Look How You Turned Out by Diane Munier Read Free Book Online

got this," he says, and he's smiling while he digs through his wallet, not looking repentant at all.
    I make my way next to him while Juney finishes the cart.
    "Marcus, I'm paying."
    The checker says the total, looking tired as hell, but she's eying him like a Lazy-boy chair.
    He hands her his card, and I've got my money now, crushed in my hand like week-old lettuce, but good none the less.
    "Put that away," he says about the lettuce.
    "Artie's gonna make you take it," I say.
    He's taking the receipt and putting it back in his wallet with his card.
    "Bull-headed," I mutter. No way he's paying for all of this.
    "Takes one to know one," he mutters back calling to Juney, who's found his friend again in the line beside us. Juney catches up to me and slips his hand in mine. I didn't know when he got one of the Fudgesicles, but he's licking away.
    I'm staring at the back of Marcus's head, the back of his jacket, the back of his…jeans as he pushes the cart toward the doors. My guess? He's got a new screen-saver.

Chapter 18
     
    "You in trouble?" I ask as I meet Marcus in the unloading of the many, many bags of groceries onto Artie's table. I'm talking about what went down in the grocery. It's the first few seconds we've been alone.
    He plays dumb. I know he's playing because he sets the bags down and touches his jacket's pocket where his phone resides. It's been vibrating so often he's turned it off not far outside of Litchfield.
    He doesn't have special ringtones. Thank God. I didn't want to hear Countdown by Beyonce or something else she programmed into his phone to represent herself. I'd have to walk away and leave him to her. Or do a serious, painful intervention.
    But he's not contaminated that way at least.
    He goes back outside without answering, and I follow. Juney is bringing in a box of bottled water. He has a Fudgesicle ring around his lips, and he's oblivious, hunching his shoulders against his manly load. Marcus holds the door for him, and he maneuvers in under Marcus's arm. I am right there, behind Marcus. "Wash your mouth," I say.
    "Dad already told me," he sighs.
    We walk to the lowered tailgate. Marcus leaps up to move the rest of the bags to the gate so we can reach them easily.
    It's an interesting view I have here on the ground. As previously stated, all angles work.
    "Are you?" I repeat having been ignored.
    "Am I what?" he says jumping lightly to the ground.
    "In trouble?"
    He only looks at me briefly before grabbing more bags and heading in.
    "Hey," I call. He turns.
    "Ear-check," I say.
    He smirks and goes in. He's in trouble.
    In the kitchen, there is now stuff everywhere. Marcus goes out for the last load, and I open the pantry and look inside.
    No, no, and no. My entire system has been haphazardly rearranged by my father while I've been gone. I energetically, because I have some frustration to work off, start to tackle the chaos. Cereals are top shelf. Baking supplies next. Now we have jars of things, jars, and bottles. Canned goods don't belong in here at all, they have their own place in the cabinets. Next, we have pasta, and beans, and lastly boxes of tea and all the weird stuff that doesn't go anywhere else.
    Finally towards the bottom the plastic wrap and foil and all that crap, and on the door all the spices which I also pluck from the wrong lines and move to the right ones. There. Now that isn't so hard. I stand back to admire my work.
    He's behind me sort of, at the island, his hands there and he's staring at me, he's been staring at me, and I've probably looked from behind like I'm conducting an orchestra playing Flight of the Bumblebee or something.
    "What's the matter?" I say because he looks so serious and thoughtful and thoughtfully serious.
    "I don't…get in trouble. I'm not Juney."
    He's right, he doesn't have a mustache around his…lips.
    I'm smiling.
    "What's so funny?" he says.
    "Nothing. Just…seeing how clean your…mouth is." I'm laughing a little.
    He takes a couple of seconds to