could tell he was trying to break the ice. His tone was more in jest than authoritative. It was soothing. She smiled at him.
"I'd never insult you like that." She promised. And then she realized, given what had happened with her mother, she'd chosen the wrong words.
"Let's talk about that. Insults." He'd found the smooth transition easily. He wasn't dancing around this. Abby put her bass away and sat on her bed. He sat next to her. "What's going on, Abby."
"What, you never called your mom a bitch?" He laughed.
"No. Not to her face at least."
"Times have changed, I guess." Abby said.
"It's never going to be acceptable to call your mom a bitch. Or to swear at her in general." Abby nodded. Silence.
"I'll apologize." Abby conceded.
"We don't even care about apologies. We want to know what's going on that you're a completely different person than you were a few months ago."
"I'm not a different person. You're both just mad that I'm not perfect. That maybe I embarrassed you, tarnished the Demarco name." She pointed out.
"We know that you're not perfect." He assured her. "And yeah, you embarrassed us. But we care more that you're not passing your classes. And that these suspensions will be on your transcripts." She didn't have a defense for that, anything to diffuse the truth. "Are you doing drugs, Abby?" She didn't speak. She was already sick of lying. And after what she'd said to her mother, the way she'd acted... "I'll take your silence as a yes." His heart deflated.
"We smoke up sometimes. Maybe some alcohol at a party." She admitted. A tear fell down her cheek. She really hated disappointing them, despite her actions.
"Don't cry, sweetheart." He said, wiping her tears. "You should be upset. Disappointed in yourself even, but we all screw up. And we love you despite that." He tucked her hair behind her ear so he could see her face.
"Aaron doesn't." She fired back.
"He's a teenage boy. Give him time." She laughed at his quip given that he said it in such a serious tone. "Play for me?" He asked. She smiled and picked up the bass.
"Any requests?" She asked.
"Green Day. Brain Stew. I love what you do on the acoustic with the empty space." And she played for him. But eventually she had to speak to her mother. Abby stood in the doorway to their room. It was like she was five years old again, up after bedtime, waiting for her mother to notice her.
"Do you need something, Abby?" Her mother asked. Her tone wasn't combative, but it wasn't friendly.
"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for my behavior and attitude today. I knew I should have come home, but he came to see me..." She shrugged. "I guess I was being a dumb girl who knew better but couldn't resist a cute boy." Abby's honesty hit Jennie where it mattered. She laughed.
"I'm sure this won't be the last time you can't resist." They finally looked at each other. "Come sit down." She said quietly patting the bed next to her. Abby did. "I know teenagers swear. I know they fight with their parents. But you've always been this quiet, solo, rocker chic. It just hit me weird. It's a parent thing."
"Your baby's growing up." Abby said humorously. Jennie laughed, putting the magazine up in front of her face to hide it.
"She certainly is." Jennie said, staring at her. Everything was happening at once, and it made her weary. But she didn't want to alienate Abby. She'd need her mother. "Are you and Jace having sex?" She asked. Abby looked away.
"Yes." She said quietly, glad it wasn't her father who asked. A piece of Jennie died.
"Are you using condoms? On birth control?" Maybe she should make an effort to be nicer to Jace. Have him over the house.
"Don't worry about it, mom." She told her.
"I'll worry about you until the day I die." Jennie admitted.
"I'm on birth control. We were using condoms but kinda stopped when my birth control was active." Jennie assumed as much. He was her first, and she wouldn't think there was anything dangerous about it.
"I would encourage you to still use condoms." Jennie said. "You can never be too safe." Abby nodded.
"I know."
"I realize that sometimes teenagers just need to find their own path. You've always kind of done your own thing anyway." Jennie began, brushing Abby's hair behind her ears. "I don't want to see you push too far, end up in over your head, unable to find your way back." Abby looked away the moment too heavy. And she wondered if she was already there. In over her head.