Chapter 6

Friday, December 11, 2020

She considered running away from home. She considered running away to join the circus. She considered finding a pimp and letting him prostitute her out. Anything to keep from going home after school. How had she gotten into this mess?

Sean drove her to school in the morning, but she rode the bus home in the afternoon. Sean had a part time job after school, but he hadn’t gone to work in a month because of the latest Covid lockdowns. It’s why he’d been home after school the last 2 weeks, and why he awaited her now, ready to pounce when she walked through the door. Maybe she’d steal a car and head out west.

She’d checked Sean’s phone on the way to school. He’d dutifully deleted the text streams as ordered last night, but she’d also checked his iCloud backup, just to be sure. His phone hadn’t been backed up since before hers, so that was good. Only the fucking idiot had every email from Rancher-Ralph, and his later text messages with him!

“Are you fucking insane!” she bawled. “You can’t keep these on your phone!”

“Why not?” he deadpanned.

He had her so discombobulated that Cam didn’t immediately get that he was fucking with her. She gaped at him, eyes bugged out.

“These are about me, Sean! Everything you talked about in the last two weeks! This is worse than anything we talked about last night! Way worse!” This was as stupid an assertion as any she’d made in the last two weeks, but Sean had her thoroughly addled. She really didn’t know her upside from down. “You stupid shit!” she cried.

He snatched the phone from her hand. “Calm down! Mom doesn’t care about me! I’m a guy, not a 15-year-old potential baby-factory! You really have no idea how different it is for boys, do you? I do what I want, whenever I want. Within reason,” he allowed after a moment. He grinned, somewhat sheepishly. “The truth is, the only one of us that Mom watches like a hawk is you, baby girl.”

Miffed, in a snit, she’d crossed her arms tightly over her chest and stared out the side window. All she knew was that Sean’s phone could get her in a hell of a mess.

At 3:04 p.m., she unlocked the front door and stood on the threshold, waiting to be attacked.

“That you Stuff?” he yelled from the kitchen.

“Don’t call me that!” she yelled back peevishly. “How many times do I have to tell you!” She banged the door closed, knowing she needed a shower before anything happened with Sean. Stress had her totally freaked out and her antiperspirant overwhelmed. A heavy workout in Gym hadn’t helped. She wouldn’t even consider taking a shower at school. She wanted a last go at herself with a razor, anyway. She’d been too freaked to do an acceptable job this morning.

Sean walked through the dining room with the usual pair of Diet Cokes and his ham and cheese sandwich. “You want one of these?” he questioned.

The thought of food made Cam want to gag. She swallowed hard and shook her head. “I need to go upstairs. I need half an hour to clean myself up first.”