Page 37 of The Legend
I think wewere both in shock that the kids had done all this in four days.
“How thefuck did they manage this?” I asked scratching my head.
“Maybe wecan take his iPad away and his phone and then ground him to your parent’shouse? He can spend some time with your dad.”
“Nah,” Ilaughed lightly thinking of how well that would go over with my dad. It wouldn’t.“Dad would kill him in a day. Maybe Aiden and Emma could take him. That’spunishment.”
Swaysighed, the defeated look returned. “No. Casten would kill Noah in about twominutes. Then we’d have to bury a body. Clearly, we can’t do that anymore. Lookat our yard. It’s destroyed.”
“Goodpoint.”
We decidedwe would ground him again but would decide on a proper punishment later. I knewone thing he was cleaning this up. Walking to the fridge for water, I foundwhat looked to be actual puke in our fridge. Sway wasn’t impressed and neitherwas I. We weren’t surprised though. The fire was a surprise but I alwaysexpected Casten to throw a party. All of our kids had at some point so it wasonly a matter of time. Axel threw one when he was sixteen. Arie threw one whenshe was fifteen and nowCasten.
“I maykill my own son today.” She mused climbing up on the counter that had the onlyclean spot and folding her legs up as if she didn’t want to touch anything.“How many people do you think were in here?”
“Probablythe entire state of North Carolina,”
Aidenshowed up holding his phone in the air. “Phillip is on his way in case we needhim.”
“Need him,why would we need him?”
“Well,”Aiden shifted from one foot to the other and I had to look away from him. Iwondered how long it would be before I could talk to him and actually look athim again. “They set a large part of the property on fire and there uh…” he wasstalling.
“Spit itout,” I snapped shoving his shoulder. “What else happened?”
“I found alarge amount of weed on Charlie this morning when he stumbled home.”
“Weed,”Sway perked up. “Why did he have weed on him? Our kids don’t do drugs.”
“Apparentlythere was some drug use last night.”
I stillcouldn’t understand the need for Phillip. “So what, all kids do drugs at somepoint. Why does Phillip need to come?”
“Relax, Iasked him to come because of the fire, Jameson.” Aiden said getting frustrated.“You can’t tell me the police aren’t going to be asking questions.”
“WasCasten smoking pot?” Sway grabbed Aiden by his shirt forcing him to look ather.
“How wouldI know? I was with you and Tour Ted, remember?”
“Ohright,” she let go of him and then looked at me. “Oh man, he has a heroinaddiction. I know it. This is horrible.”
I lookedover at Sway as she ranted. Removing herself from the counter, she grabbed ontome as if she needed me to comfort her. “How did him smoking pot suddenly becomea heroin addiction?”
“It’s agateway drug, Jameson.” Sway wailed into my shoulder.
“Forheroin?” she nodded and I scratched my head squinting at her. “Am I missingsomething? We smoked pot when we were kids a time or two and we never movedonto heroin?”
“Whatare you doing?” Casten asked chipper, his rusty hair standing on end in disarray.When he finally came downstairs I was now standing in the living room.
“I’mwondering if your uncle is ever going to get off my lawn,” I told him glaringout the window. Spencer was still flat on his back not appearing to have movedat all.
“At leasthis clothes are on.” Sway added standing next to me with a cup of coffee inhand.
I shot hera glare.
“I wonderif Lane is still alive.” Casten mused peeking out the back French doors to thepool where Lane was only is his underwear floating on a pink inflatabledolphin.
All of uslooked out there to see not only Lane in the pool but Charlie and Noah werecurled up in a lawn chair together while Cole was sprawled out in the grass.
