equivalent of probably five bottles of the best Cristal had to offer. Drunk on power, I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
But I didn’t wake up the same way.
9. Water under the Bridge
Rachel was undeniably mad at me. It wasn’t merely her offensive driving maneuvers that tipped me off—it was her car itself. Even Daisy, as she had taken to referring to her Beetle after adorning the headlights with a set of eyelashes, looked pissed. The eyelashes were slightly off-center and cocked in an accusatory manner. I was about to take a tongue lashing of epic proportions.
“Ruby!” she shouted while furiously pressing in the button to make her window go down faster. “You have some explaining to do! Zach was perfectly fine when I last saw him! A few months later, he’s trying to kill himself while you stealthily avoid my messages! There’s a lot going on here that you haven’t told me about but you’re going to start spilling it right this second! He’s my twin brother and you’re my best friend—I deserve to know everything. Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”
As usual, she spit the words out of her mouth like a cloud unleashing a monsoon. Just when I thought the storm was lifting, she began pelting me with another round.
“Just because I’m living in Florida now is no excuse for not telling me what’s going on! You promised to keep me in your loop of weirdness, remember? I—”
I knew from experience that if I didn’t cut her off soon, her tongue was going to steamroll right over me. “Calm down, Rachel. I know you’re upset but I didn’t want you to worry about Zach. I don’t know what’s wrong with Zach—yet. But I’ve been following every sign no matter where it takes me. And I didn’t intentionally ignore your messages—I forgot to take my phone out of airplane mode when I got to Tucson.”
“Wait a second—Tucson? Why were you in Tucson? And where exactly is that anyway? I spent every day of seventh grade geography perfecting my French manicure skills. Flunked that class with no problem.”
“Tucson is in Arizona. Long story short, I went there to try to help Zach. My life has been, well, complicated lately to say the least. But everything I’ve done, I’ve done to help your brother. You know how deeply I love him. He’s wrapped up in something weird but I’m going to get to the bottom of it—one way or another.”
“Well, I refuse to accept a short synopsis of what’s been going on. In other words, you need to turn that short story back into an epic saga. And with sequels if need be. For real, I want every last detail of what’s been going on. Now.”
And people referred to me as a dominatrix? Rachel had me beat in that department by a long shot. But she was right. I shouldn’t have left her out of the loop for so long. I really did have a lot of explaining to do.
“Follow me back to Rosewood. We’ll talk about it over some Rocky Road, okay?”
Even bribing her with ice cream didn’t remove the scowl from her face. I was going to be a suspect stammering under the bright lights of the interrogation room for the next few hours. Needless to say, I drove home very slowly and stopped at every yellow light along the way until she started laying on the horn behind me.
Once back at the mansion, it was obvious that she’d caught on to the fact that I was dragging my feet. Swiftly, she swiped the ice cream scoop out of my hand with a stern command.
“Dish it out, Ruby—and I’m not referring to the ice cream. I’ll take care of that while you start telling me what happened to Zach.”
So without further prodding or hesitance on my part, I started at the beginning. I explained in detail everything that happened
But I didn’t wake up the same way.
9. Water under the Bridge
Rachel was undeniably mad at me. It wasn’t merely her offensive driving maneuvers that tipped me off—it was her car itself. Even Daisy, as she had taken to referring to her Beetle after adorning the headlights with a set of eyelashes, looked pissed. The eyelashes were slightly off-center and cocked in an accusatory manner. I was about to take a tongue lashing of epic proportions.
“Ruby!” she shouted while furiously pressing in the button to make her window go down faster. “You have some explaining to do! Zach was perfectly fine when I last saw him! A few months later, he’s trying to kill himself while you stealthily avoid my messages! There’s a lot going on here that you haven’t told me about but you’re going to start spilling it right this second! He’s my twin brother and you’re my best friend—I deserve to know everything. Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”
As usual, she spit the words out of her mouth like a cloud unleashing a monsoon. Just when I thought the storm was lifting, she began pelting me with another round.
“Just because I’m living in Florida now is no excuse for not telling me what’s going on! You promised to keep me in your loop of weirdness, remember? I—”
I knew from experience that if I didn’t cut her off soon, her tongue was going to steamroll right over me. “Calm down, Rachel. I know you’re upset but I didn’t want you to worry about Zach. I don’t know what’s wrong with Zach—yet. But I’ve been following every sign no matter where it takes me. And I didn’t intentionally ignore your messages—I forgot to take my phone out of airplane mode when I got to Tucson.”
“Wait a second—Tucson? Why were you in Tucson? And where exactly is that anyway? I spent every day of seventh grade geography perfecting my French manicure skills. Flunked that class with no problem.”
“Tucson is in Arizona. Long story short, I went there to try to help Zach. My life has been, well, complicated lately to say the least. But everything I’ve done, I’ve done to help your brother. You know how deeply I love him. He’s wrapped up in something weird but I’m going to get to the bottom of it—one way or another.”
“Well, I refuse to accept a short synopsis of what’s been going on. In other words, you need to turn that short story back into an epic saga. And with sequels if need be. For real, I want every last detail of what’s been going on. Now.”
And people referred to me as a dominatrix? Rachel had me beat in that department by a long shot. But she was right. I shouldn’t have left her out of the loop for so long. I really did have a lot of explaining to do.
“Follow me back to Rosewood. We’ll talk about it over some Rocky Road, okay?”
Even bribing her with ice cream didn’t remove the scowl from her face. I was going to be a suspect stammering under the bright lights of the interrogation room for the next few hours. Needless to say, I drove home very slowly and stopped at every yellow light along the way until she started laying on the horn behind me.
Once back at the mansion, it was obvious that she’d caught on to the fact that I was dragging my feet. Swiftly, she swiped the ice cream scoop out of my hand with a stern command.
“Dish it out, Ruby—and I’m not referring to the ice cream. I’ll take care of that while you start telling me what happened to Zach.”
So without further prodding or hesitance on my part, I started at the beginning. I explained in detail everything that happened
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