Goodbye Girls

I sat on the edge of Ashley’s bed to wait for the girls to return. After a considerable amount of time, Erin made her way back into the house and plodded up the stairs, pausing briefly at the top of the landing to watch me through the open doorway with a haunted expression on her face. We locked eyes but neither had anything to say to the other, and after a few wordless moments, she turned and shuffled off to her bedroom, quietly shutting the door behind her. When she’d gone, I returned to the garage to slide the bench out of the way so Ashley could park in her spot.

Ashley and her crew pulled up to the house to find me sitting in Brittney’s car with the engine idling. After some thought, I’d determined it to be a more prudent place to wait should Erin decide to take my threat against Chelsea seriously and deal with me in a permanent fashion. I doubted she believed me, though. She was too smart for that. She’d watched me with Ashley and her friends and knew I wasn’t a cruel, sadistic sociopath. But for the first time, she’d caught a glimpse of the true animal that lurked within me and the depths to which I could sink, and it had shaken her. Even if she believed it unlikely I would ever go after Chelsea, she now knew I was at least capable of it should I one day decide to set my mind to it.

“What are you still doing here?” Ashley asked when they’d all exited her SUV holding several bags bearing the stylized logo of a castle being bombarded by catapults and trebuchets hurling oddly shaped dice.

“I wanted to give Brittney back her car,” I said, handing Brittney her keys.

“Oh, okay...” I could tell Ashley didn’t believe me, but she didn’t press. Instead, she held up her purchases. “Want to come check out what we got?”

“Yeah, of course,” I said, getting Kayla’s attention. “I’ll be up in a minute, okay?”

“So, what happened?” Kayla asked after Ashley and Courtney had gone inside. Brittney stood beside her, eager for the debrief.

“It didn’t work.”

“She didn’t admit to anything?” Brittney asked, dismayed.

I shook my head. “I told you guys, she’s too fucking smart for that.” I looked into the open garage, at the bay where Ashley’s SUV now sat parked, but where thirty minutes earlier Erin had nearly suffocated. “I don’t think it matters, though. I sent her a message that I’m not someone she wants to fuck with. I don’t think she’ll bother me again.”

“What kind of message?” Kayla asked.

“The kind of message you don’t easily forget.”

“Did you ... hurt her?” asked Brittney, more concerned than I would have expected, considering the awful things Erin had done and said.

“No,” I lied. “But I scared her.”

Kayla crossed her arms and nodded. “Good.”

Courtney walked out the front door, her face pale. “Dude, Ash’s mom wants to talk to you. They’re up in Ash’s room.”

Me and my two conspirators exchanged a look and we all turned toward the house, but Courtney held up her hand and shook her head.

“Just him,” she said to her friends.

Brittney looked at me with a worried expression, but I gestured for her to remain. “I’ll be fine,” I said. “Would you mind waiting for me, though? I’m going to need a ride home.”

“Yeah, of course.”

I found Erin and Ashley sitting on Ashley’s bed together, holding hands. My stomach churned. What had Erin told her?

“Thank you for coming up,” Erin said in a calm, almost contrite voice. “I just apologized to Ashley for my outburst earlier today and I wanted to apologize to you as well.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “For what?”

“For speaking badly about you to Ashley. I shouldn’t have done that and I’m sorry.”

For speaking badly about me? How about for drugging and assaulting me? I glanced at Ashley. She wore an anxious expression on her face and seemed as unsettled as me by her mother’s abrupt turnaround. I wondered if her manipulation red flag siren was blaring as loudly as my own. I said nothing, but gave Erin a slight nod.

“I also wanted to thank you for everything you did for my daughter and her friends these past several days. From what Ashley tells me, you were everything I’d hoped you would be and more. So, well done.”

She’d spoken in the past tense. A knot of dread tighten in my gut.

Erin sighed heavily. “It’s obvious your work here is done, and just as well. I don’t feel comfortable hiding this from Clay anymore. It’s put a lot of strain on our marriage, and I think we’re all ready for our lives to go back to normal. I’m afraid we’re going to have to say goodbye to you today.”

“What?” Ashley cried. “No!”

Erin tightened her grip on Ashley’s hand and held out a one hundred dollar bill to me.

“What the hell is that?” I asked.

“Take it. It’s for the shirt I ruined.”

“Is this what you want?” I asked Ashley, but Erin answered for her.

“Ashley’s my daughter, and as long as she lives under my roof, she’ll abide by the rules her father and I set down. I understand you have a certain ... fondness for her, and I appreciate that, but I hope you’re as smart as I think you are and recognize that you’re not the type of person she should have any kind of relationship with. She’s a teenaged girl in high school and you’re a middle aged man.”