Page 42 of The Fast Lane
“I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
Okay, enough was enough. I pulled the phone a good foot away and half yelled. “Sorry, the service is getting spotty again. You’re breaking up.”
Her voice came through the phone, clearly yelling my name.
“I’m going to hang up now. I’ll call back when I can. Bye. Love you.” I groaned. “My mother is a menace.”
“Like mother, like daughter,” Theo murmured, his eyes on the road.
With a gasp, I slugged him in the arm. “Excuse me? I’m not like my mother. You take it back.”
His mouth curled into a grin. “You have your own brand of menace.”
“I do not,” I said, purely on stubbornness.
He held up two fingers. “Two words: toothpaste Oreos.”
I tried to hold back a laugh and failed. “You all asked for it. All I wanted was to hang out with you and the boys.”
My brothers and Theo, all teenagers at that point, had been locked in the TV room watching some stupid horror movie. I didn’t even want to watch it; I just wanted to be with them. They were older, cooler, and dead set against me joining them. Worse, my mother took their side.
After several failed attempts, I knew I wasn’t going to win. Or at least, I wasn’t getting into that room with them. It’s possible I waited until Mom was in the shower, unscrewed and de-creamed about twenty Oreos and refilled them with white toothpaste.
Along with four glasses of milk, I arranged them on a tray and set it in front of the closed door to the TV room and knocked.
“Go away, Ali,” several annoyed voices shouted.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry and I brought you some cookies and I’m going to bed.” I’d scurried to the end of the hallway and peeked around the corner until someone opened the door and the tray disappeared. Then I scurried into bed. My eyes had just slid shut when I heard the shouts and feet racing down the hallway to the kitchen. I’d fallen asleep smiling that night.
Next to me in the car, Theo shuddered. “I haven’t touched an Oreo in over fifteen years. I can’t even look at them.”
I laughed in an I-am-an-evil-scientist way.
“So yes, you were a menace.” He tossed a pointed look in my direction. “You’re still a menace.”
“Whatever.” He wasn’t exactly wrong. “Your life would be boring without me.”
His dimple appeared. “Very boring.”
I scrolled through my messages, both voicemail and texts—did I even know this many people? Of course, there were messages from my mother to tell me she was worried, my father to tell me my mother was worried; Melanie texted to make sure we were safe, and Frankie texted to say Mom had asked him to contact the police department in Amarillo.
And then there were the others—my childhood pediatrician, Miss Mary, who’d been my Sunday school teacher a million years ago and now worked at the grocery store in town; the middle school counselor, and my mail carrier—who just wanted to make sure I was okay. I hated to cause all this worry but having that first seizure seemed to set in motion a kind of protectiveness from the entire town. There was always a possibility I could have another, and everyone felt it was their duty to worry over me. If they did forget, my mother was sure to remind them.
It was exhausting.
I loved Two Harts but every now and then I had a fantasy about moving away, changing my name, and keeping my medical history to myself.
I pulled up my group text with Mae and Ellie:
Me: The car broke down yesterday.
Mae: I heard. I had to talk your mom out of calling up the Texas Rangers and that was after she added your missing status to the church prayer chain.
Me: We were not missing.
Mae: So, has Theo made his move?