Love in Darkness (Castles on the Sand 2)

Three

Great, a lecture. Just what I need right now. Still, I follow John out the front door and up the steps to the driveway. My house is built in the lee of a rocky outcropping, so the driveway is on the same level as the second floor, and the front door opens onto a little sheltered porch with stairs cut into the rock that lead up to the driveway.

John’s van looks oddly familiar. It’s ancient and scratched up with a big dull spot on the side where a corporate logo was removed. The door opens with a creak, the upholstery is dried out vinyl, and the seatbelt comes through the feed with a puff of dust, but a glance over my shoulder reveals why I know this van. It’s got a wheelchair lift in it and used to belong to the local group home, an assisted living facility for the disabled.

“You know what I’m gonna say, don’t you?” says John as he climbs into the driver’s seat. Once settled, he throws his shoulder forward to start the van with a laborious chug of the engine.

“Stay away from Madison?”

“All right. I’m glad we had this talk.”

I roll my eyes and look out the window. John never liked me. I was the one hitch in his grand plan to save his sister from her previous situation here in town, and I have a ton of respect for the guy. He and Madison had been apart for fifteen years when he found out she wasn’t being treated well by their mother, and when Madison made it clear she wanted to stay in town for the last year of high school, he moved out and gave her a good home, away from all the drama.

“So, I don’t know what your game is, not answering her last letter. The way you’ve treated her should make her want to give up on you, only this is my sister we’re talking about. You’re giving me flashbacks of the Kailie situation. You remember that whole thing?”

Kailie, as in Kailie Beale. Do I ever remember.

The first memory that pops into my head is of Madison being dragged off to the high school nurse’s office, both hands clasped over her face and blood dripping off her chin and onto her shirt. For weeks she had two black eyes, and while Kailie wasn’t the one to kick her, she’d incited another girl to do it.

What made the situation worse was that a day or so after this happened, I saw Madison hug Kailie in the hallway, best friends as if nothing had happened.

Then there was the time Kailie texted everyone at school to say that Madison had performed a lewd act on me. That was before Madison and I were even dating.

A few days after that, Kailie attempted suicide and Madison saved her life. She broke into the Beales’ home and called an ambulance. How did Kailie repay Madison that kindness?

Like this: A few weeks later, after Madison and I got together, I was sound asleep in my bed when I woke up to find someone straddling me. I suppose Kailie thought this would be alluring, that I’d wake up to her body pressed to mine and her lips parted, ready for a deep kiss, and that I’d want to make passionate love to her, but my reflexes don’t work that way. I’d never been straddled by a girl before, it was always by other guys trying to beat the crap out of me. And the four point pin, where your opponent is down on all fours on top of you? That’s a nasty pin. It’s hard to break, so I didn’t just shove her off. I pulled my knees up to my chest and kicked as hard as I could. I think Kailie took to the air.

“What is your problem?” she demanded as she picked herself up off my floor. I have a big room, and that’s the only reason why she didn’t hit a wall. She stood there wearing a lingerie something or other, her deep blue eyes indignant, her stance firm, hands planted on her hips. She wasn’t an ugly girl, but she was the kind of skinny that is only attractive because it makes women confident.