High Tide

Chapter 18 [Slip Up]

Chapter 18

Slip Up

The way he was looking at her right now – or not looking at her – made her feel like absolute shit. It wasn't fair! He was totally overreacting!

"I wasn't drinking!" Avery said as she followed Charlie into the house a few minutes later. Asher was already heading to his house across the street, well aware that Avery was in trouble because of him. "It was an accident, I didn't mean to," she added.

Charlie didn't say anything. He opened the front door and proceeded to move out of the way to let her go through first.

"Somebody – I don't know who, but somebody spiked the punch and I didn't know. I took one sip and then I threw it out I swear," she told him, her voice climbing up a few octaves. She was fighting back angry tears.

"You know the rules about drinkin' and all that other kind of shit," Charlie told her. His tone was still level as he spoke, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Well like I said, I wasn't drinking! I don't drink! I've never had a drink!" she tried to explain to him, feeling her frustration mounting. "What's the big deal anyway?"

Lydia chose that very moment to climb down the stairs, looking a little puzzled.

"Marissa's sleeping!" she hissed, glancing from her husband to Avery. The tension between them caused her to frown. "What's going on?" she wondered, climbing the rest of the way down the stairs to stand in the hallway next to Avery.

"There was alcohol at the dance," Charlie half-grumbled.

"It wasn't that big a deal! Asher brought me a drink; I didn't think there'd be alcohol in it so I took a sip! Apparently some kids thought it'd be hilarious to spike the punch bowl or something. I don't know! But I didn't drink any of it afterward," she tried to explain again, rounding on Lydia since Charlie was clearly out of his mind.

"Okay, it's okay," Lydia said calmly. "You can go upstairs, I'm sure you're dying to get out of those shoes," she added with a half-smile, patting the girl lightly on the shoulder.

Silently Avery obeyed, grateful for any reason to get away. When Lydia was sure Avery was out of earshot, she turned to her husband.

"What the hell Charlie?" she whispered.

"Don't tell me I'm overreactin', 'cause I'm not," Charlie told her quickly, running his fingers through his hair and down his scruffy jawline. He started making his way into the kitchen and Lydia followed on his heels. "I've seen firsthand what booze can do to kids; some don't come out of it alive," he said when he turned to her again, a darkness in his blue eyes that she very rarely saw. She was talking to Charlie the cop now.

"I know and it's terrifying," Lydia sighed, understanding in her eyes. "But hon, that's parenting for you... it's always going to be terrifying, no matter what they do... Avery never gave us any reason not to trust her. She's a good kid with a good head on her shoulders. We've talked to her already about alcohol and drugs. She knows never to get in a car with someone that's been drinking, she knows we're just a phone call away..."

"I just don't want anythin' to happen to her," Charlie said with a humorless chuckle. "I feel like she just got here and already she's slippin' away... growin' up too fast," he laughed, dropping into a chair so that, for once, he had to look up to meet her gaze.

Lydia ran her fingers through Charlie's hair, letting her hand rest on his cheek.

"You should go up there and talk to her," she told him.