Picture of Derik ---------------------------------------------->
Once Sam left, Mrs. Rodgers wasted no time beating around the bush. She immediately began commentating about how much the Evans boy had grown into himself since she had last seen him two Christmases ago.
"Quite handsome now, isn't he?"
He's always been handsome, I thought to myself, though I refrained from commenting.
Her cherry red lips turned up into a smirk. "I wonder if he's single."
"Should Mr. Rodgers be jealous?" I questioned easily.
"You know I love my Henry and it wasn't for me that I was asking these questions."
"I know; we both know you're asking for your Book Club. Don't think I haven't figured out your angle." I teased.
Her laughter brought a smile to my face, but she wasn't at all deterred by my teasing comment.
"So he's quite handsome now, isn't he?" She repeated.
Chuckling at her persistence, I decided to just go ahead and feed the flames. The older ladies of Serenity were worse than teenage girls when it came to gossip. They didn't even utilize text messaging or the wondrous mobile telecommunication contraptions also known as cell phones. Odds were I could ask Mrs. Rodgers right this moment what happened five minutes ago to any given person in the entire of Serenity and she'd have accurate up-to-date information even though she'd been with me for the last half hour.
"Yes he is, though I've always felt that way and you've always known it."
Her wrinkled face became even more so when she gave me a huge smile.
"Yes, I suppose I have." She admitted.
She finished off her coffee and placed three one dollar bills underneath her empty cup, same as she did every morning for as long as I'd known her. I'd asked her once where she got her endless supply of one dollar bills and she responded that the other girls weren't as good at Bridge. Since then, I'd been convinced that an underground old lady gambling ring was being run right here in Serenity, led by none other than sweet old Mrs. Rodgers.
"Bye sweetie, good luck tonight," she called before the door shut behind her.
I stood there confused before I realized what she was referring to; Sam was back and he had no place to stay other than with his family. Only this time, I was staying there too. That only stood to complicate things since Kristy and I had agreed not to tell Sam about our mutual financial difficulties. Apart we had struggled to make ends meet after the Granite Falls Grad Night Tragedy; it was a losing battle for me to try and make the payments for my parent's mortgage every month after they had died on grad night, and it was even harder for Kristy to provide for her five children that still lived with her on one income. That didn't even address the dwindling time she had for them after all the hours she had been putting in. Sam aside, none of her children had been old enough to help her and he was off getting famous with his band Flight Risk. Andy, the second oldest, was only 11 at the time. For five long years we went on like that and worked our asses off to keep our lives from crumbling completely.
Two years ago, on the anniversary of our loss, I ran into Kristy at the cemetery. Like me, she was there to give flowers to the family she had lost, more specifically, her husband. We had each been ignorant of the other's hardships even though we lived on the same street and so struck a deal that very day. I would come live with her and her family and sublet my parents' house so it would pay for itself. In exchange for a place to stay, I'd help her with the utilities and make sure her kids made it to school since she worked nights. Over time we developed the perfect symbiotic relationship, one where neither of us had to bear our burdens alone. I had grown to love Sam's family like they were of my own flesh and blood and I knew without a shadow of doubt, that they felt the same. We were family and without them, I'd be a ghost of what I was today, working without pause just to stay broke and alone.
A deep rumbling chuckle pulled me from my thoughts.
"You keep scrubbin' at that spot on the table, you're gonna clean right through it."
My hand stilled from its labor as I realized that I was still cleaning the same spot on Mrs. Rodgers's table. I smiled at my latest commentator who reminded me of giant muscular teddy bear with dreadlocks.
"Hey Derik, you're here early. Crazy weather we're having." I greeted, making an obvious effort to ignore his jibe at my momentary physical autopilot.
"I'm not early crazy woman. It's 10:30. As for the weather, get out that head of yours and take a look out the window."
Shocked at how time had flown, I glanced outside to find that the torrential rain had stopped sometime during my extremely long space out.
"Need help prepping the food for the lunch rush?" I asked.
"Nah, I'm good. Trishka told me to let you know that she's got a guy for you to meet tomorrow evening."
"Aw man! Not another one!" I exclaimed. "This is what? The fourth guy in as many weeks? As my bestest friend in the whole wide world, I demand that you save me from your fiancé!"
Derik chuckled at my dismay, but instead of backing me up like best friends should, he defended her terrible attempts at matchmaking.
"She just wants you to be happy," he said, opening the refrigerator and pulling out the ingredients for the afternoon special.
"That's the thing D. I am happy. The happiest I've been in seven years."
He sighed and paused whatever it was he was doing to look at me. "But unless she forces you, you never make time for yourself. You don't even bother to itch the scratch."
"Just because I don't 'itch the scratch' with everything that moves like you did before Trishka, doesn't mean that I don't do it at all! I'm just more... selective, if you will."
"If by selective, you mean avoid it all together then you are definitely the epitome of selective."
"Get back to work already! I can't believe we're discussing this at work," I lied.
"Liar," he called, but when I gave him "the look," he said, "Alright, alright! I get it. TBC. We'll change subjects. So is it true that Sam's back?"
"Good grief! You've never even met the guy! Who told you?" I questioned. He'd been in town for all of two hours and already it was circulating that he was back. I had long ago realized how fast word spread regarding anything, but that didn't mean that it ever ceased to amaze me.
"In my defense, I saw him a time or two in high school. He was a band geek remember? That means he had to show up to my football games for the fight song. Not to mention, his best friend Brad was on varsity with me which means we ran into each other more frequently than you give me credit for. Oh and Trishka told me. Before you ask, she heard it from Kayla, who heard it from Jordan, who heard it from Stacey and she heard it from her grandmother, Betty-"
"And she's in the Bridge Club with Mrs. Rodgers," I finished for him. "You've only lived here for six months and already you're in the gossip network."
"Hey don't blame me, because my baby's a social butterfly. Besides Serenity isn't so different from Granite Falls and we all went to the same high school."
We didn't have time to talk anymore, because customers began to flow in for the afternoon rush. That turned into the afterschool rush and before I knew it, I was leaving for the day. But not before at least six different people asked me to confirm that Sam was actually back; two of those times I had received knowing congratulations.
I rushed home to make sure the kids were taken care of so Kristy would have enough time to get ready, travel into town and still make it on time for her shift. To my surprise, disappointment and subsequent relief, there were no additional cars or vehicles in the driveway when I got there. I had thought for sure that this would be his first stop.
"I'm home!" I called out, coming through the side entrance. Closing the door with my hip, I toed off my muddy shoes and tossed my keys on the kitchen counter. The house was abnormally quiet and I discovered why when I found the entire Evans family minus Kristy and Sam, gathered around the computer watching some kid parade around in a Batman costume. "JUSTICE! With a side order of... spaghetti!"
"What are you guys watching?" I sniggered.
"You've got to watch this!" Tyler exclaimed between fits of laughter. "It's hilarious!"
"Okay, I'll watch it as soon as I wake your mom up."
They were too busy laughing, snorting, chortling and every other variation thereof to bother responding, though I knew they had heard me. I took the stairs two at a time and let myself into Kristy's room.
"Hey!" I said, plopping down onto her comfortable bed. The light was on in her bathroom and I could hear the sound of her getting ready for work in the bathroom.
"Is it five already?" She called back in lieu of a greeting.
"Fifteen past actually," I replied. "Did Sam already stop by?"
"Yeah. He stopped in around one to drop off his stuff. The kids haven't seen him yet, but it's just as well. He'll be back sometime tonight and since tomorrow is Saturday, he can spend time with Andy, Danny, Jake, Ty and Rissa then. I'm going to get one of the girls to cover my shift for tomorrow so you'll be free for the whole day though you're welcome to hang out with us."
"That's alright. You guys go ahead and spend some quality family time together. I've got a date anyway; I was going to bail, but this must be a sign or something."
That got her attention; she came out with a hairbrush in hand and sat down on the bed next to me.
"Who with? Do I need to be worried?"
"Not sure, Trishka's at it again so I guess mild worry is appropriate, but I won't be alone with some stranger so don't overdo it." I grinned.
"Okay then. Just making sure my girl's in good hands," she smiled.
"I doubt he'll try anything with Derik there. You have to admit that for people who don't know him, he's got the intimidating factor working for him."
"Very true. Well I'm off. Are you working tomorrow?"
Standing up, I shook my head in answer.
"Okay then, I won't wake you up when I get home. Have fun; call if you need anything."
I walked down the steps and was immediately dragged over to the computer by Andy.
"Don't think we forgot, Snoopy. You have to watch this video."
"I wasn't trying to get out of it Doofus." I returned with my usual endearment.
Snoopy and Doofus were what Andy and I had settled on calling eachother about a year ago. I'd called him a doofus once after he did something that was completely, but hilariously, idiotic. When he'd called me Snoopy as a comeback, I was understandably confused. When I had asked him, "Why Snoopy?" he had explained that I always have some kind of comment to input sort of like the peanut gallery. Snoopy is a character from Peanuts which was as close to the peanut gallery as he was going to get and thus my nickname was born. It was pretty lame, but it had been one of the founding blocks to our familial friendship.
The video they made me watch was actually ridiculously funny; the fact that it had to do with a kid walking around in a Batman suit yelling out lines from "The Dark Knight" was probably a contributing factor to its hilariousness.
I left them to their Youtube search to prepare dinner. Clarissa decided to follow me into the kitchen and offered to help. We made an industrial sized bowl of Spaghetti, knowing the boys would be doing impersonations of the Batman Youtube kid. She told me about her day and I told her about my double date that was set for tomorrow. She always got all starry eyed and hung on my every word whenever I talked about guys and dating. Of course since she was only 13, I left out the fact that I didn't know him and Derik's entire itching and scratching commentaries. I didn't doubt that she knew about stuff like that already, but she was like my little sister, and if I had it my way she wouldn't date until she was my age. Men tended to act like jackasses until that age anyway.
Thirty minutes later we all sat around the table and ate dinner. As predicted, the boys were doing impersonations of Batman and talking about their day, while Clarissa listened in envy. She'd told me all school year how she couldn't wait for high school, which was code for meeting boys outside the small town of Serenity and hopefully getting her first boyfriend. Afterward we decided to just go ahead and watch both Batman movies with Christian Bale in them while we were stuck on the subject. We popped popcorn, turned off the lights and made unnecessary commentary throughout both movies, before turning in for the night.
I brushed my teeth, changed into a pair of comfortable cotton shorts and t-shirt, then fell into a contented sleep.
\\Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Be sure to check out the side video, because it's HILARIOUS. JUSTICE! WITH A SIDE ORDER OF SPAGHETTI!\\