Old Palmetto Drive, page 10
“Get off me, Annona,” Justine hisses.
Annona? Who the hell is Annona? I wedge my body forward and move around a sack of flour, to get a better view through the crack of the pantry door, but I can’t see a damn thing. Wait, Justine is moving. Her arms flap up and down. “I don’t need your permission to tell her what really happened. I’m the one who has to live with it. Not you!”
I don’t know what is going on, but maybe I should intervene? My heart pounds.
“FINE then, go, tell Miss Tori. See if I care!”
“Maybe I fucking will and don’t get me started about nobody stopping what was going on here. You of all people should know better than that.” Justine spits out the last part.
Seriously, what the hell is going on?
Justine has a secret she’s keeping from my Mom. I knew there was something fishy about this place, well besides the fishing lures.
I take a step backwards when I hear the back door slam shut. It’s followed by some banging on pots and pans. I don’t want to get caught so I tip-toe back the way I came and stealthily make my way out of the house, through the front door, taking each step as even and regular as a can until I reach the fountain. I don’t want to look suspicious, but as soon as I reach the spurting water and hear the birds chirping, I take off in a sprint.
I need to find Sam and Travis, ASAP!
Something is brewing and I’m going to find out what.
17
Teenage Sleuth
I text Sam 9-1-1 as I run towards the shop. The white collar on my dress is choking me and the expensive fabric has hardly any give. Every movement is constricting. When I get close enough I think someone will hear, I start shouting. “SAM! Where are you? SAM!”
No answer.
“TRAVIS!” I yell. The gravel crunches under my feet and the sun reflects against the tin, amplifying the heat rising in my face. But the shop is quiet and I’m out of breath from my run and yelling. I look around in a panic. It’s so hot, they are probably out on the skiff fishing. I glance toward the overgrown trees on the other side of the shop, and a shiver runs up my spine. I really don’t want to walk the trail all the way to the dock by myself. What if I run into a python, or something worse?
I’m pretty sure I can manage to drive one of the side-by-sides… Big Jackie keeps the keys labeled in a box on the wall. So without giving it another thought, I run to the out-building that has the ATV’s and snag the pair of keys before I can talk myself out of it. I get into one and I’m just about to start it up when my phone buzzes.
Oh thank god!
It’s Sam. He wants to know if 9-1-1 means a real emergency or just some girl crap.
“God, dummy,” I say out loud and check the review mirror, and jump when I see the reflection of a person, walking between the buildings. It’s Justine. She looks pissed.
I have two options. I can drive out of here and find Sam and Travis, to ask if they know who Annona is and why Justine was arguing with her. Or, I could grow a pair and ask Justine myself. Maybe I’m stupid. But I leave the keys in the ignition and climb out of the vehicle and run towards her. Option two it is.
“Hey Justine, wait up!” I shout and wave my arms so she can see me.
“Rian.” She acknowledges me, but she’s not slowing down, clearly on a mission to get anywhere but here.
I know that feeling. I’ve battled it myself recently.
“Wait, slow down.” I grab for her elbow, my fingers brush gently across her skin, but she’s moving too fast for it to have any effect. “Are you okay?” I ask.
“Why wouldn’t I be okay Rian?” She turns around. She’s wearing a pair of cut off jean shorts and a flowy yellow tank. Her hair is pinned over to one side and smoothed in finger waves. Like an old picture of Bette Davis. Even with her lips pouting and eyes dark from anger, she looks– beautiful. Should I tell her? Maybe it would make her feel better.
“I heard you and Annona arguing,” I admit.
She shakes her head and turns to keep walking. I’m like a lost puppy dog, I follow her, step for step, until we reach the porch of her little house. The one with the pretty pink flowers growing up the side of it.
I look at her.
She looks at me.
A stand-off… She doesn’t budge as she folds her arms over her chest and it feels like we stare at one another forever. Finally, I give in.
“If you aren’t going to tell me what’s wrong, that’s okay. I have something else I want to talk to you about. Would you take me shopping tomorrow? I need to buy shoes for Darcy. She has stupid shoes.”
Her posture changes, and she lets her arms fall to her side. The breath she was holding in our stare down, hisses gently from her lips, and her mouth curls into a smile. Her eyes brighten.
“Yeah, we can go shoe shopping.” She nods and turns to grab the handle to the screen door, but pauses and looks back at me, staring deep into my eyes. “Oh, whatever you think you heard in the kitchen, is none of your business.” Then she goes inside and slams the door in my face.
I laugh. Did she really think she could just slam the door and this conversation would be over?
Knock, knock.
“What? I said I’d take you,” Justine says when she opens her door and sees me standing there.
“Yeah, well, maybe you should have some of that southern hospitality I hear everyone yapping about and invite me into your house,” I tell her. I put my hands on my hips so she knows I mean business. She looks me up and down and I think maybe she’s going to slam the door on me again. But, instead she grins.
“You aren’t going to leave, are you?”
“Nope.”
She sighs, then opens the screen door and lets me inside. I don’t know what to expect when I go inside of an eighteen year old’s house. But it’s not this. The walls are painted black with gold geometric shapes hand-painted to look like vintage wallpaper. There are several large framed pictures of 1930’s art deco prints in bright reds and yellows. In the center of the room is a navy blue couch with gold buttons tufting the fabric in a diamond pattern. It all takes my breath away, it’s so my vibe, it hurts.
“You want some sweet tea?” Justine asks, and before I can say yes or no, she heads into the kitchen leaving me to make myself at home. It’s the size of an average New York City apartment. Of course, I grew up in a penthouse on the top floor of my building, so I don’t really know. But, I mean, I think this is what most people live like in New York.
Small spaces.
I keep looking around. Justine has tons of house plants, their green leaves and vines winding around the room. And on the farthest wall, there are so many pictures of her and Sam and Travis and Aunt Kris and Big Jackie. I guess Sam wasn’t joking when he said Aunt Kris had adopted her. I don’t see any pictures of a boyfriend or girlfriend or other friends and family. But, that’s not why I’m here. I’m not here to spy on Justine.
Of course it’s a bonus to see inside her life.
She’s busy getting ice from the vintage mint green fridge in her galley style kitchen, which is really just part of the living space, so I can watch everything she’s doing. She carefully puts the ice in tall skinny glasses with opaque rose and geometric shapes etched into the sides of them.
“Do you like vintage?” I ask.
“What was your first clue?” She hands me one of the glasses then plops down on her sofa. I follow her lead and plop down too. Then we both sip on the super sugary sweet tea. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it. But, it’s all they serve and it’s cold and that’s what counts when you are in the swamp. Come to think of it, it’s awfully hot in here.
“God, don’t you have air conditioning?” I whine.
“Awe, is the poor little Rian hot?” she teases and gets up to turn down the thermostat. It kicks in right away and the icy cold air blasts down from a vent in the ceiling. The beads of sweat evaporate from my face, and I sigh with relief.
“Thank you.” I say a little on the snotty side. But, I think Justine can handle it.
“Alright, so, I invited you in for tea. You’ve experienced southern hospitality,” she says when she sits back down. This time she kicks her feet up on her wooden coffee table. Her toes are painted a soft pale pink. It looks nice. So do her legs, they are smooth and I want to reach out and feel them. But, that might be crossing a line. Plus, I’m not here to flirt. I’m here to find out what that fight was over. I need answers.
“Thank you,” I say more politely this time.
She laughs.
“Are you going to tell me what happened? Or do I have to beg?”
“I don’t know what you mean?” She smirks.
I sit up tall. “I heard you! You and someone named Annona were fighting. You called her a bitch and she said not to tell my Mom something because she wouldn’t understand why none of you stopped something from happening.” I pause for dramatic effect. “Justine, I want to know what that was all about.” I place my empty glass on the table next to her feet. “Actually, I deserve to know what that was all about.”
Her glass is empty now too, the chunky ice cubes are jingling as she twirls it around. She looks at me. Her eyes, slowly assessing. Probably deciding how much to tell me or maybe she’s going to tell me to fuck off and it will be her word against mine if I go and tell my Mom on her for cursing me out.
“I was going to tell your Mama where your Aunt and Uncle hid the treasure. I’m the only one who knows and Annona thinks I should keep my mouth shut, that your Mama doesn't deserve to have it, since she already has all the fishing lure money,” Justine says, pretty matter of fact. I look at her. Then I just watch her swirl and shake the ice in her glass again. “Well, anything else Nancy Drew?”
“Nancy Drew? Does it look like I’m a red-headed nerd trying to solve a mystery? And hidden treasure? Do you think I’m an idiot?” First Sam and Travis, now Justine, with this stupid treasure myth. My mouth hangs open, because I want to say more, but I can’t decide if I should just scream instead.
She takes one look at me and bursts out laughing.
And I want to stay mad, I do, but she looks so cute laughing. And when I think about it, it is sort of funny, and I start laughing with her.
“I’m gonna call you Nancy from now on.” She gets up and takes our glasses back to the kitchen and pours more sweet tea.
“If you’re going to call me Nancy, then–” I stand up and walk towards her to get the tea.
“Then what?” She faces me. We are inches apart.
The color rises in my cheeks, hot and tingly. Um... I’m not sure why I got this close to her. All I really wanted to do was find out what her and Annona were fighting about. But, it’s nice to be with her, to joke and tease and be around a girl again. Spending all this time with Travis and Sam, and hardly talking to Ava or Gina or Maggie for weeks, I didn’t realize I needed this.
“Then I’m going to call you–” But, I don’t know what to say and my throat starts going dry even though I’ve been drinking all this sweet tea. Justine inches closer to me.
“Say it,” she whispers.
Oh my god. We are in uncharted waters here. Are we flirting? Are we having a moment? Are we going to kiss? A second passes, but it feels like an eternity. Her pupils dilate and she blinks once.
“Say it. What are you going to call me, Nancy?” She bites her bottom lip, ever so slowly and I go completely weak in the knees. The drum of my heartbeat pounds in my ears and I see a muscle tick in Justine’s neck.
And then for some unknown, pathetic, dopy reason I say, in about my least sexiest voice, “Pirate.”
Pirate? Really?
I smack my hand against my forehead and we both burst into laughter.
“You’re stupid. You’ve been hanging with Travis and Sam too much. Pirate? That’s the best you could come up with?” Justine laughs again.
I’m mortified because I should have said something else. Something cute, something clever, something tempting… but I went with pirate? Thankfully, my phone starts blowing up, easing the awkwardness growing between us. We walk back over to the couch and sit down.
I check the screen, it’s Sam. He’s freaking out because they came back to find me and I’m not in the Big House or anywhere else they have looked. Oh yeah, I guess I should have told him the 9-1-1 was off.
“Seriously, what were you fighting about? Because I know it wasn’t about treasure. That’s ridiculous.”
“Now, why is that so ridiculous? I know you were out there the other day. I saw the basket of pond apples. I’m sure Sam took you out to the pirate ship,” she says and folds her arms.
“Uh, yeah we went to get the apples. But, I didn’t see a pirate ship. I mean Jesus. You all must think I’m a dumb-ass! Pirate Treasure? Hushed fights. I mean, I’m having a hard enough time dealing with this entire fishing lure empire shit. Don’t get me started on buried treasure.”
“Rian!”
“RIAN!”
My cousin's voices are loud and close.
“I’M IN HERE!” I scream back.
“God, go outside if you want to scream. Anyway, believe what you want. I’ll take you shopping tomorrow like I said. But we have to go early, be here at nine. Now get out of my house.” Justine gets up and walks over to the door and opens it for me. The boys are both walking in as she’s trying to walk me out.
“Good, take her, she’s annoying,” Justine tells them.
“Rude!” I say and walk out with Sam and Travis right behind me. I’m fuming, steam is literally pouring out of my ears. Justine is such a little liar! I mean, fine, she didn’t want to tell me why she and mysterious Annona were arguing. But, she didn’t have to lie to my face. And what was that in there anyway? Our faces were an inch apart. So close I could see every perfect pore, every sun soaked freckle, I could have kissed her if I wanted to.
If that was me and Ava, I’d have told her to quit being such a bitch, tell me the truth and then pretend to be annoyed when she snuggled up to me in bed. But, I don’t see me and Justine having a sleepover anytime soon. My face feels flushed again with the thought of being in a bed with Justine.
As soon as we are out of earshot, I throw my hands up in the air. “Justine is so annoying. I mean, what was all that crap about!”
Sam trots up next to me as I’m stomping away and puts his arm around me. “What the heck is goin on cous? You texted 9-1-1, ain’t that like serious trouble?”
“What’s going on? Well, first, everyone here is keeping secrets,” my voice raises an octave and I shove Sam’s arm off me.
“Secrets?” Travis says with a nervous edge and pushes his hair back.
I glare at him. “Oh what, do you have a secret you’d like to share?” Then, that annoying bell rings from the Big House, loud enough we can all hear it.
“Saved by the bell. Mint Julep, yes please!” he laughs and goes galloping off, completely ignoring me.
“Oh really. Like my Mom’s going to let him drink with her. He’s so stupid!” I don’t tell Sam that Mom used to let me have wine with her back home. Instead I just head the same way Travis ran off to. Maybe I can help myself to a drink too, if Mom and Darcy are busy blabbing and not paying any attention to me.
“Wait, why don’t you slow down and tell me what happened? From the beginning,” Sam asks. His voice is genuine and he looks at me with those big puppy dog eyes.
I heave a sigh. “Fine.” So I tell him about the kitchen argument and sneaking into the pantry like he showed me and then trying to find him and Travis and running into Justine and going into her house. Finally, I tell him she said they were arguing about treasure.
He lets out a long and beautiful laugh. I try to stay mad, even though I’m not sure what I’m actually mad about. Maybe because Justine called me Nancy Drew. Like I’m some teenage sleuth trying to solve a mystery. But, that’s the last thing I want Justine to think about when she sees me. I want her to see me, like how I was in New York. Confident and perfect. My nails done, my hair done, my nice clothes. I feel so unlike who I used to be, but not who or what I’m supposed to be now. My heart feels like it’s beating too fast.
Maybe I’m just tired and hungry.
“One thing you’ll learn about Justine is she’s got a twisted sense of humor. Her and Mama had that in common. She’s just messing with you. But, she wouldn’t have let you in her house or offered to take you shopping if she didn’t want to get to know you,” Sam says, maybe just to calm me down, or maybe because it’s true.
I look up and realize we’ve walked all the way back to the house. He opens the door for me and does a silly bow and holds his arm out, “Ladies first.” He grins like the Cheshire cat and I roll my eyes.
“Dork.” I elbow him as I walk past him into the house. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the grandeur of this place. But one thing is for sure, I love the cold, powerful air conditioning. It helps bring my temperature down and I feel more relaxed as I follow Sam through the house and out to the back porch. Mrs. Day and Mrs. Paula are sitting and visiting with Mom and Darcy and Big Jackie. Travis is leaning casually against one of the pillars with a mint julep in his hand and Mom isn’t batting an eye. I take his lead and help myself. Oh of course, she shoots me a nasty look, but I give her one right back.
But rather than have a fight with me in front of everyone, she winks and turns back to the conversation with Mrs. Day.
“Annona! You are too funny!” she coos.
So, Mrs. Day is Annona! Well I’ll be damned. I take a long drink from my glass and try not to choke. Jesus Christ! This is strong. Yuck. But, I force myself to keep a straight face, from the drink and the revelation that Mrs. Day was the person arguing with Justine. Seriously, how did I not catch it earlier? Her voice, the tone.
The bourbon warms my stomach and I am pulled into my own thoughts, whisked away from this moment. I lean against the wall across from Travis, trying to imitate his casual country boy demeanor. Sam has inserted himself on the couch next to Darcy and Mom. They are all blabbing-on about fishing lures and some kind of blaaaaah…
