Bree’s eyes filled with tears and her mouth trembled. “My head hurts. Can I go home now?”
“Yes. That would be a good idea,” Zona said irritably.
She opted to take Bree home in her mother’s car, not wanting to chance a problem with hers until she could get someone to look at it. She’d checked when she first got up and it stillwasn’t smelling too good inside. It would need a second cleaning to get rid of eau de barf.
“Why are we taking Gram’s car?” Bree asked as Zona unlocked the door, her voice cold.
“Why do you think?” Zona replied.
Yes, it came out as snappish, but that was the only way it could come out considering how snappish she was feeling. It was hard being judged by her daughter, and even if she deserved it she was getting tired of it. She was working as hard as she could to fix things.
Bree said nothing to that, just climbed in and clammed up.
Zona had only seen the apartment when she first helped Bree move in, but she remembered where it was. Which was a good thing considering their current lack of communication.
Bree didn’t get out once the car was stopped. “Thanks for washing my clothes,” she said, looking down at her knees.
“You’re welcome.” Zona wanted to reach over and put an arm around her embarrassed and unhappy girl and kiss the top of her head, but the distance between them felt more than a couple of feet.
To her surprise, Bree closed it. “I’m sorry I was mean.”
They were the sweetest words Zona had heard in a long time, and they produced a teary smile.
Bree leaned over and kissed Zona’s cheek. “Thanks for being there for me. I love you, even if you did screw up.”
Zona didn’t know whether to laugh or cry or defend herself.
“I’m a screw-up, too,” Bree added softly.
“And I love you. I always will,” Zona told her.
Bree nodded, then was out the door and hurrying to her apartment.
Zona let down the window and called her daughter’s name.
Bree turned.
“If you need a ride tonight, don’t call HopIn.”
Bree smiled, gave her a thumbs-up, and kept going.
BREE’S ROOMMATE WASN’Texactly happy to see her. Gaylyn was seated at their small kitchen table with her friend and their third roommate Monique, Gaylyn eating two-day-old pizza for breakfast and Monique, the skinniest woman on the planet, sipping her latest fad diet drink. Both looked at her in disgust.
“You know you made a complete joke out of yourself last night. And me, too, ’cause I was with you,” Gaylyn scolded.
Bree hadn’t started the night with plans to make a joke out of anyone, not until they’d gone in the club and she’d caught sight of Fen, seated at a table with a bunch of his friends. Seated between two girls. He’d looked her way, caught sight of her, and the smile had dropped from his face. He’d said something to his buddies, then left. For a second she’d thought he was coming over to see her, but he wasn’t. Instead, he’d made for the exit. Things had gone downhill after that.
“Dumping your drink on that poor guy,” added Monique, shaking her head. “So classless. And such a waste of booze.”
“He only wanted you to dance with him,” Gaylyn put in.
“He was with someone. Didn’t you see?” Bree demanded.The evidence is undeniable. Defendant is not guilty.
“He was with a whole group of people,” Monique informed her. “And guess what. It turned out that girl was his cousin.”
“Oh.”The defendant is guilty as charged.
“If you’d just stopped there. But, no, you had to climb up on the table and scream that every man in the room was scum and every woman who was with one was brain dead,” Gaylyn continued.
