I held the phone away from my ear as if the physical distance could keep the poison of her words from invading my skull. I didn't know what to say. I should've called a cab. No amount of money was worth this.
Like I could afford a cab on Thanksgiving, assuming they were even running.
"Here," Loretta said to someone on her end. "Youtalk to her. I shouldn’t have to deal with this."
A moment later, I heard Josh's hesitant voice. "Chloe?"
"Yeah?"
"You're still coming, aren't you?"
"Sure," I said. "Definitely." I closed my eyes. "It's just my car isn't exactly cooperating."
He lowered his voice so low, I could barely hear him. "You mean it?"
"Yeah. Of course."
In the background, I heard Loretta's voice off somewhere in the distance. I couldn't make out the words, but her tone was all too familiar.
"How mad is she?" I asked. "Scale of one to ten."
"A hundred," Josh said without any trace of humor.
I should've known. My call had only made it worse. Stupid, stupid, stupid. "Don't worry. I'll be there," I told him. And Iwouldbe, even if I had to walk there, food and all.
"I'm supposed to tell you," he said in a shaky voice, "that if you can't make it here by noon to not bother."
"She's kidding, right?"
"I don't think so."
"Shit," I muttered.
His voice was quiet. "Yeah."
Don't worry, I'll be there." I swallowed. "But I've gotta go. Alright?"
"That's good. Because remember the thing with Mom? You know, tomorrow?"
"Yeah. I remember. Don't worry. I'll be there too." I tried to sound cheerful. "Just like we talked about, okay?"
"Actually," he said, "she called a couple minutes ago. She's got this other thing she forgot about, so you don't need to worry about tomorrow. I just thought you'd want to know."
"Oh," I said. "Well, I'm sure she really wanted to see us."
"Yeah. I guess."
I was mad as hell at my mom, but what did I expect? She did this all the time. Still, poor Josh. I hated that she'd gotten his hopes up yet again, only to cancel last-minute. As for me, I'd lost hope years ago. The way I saw it, I was the lucky one.
When Josh disconnected, I checked the clock on my phone. The call had cost me five precious minutes. Even if by some miracle, my car started now, I was still totally screwed.
More accurately, Josh was screwed.
Well, so much for Plan A.
My heart racing, I scrolled through my contacts, and found Lawton's name. I pressed the call button and held my breath.
It rang once, then twice, and then, I heard his voice, nearly breathless. "Chloe?"
