"Can you pass me the orange juice, Jess?" Lip asked me the next morning. I handed him the carton of Tropicana and took another bite of my half burnt toast.
All my siblings except Fiona, who was still sleeping, and Steve were sitting at the table eating breakfast. Steve's phone went off now, making everyone turn to look at him. He got up and got his phone out of his coat pocket, which was hanging on the rack by the door, and answered it, walking into the living room. I strained to hear the conversation over the chatter of my siblings.
"Candace, not now." I heard him say. I glanced at Ian.
"Who's Candace?" I asked. He shrugged.
A minute or so later, he walked back in and I quickly turned my attention back to my breakfast. He put his phone back where it was and said he was going to wake up Fiona. Just as he left, the ding of a text message being delivered. I quickly got up out of my seat and reached into Steve's coat pocket for his phone. I turned it on and saw a text from Candace King.
Come home tonight.
"Jess, don't go through Steve's phone." scolded Lip.
I glared at him. Since when did he care about Steve?
"Well, if he's cheating on Fiona with this Candace slut, I have a right to!" I said angrily, putting his phone back and grabbing my coat.
"I'm going to work early." I grumbled, annoyed at Lip.
I heard a chair being pushed back and footsteps coming after me.
"I'll come with you!" I heard Ian say.
"Fine."
*
We both walked in silence for a bit.
"What's wrong?" Ian asked. "Is it Lip?"
I shook my head.
"I don't give a shit about Lip. There's something up with Steve, and I'm gonna figure out what it is. He's not hurting our sister."
We entered the Kash and Grab and saw Kash at the register. He looked at Ian for a long while, glanced at me, then looked back down at the register.
"I'm gonna go-um-reshelve some stuff." Ian said quickly, going into the back room. Kash didn't look up. I knew this was gonna be one hell of an awkward day between Kash and Ian, and maybe even me.
A little while later, I was helping Ian reshelve some chips when Mickey walked in. He looked around for Ian and when they both saw each other, they quickly looked away. I watched as he walked over to Kash and slammed his hands down on the counter. Kash looked up, startled.
"You better keep your fucking mouth shut about what you saw." He said threateningly. I signed, knowing he was talking about when Kash saw them having sex in the back room.
He took a Snickers bar from the counter and unwrapped it, eating it slowly in front of Kash.
I sighed again, and just as I was about to turn back to the shelves, a gunshot rang out. I whirled around and saw Mickey fall to the floor, blood spurting out of his leg and Kash pointing the gun Linda gave him at Mickey.
"Mickey!" Ian yelled, running towards him, me right behind him.
"It's a fucking Snickers bar!" Mickey shrieked.
Ian and I leaned over him, and I put my hands over his shot leg to stop the blood from coming out.
"Call 911!" I shouted to Kash. He stood there dumbly, not moving.
"Kash!" said Ian.
I got up, ran over to the register, grabbed the phone with my slippery, bloody hands and dialed 911.
"Fine, I'll call myself."
I called 911 and an ambulance arrived in a matter of 3 minutes. They took Mickey away and Ian insisted he ride in the back with Mickey. I told Ian I'd go home, because clearly I wasn't needed anymore and I wasn't staying here with Kash.
*
I managed to wipe most of the blood off my hands and onto my (thankfully) dark jeans. Some dried blood remained in my fingernails, and I made a mental note to wash it off me later.
Before I headed home, I thought of the message Steve got on his phone from that Candace girl. I was stopping whatever he was doing. I turned in a different direction from my house and towards the direction of the local library.
Once I got there, I glanced at the nasty old librarian sitting at her desk.
"Can I use the computer?" I asked quickly.
She nodded and pointed towards the back. I hurried towards the row of computers and sat down, going onto Google. I typed in Candace King and a bunch of names and white pages came up. I clicked on the first link and saw a white pages full of Candace Kings. I saw one Candace from Chicago. She was 23 years old.
This must be her.
I clicked on her name and her address and phone number came up.
"Perfect." I whispered, smiling to myself. I grabbed a paper and pen from the counter next to me and quickly wrote down the address. I shut off the computer, thanked the librarian, and rushed home.
*
Later that evening, I was giving Carl, Debs and Liam a fast dinner of Spaghettio's. Fiona was out with Steve, Lip was with Karen, and Ian was still at the hospital with Mickey, so it was just me and my three other siblings.
"I want the meatball one!" Carl protested as I set a bowl of plain Spaghettio's down in front of him.
"Well we don't have the meatball one." I answered. "Fiona only got this. Eat it while it's hot."
I took Liam into my lap and started feeding him the pasta just as someone knocked on the door.
I sighed.
"I'm feeding Liam, Debs, can you get the door?" I asked. She nodded and ran to get it.
I leaned over my chair and looked into the living room, trying to see who was at the front door.
"Jess, there's a cute boy here who says he's looking for you!" Debs called.
I saw Zack trailing behind my sister and I flushed red.
"Hey, Zack!" I exclaimed, putting Liam's spoon back in the bowl. He had on a black leather jacket and skinny jeans that made him look super hot.
"We were supposed to hang out tonight, weren't we?" I asked. He nodded, laughing.
I smacked my hand on my forehead.
"I'm so sorry, I totally forgot! I had a pretty tough day at work, and I was at the library earlier doing some research on my sister's boyfriend, so I was kinda caught up in that, and-" I stopped, looking curiously at him. I had an idea.
"Hey, do you have a car?" I asked.
"What?"
"It doesn't have to be yours, but do you know of someone who has a car?"
"Well, my mom has an old car we can use." Zack replied.
I grinned.
"Great. Go get it and bring it around back. We're going to see Candace King."
*
Lip ended up coming home just in time to watch Debbie, Carl and Liam so Zack and I could leave.
He walked back home to get the car, and he came back in a matter of 30 minutes. I fixed myself up while he was gone.
I heard a horn honk just as I was clipping back part of my hair.
I pulled down my tank top a tiny bit and glanced at myself in the mirror before walking out.
"See you guys later!" I called to whoever was listening.
"Bye!"
I headed outside towards the tiny Toyota and got into the passenger seat. Zack looked at me.
"So, what's going on? Who's Candace King?" He asked.
"I'll tell you when we get there. Here-" I fumbled around in my jeans pocket for the paper where I'd written down the address and handed it to him.
"Put this in the GPS."
He did as I said and backed out of the driveway.
We drove in silence the whole way there, and about a half an hour later, we pulled up in front of a huge lit mansion closed by a tall black wrought iron gate.
"This is where Candace lives?" I said in surprise.
"Jess, who's Candace?" Zack asked in exasperation.
I quickly filled him in on everything and Zack made a face at me.
"So we came all the way out here to spy?" He asked.
I nodded.
"Basically."
Zack sighed, and looked at the mansion and back to me.
"Look, Fiona is a big girl, she can take care of herself." He said.
I looked at him.
"I know that, but Fiona takes care of everyone, but nobody takes care of Fiona. I just don't want her to be hurt."
Zack leaned in closer, and looked at my lips, then back at my eyes.
"Well, you're a great sister." He said quietly.
As he moved towards me even more, I pulled away from him and faced forward again.
"We should probably head home before Candace realizes we're on her property."
*
"Thanks for driving me, Zack." I said as we pulled up to my house.
"Anytime." Zack answered.
"So do you still wanna hang out?" I asked.
Zack grinned.
"What did you have in mind?" He asked me.
"I don't know, I guess we could watch a-" I was cut off by Zack's lips on mine. I didn't pull away this time as the kiss became more intense. We both leaned in closer, one of Zack's hands caressing the back of my neck. I ran a hand up and down his bicep as we continued to make out. His lip ring felt cold and cool on my lips, and the feeling was exhilarating.
Just as he tugged on my bottom lip, I pulled away, not wanting to go any further. Our foreheads were pressed up against each other, and we were both breathing heavily.
"So much for taking it slow." I whispered.
Zack smiled, the whiteness of his teeth glowing in the darkness of the car.
"Sorry, I couldn't help myself. It won't happen again."
I laughed, pushing my hair out of my eyes.
"No, no...it was nice." I replied.
Zack continued to smile at me.
"Good. Now, let's go inside and watch that movie."
*
"How's Mickey doing?" I asked Ian the next afternoon as we were walking home from work.
"He's doing okay, he's recovering. The bullet's removed and he's being released from the hospital later tonight."
He sighed.
"I just can't believe Kash did that." He said.
"Kash shot Mickey out of jealously, Ian. And we all know it." I answered firmly. "Treat Kash as a business partner from now on. Stay out of his romance life."
I wanted to add to stay away from Mickey as well, but I remained silent.
We approached our house and noticed a huge truck parked in the front.
"Who's here?" Ian asked, opening the door for me.
As we went inside and entered the kitchen, I saw just who exactly came in that truck.
My mother, Monica, was standing there next to Frank and some huge black woman who I didn't know. Lip was holding Debbie's shoulders, Carl held Liam close to him, and Fiona was sitting against the kitchen wall, her head in her hands.
"Ian and Jess, you're home! Look who's here!" Frank announced in a joyful voice.
"What the fuck?" asked Ian softly.
I felt like my feet were nailed to the kitchen floor, and like someone glued my mouth shut. I was unable to speak, unable to move. I was frozen.
"What is she doing here?" Ian continued.
"Well, I got a call from someone saying that I won a giant teddy bear, and to come to Lee's Grocery Store in Chicago to pick it up. I saw Frank there and Roberta and I went after him. We followed him here, and...here we are." Monica explained.
I almost scoffed at this explanation. I knew that the person who called had to be Frank. Because that was the stupidest idea ever. A giant teddy bear? Really? But of course, I didn't say anything. I couldn't.
"Who's that?" Ian asked, pointing to the black woman.
"That's Roberta. We're dating." answered Monica.
My eyes widened. Monica was lesbian now? That honestly wasn't a surprise.
"Listen, I just need my legal aide settlement papers sighed, and I knew that telling you that you won a prize was the only way I could get you here." Frank said guilty.
Monica glared at him.
"That was you? Whatever, we'll talk about that later."
She now turned her attention to Ian and I. She smiled widely and walked over to us, her arms outstretched.
"My beautiful twins! You both got so big!" Ian and I took a step back away from her.
She stopped where she was and stared at us. Her gaze landed on me and I felt my lower lip begin to tremble and I knew I was going to start crying.
I backed towards the door and opened it.
"I-I can't be here right now." I said, my voice shaking. "I have to go."
"Jess!" Lip and Ian called after me. But I didn't listen. I left.