Midnight Serenade

Chapter 17

After lunch and the few remaining errands, Sawyer and I went back to his house. The late night was catching up with me and I was looking forward to a nap. However, as soon as we were through the door, Jess grabbed my arm and dragged me into the living room.

"Okay, she's here," she said to her mom, who was on the couch. "Can we go?"

Curiously, I looked between Jess and her mom.

Mrs. Peterson gave her daughter a scolding look and then focused on me. "What she means is, Claire, if you don't have anything else you were planning to do right now, would you like to come shopping with us?"

"Oh." There went my nap...

"I thought you might be able to use some more clothes," she explained. "I doubt you packed all of your things when you came here."

I looked down at my blue striped shirt that I'd already had to wash twice. She had a point. At this rate, the few things I did bring would be ruined before long. Still, she was talking about a whole wardrobe, and I knew it would be expensive.

"But you already gave me some clothes," I tried. For my birthday, I'd received two tops, a skirt, and a pair of shorts. It wasn't exactly a wardrobe, but it worked for now. They were even things I'd have picked out for myself. I was wearing the shorts today. "And once I get my other things back-"

She gave me the mom look that silenced my protest, and came to stand in front of me. "Those few things were just to tide you over until we could actually go shopping. I'm sure there are still plenty of things you need."

She wasn't wrong, but it was already too much. "But-" I uselessly tried again.

"Besides, I doubt you'll be able to get all of your other things for quite a while. Tony's trying to hurry it along as quickly as possible, but he said it'll probably be several months, and even then it's only a maybe."

I felt deflated. I mostly pushed away any thoughts of Natalie or Ray or anything to do with that life, but in the back of my mind, I think I'd been counting on miraculously having all of my things back pretty soon. But she was right. The house was technically a crime scene, which meant everything in it would probably stay there until they finished all the legal stuff. And who knew how long that would take?

"And with the weather changing in a few months, you'll need some warmer clothes."

That was another thing. I wasn't remotely prepared for the fall and winter weather. Nights weren't even that warm now, and it the middle of summer.

"But it's too much," I said, feeling guilty and a little embarrassed. I was already living here, using all their things and eating their food. How many hundreds of dollars could I expect them to spend on me?

Mrs. Peterson smiled and touched my cheek. "I promise, it's not. We want to do this for you. We missed out on so much. So many years... And if things were reversed, I know your parents would do the same and more for my children." Not wanting to things to get too serious, she adopted a scolding tone. "So just be good, alright?"

I smiled. "Alright."

"And anyway, you should probably get used to accepting gifts."

At my blank look, she said, "you've just had a milestone birthday, and you're about to meet your entire family who has been deprived of spending the last fourteen birthdays with you."

Oh yeah... It was probably stupid, but I honestly didn't think about this party having any connection to my birthday. And if it felt weird to accept gifts from people I'd known for a few days, tomorrow was going to be pretty awkward.