Wilson Mooney, Almost Eighteen by Gretchen de la O Read Free Book Online Page B

his
nostrils.
    “ Don’t worry, it wasn’t
your fault,” I answered his apology and looked away.
    “ Of course it was!
Everything is his fault,” Cindy said.
    She must hate him. It wasn’t his fault
that her father chose to marry his mom. The more I thought about
how wicked she was to him, the more I couldn’t take it. I was done
holding my tongue. This poor guy was taking the brunt of Cindy’s
anger at her father. Someone had to step in.
    “ You need to give him a
break! You’ve been nothing but rude to him since we arrived in
Denver.”
    “ What? Why in the hell are
you so interested in him or how I treat him? Please, if I didn’t
know any better I would think you’d want to hook up with him,” she
spat as she pushed her back into the door and faced me with a
scathing look. Her lips drew tight across her teeth as her eyes
closed to a squint.
    “ Come on, you’ve been on
his case since you saw him at the airport. He hasn’t done anything
to you.” Confidence surged through my body and I felt the need to
fight this out until she saw what I was saying.
    “ Please—I see where you’re
going with this and as honorable as you’re trying to be, you have
no idea what this is between him and me.” She pushed her pointed finger back
and forth between her chest and the front seat where Nick was
sitting.
    “ Well, you might be
surprised at what I know,” the words flew from my mouth before I
had a chance to look at Nick in the rearview mirror. His eyes
narrowed, his face radiated a flash of red that rolled up from his
jowls. I stopped, my lips pressed closed. I promised him I wouldn’t
rat him out.
    “ What? What do you know?
What did you tell her?” She bounced her scowl between Nick and
me.
    Back pedal, I need to back
pedal because of my big mouth. Think… come up with some brainless
excuse for saying what I did . Before I got
a chance, Nick covered me.
    “ Like I would even have a
chance to talk to her.” He turned around, glancing away from the
road long enough to make eye contact with her. “You are so
insecure. I had nothing to do with our parents getting married!” He
pulled to the side of the highway and turned to her; he wasn’t done
spewing. Cindy must have seen red, because she just went off the
hook.
    “ Shut-up you fricken gold
digging tool. You had everything to do with them getting married.”
She swung her arm up through the cab of the car and tried to hit
him.
    “ Oh, no way, I am through
taking your crap. I’ve felt guilty for long enough. I didn’t have
anything to do with your father shipping you off to boarding school. I
fought for you. I’m done with feeling guilty because my parents got
back together.” He kept slapping her fists away from him. I just
moved back into the farthest corner of the Sequoia.
    “ You’re so full of bull
crap, you didn’t fight for me. I watched them the night they
decided to send me away. They were concerned that I was going to
hurt you . So
instead of sending you away, they sent me—away. They wanted you more than me.” She
looked at me, tears rolling heavy down her cheeks. I’d never seen
her cry before, not like this. These were real tears that trailed
and marked her cheeks with evidence of her sincere
anguish.
    Nick was ruthless, “Paa-leese, just
stop. You’re so ridiculous. The self-pity has gotta go. It isn’t
going to work—I’ve known you too long.” He was like a caged tiger
that had been taunted for the last time. Three and a half hours in
the car with her, must have been the straw that broke the camel’s
back, because he didn’t let up.
    “ You are such a
self-centered bitch. Do you honestly think you have that much power
over me? Everything I have EVER done for you was because our father asked me to.
Not because I liked you or wanted anything from you.” He pushed the
driver’s door open and got out into the snow-plowed road. The chill
of six degrees below zero flooded the SUV. The door slammed shut
and Cindy pushed