I was so in my head about that night as I pulled into the parking lot that when I immediately spotted Keane’s truck, I thought it was my imagination.
But it wasn’t. It was definitely Keane’s truck parked where he always parked.
He must have spotted Jade in there. But why hadn’t he called me to tell me? Probably because he was still mad at me.
I exited the car and walked inside. After only a few seconds of searching, I found Keane, in the same booth we’d sat in weeks before. But across from him was Jade, whose eyes went wide at seeing me.
What the hell was going on?
Keane’s back was to me as he tapped his pizza crust on his plate like he was playing a drum. Jade, meanwhile, stared at me as I approached them slowly. Her makeup was all messed up and her shirt appeared to be stained. What was she doing, here with Keane?
“What?” Keane asked when he finally took notice of Jade’s expression. Turning, his eyes collided with mine.
No one spoke for a moment. There was just the din of the pizza makers behind the counter and the lull of the easy listening radio playing over the speakers.
“Navy,” Keane said, like I was the last person he expected to see. His face held shock, but something else. Like he’d just been caught.
“What’s going on?” I looked between the two of them, and they looked at each other before looking at me. “Why aren’t you home?” I asked Jade.
“I…”
“And you didn’t answer my call just now?” I had no right to feel hurt, but for some reason him sending my call to voicemail, when he’d apparently been with my sister, hurt like hell all of a sudden. “You sent me to voicemail?”
“I don’t know where to start,” Keane said, looking at Jade like she was his way out of this mess.
“Start with the truth,” I suggested. I felt awkward, standing at the end of the booth as I looked at them both.
“Um…”
My blood pressure was rising. My heart was pounding. Something was going on, and I knew whatever it was, Keane had lied to me. He didn’t look like he’d happened to run into Jade at this restaurant.
“Jade. What the hell is going on?” My voice was low, but my tone told her I wasn’t going to stand here like an idiot while she fumbled over her words.
“Keane picked me up,” she said, sliding a sideways glance at him. “At a party. In the city.” She brushed her messy hair from her face, and I caught a whiff of her.
I couldn’t even process what she’d said. “Have you seriously been drinking?”
She closed her mouth and nodded solemnly.
I couldn’t continue this conversation in public. “Come on,” I said, angling my head toward the door. “Let’s go home and talk.”
To my surprise, Jade didn’t argue. Maybe it was the presence of other kids in the restaurant close to her age that had her walking ahead of me out the door like nothing was wrong. I turned to Keane, opened my mouth to say something. But what did I say? He’d ignored my call and had apparently picked up my drunk sister. Part of me was relieved that he’d done that for me, but a bigger part of me was hurt that he hadn’t told me.
I didn’t know what to say to him. He just looked at me with those puppy dog eyes until I turned on my heel and followed my sister to the car.
I didn’t look back to see if Keane had followed. I didn’t need to, because by the time we’d pulled into the driveway of my aunt’s house, I saw Keane’s headlights not far behind. Hopefully he had the sense to wait until I could talk to him.
We exited the car and I realized I was trembling. From anger, from repressed aching? I didn’t know. The entire ride home had been wordless. I’d run over a million things in my mind, wanting to compose myself before I unloaded. But after walking through the door, all of my carefully prepared sentences had just melted into the exhaustion that took precedence.
I was connecting all the dots. Keane had seemed agitated after bringing my coffee to me, claiming he was jealous. But for him to have gone to the city to get my sister, I knew that he must have known he’d have to cancel our movie plans to get Jade. So he’d lied to me. That little argument he’d instigated had been all complete and utter bullshit.
My eyelids were heavy, and my eyes were dry. All I wanted was to lock myself in a quiet room and indulge in the feeling of not letting anyone down. But I couldn’t do that.
I’d cost my aunt one of her employees. One of my little sisters was drunk and had just been rescued by my best friend—who hadn’t told me about it. In fact, he’d lied to me.
Jade sank onto the couch the minute we were inside, and I went into the kitchen, needing a cup of coffee before I could handle something like this. I poured two mugs, intending one for Jade, but when I entered the living room, Keane was there too, sitting in the only armchair. He was watching me carefully, probably just as stunned as Jade was that I hadn’t blown up already.
I couldn’t stand on my feet, but I couldn’t bear to sit next to Jade, so I sank onto the floor and crossed my legs.
“Don’t sit there,” Keane said, immediately getting up. I resented that he was being chivalrous in that moment, when all I wanted to do was soak in my hurt and anger a bit longer while I carefully chose my words. So, I ignored him, turning my attention to Jade.
“Start at the beginning,” I said, as calmly as possible.
Jade scratched her wrists. “Andrew took me to a party.”
“Andrew?”
“My boyfriend.” She glanced at Keane. “Or, ex, I guess.”
I was really curious to know Keane’s role in all of this, but that’d have to wait. “So you snuck out to go? Did you think I wouldn’t notice when I got home?”
“I didn’t think that far.” She shrugged, like this was no big deal. “So anyway, he picked me up and we went to the party. I didn’t realize how far it was until we were already there.”
“And instead of letting me know, you decided to have a few drinks?”
“I didn’t see the big deal. Andrew said he wasn’t really in the partying mood after we got there, and he disappeared. I thought he went out to smoke. But when the other smokers came back in and he wasn’t with them, I worried.” She shifted her weight on the couch, shoving her hands under her thighs as she looked down at her feet. “And so I went looking for him. And I found him.” She sniffed and ran her arm under her nose. I couldn’t see her face, but I saw the teardrops that fell. “He was kissing some other chick. Someone I didn’t even know. So I screamed at him and he acted like he didn’t even care. He told me to find my own way home.”
“So you called Keane to come get you?”
“Yes. Well, first…” She shifted again and I could tell she was uncomfortable. “I went out to his car to get my stuff and I knew he kept a pocketknife in his glove box.”
“Oh, God,” I said, not wanting to know where this was going.
“And I was angry. Because he drove me all the way out there and stranded me, basically, and kissed that other chick right in front of me.” She lifted her head and her eyes were swimming in tears. “So I stabbed his front tire.” She winced. “I didn’t realize how loud it would sound.”