Tame

Chapter Sixteen

I remember my family's last Fourth of July cook out. It was two years ago. Grandpa Izaiah had been dead for five years. Grandma Tiana was going to die a few months later. Even though my Quinceañera was a little over a year ago, my mom and grandma Victoria were still talking about it and all the male suitors that were soon to come. On my mom's side of the family, it's symbolic to marry at 15, a few months after your Quinceañera, but they didn't think I was ready so they were going to wait until I stopped maturing at 18. I stuck myself to Grandma Tiana's side the entire time, listening to more of her stories as I wrote them down in my notebook. These stories were about her romance with Mark Warren who she met when she was 21. He was a 30-year-old who just moved from New York. Carson City back in the 1960s wasn't that different to the way it is now. Every time I'm in town, I always imagine my 21-year-old grandma walking down the same sidewalks I do with a man that, despite being 9 years her senior, she loved dearly. Sadly, two years later, there was a mine explosion in California that took Mark out before the cancer did. After grieving for three years in a big, empty house, Grandma Tiana moved back to Barbados where she met Grandpa Izaiah and got married.
Grandma Tiana reminded me constantly that she loved my grandpa more then her next breath, but even that kind of love was nothing in comparison to what her and Mr. Warren shared. I had always dreamed of a love like that-minus the mine explosion part-but times have changed and people nowadays are too reckless with their love.
"I said what are you doing?!" I repeat as Dean just stands there frozen. Everything, everything I didn't want him to see, is out on the countertop: my letters from Grandma Victoria, my birth certificate, my Fourth of July family picture, everything. I look over at the counter and see that only one envelope is open: the most recent letter from my grandmother. I stalk over to the island and look at the mail he didn't touch yet. My bills and another letter that was stuck to my water bill from Angel Martinez, a boy I secretly dated back when we were in Puerto Rico. I wonder how he is now.
I angrily whirl on Dean. "I thought I told you not to go through that drawer," I say.
"I-I know. B-but I just-I just couldn't help myself. I wanted to see."
"When I told you you had to be respectful in this house, my stuff was included," I tell him hotly. "How could you do this to me?"
"It's harmless stuff," Dean protests.
"Not to me!" I scream making him flinch. I feel my bottom lip tremble and bite it. "Had it ever occurred to you that maybe there were some things in that drawer that I didn't want anyone else to see? That were just too personal for me to put out there?"
Hanging his head, Dean shakes it. I snatch the picture from his hand and stuff it inside the Manila envelope along with my birth certificate. The only name I like on that paper is Ada, Grandma Tiana's middle name. I always told myself that I would officially get my name changed to Ada Blackburn after Grandma Tiana's maiden name, too, but I never get around to it. I slap both the birth certificate and the letter folders along with all of my mail inside the drawer and slam it close.
I take a deep breath. "Tomorrow morning after breakfast, I'm going to call a cab to take you to your place in Las Vegas," I explain calmly, my back to Dean.
I hear a thud and turn around to see him on his knees. "Please," he begs. "Please don't send me to my place please. I promise I won't snoop again, I promise."
He grabs onto my waist and buries his face in my stomach. I feel his mouth move through the fabric of my tank as he silently mouths his pleads.
"I just don't know if I can trust you around my things," I tell him gently, my anger ebbing away at how desperate he looks.
"You can," he insist, looking up at me. "I promise. You can lock me in the room for the rest of the weekend if you want, just please don't make me go to Vegas."
What exactly is in Las Vegas that has Dean so spooked?
"Dean, what's in Las Vegas?" I ask.
He's hesitant on the answer, but I won't let up. He went through my stuff so I deserve to know.
"My dad," Dean says quietly. "He just got out of prison and he's in Las Vegas trying to find me. He's trying to hurt me, Ada."
"But you can take him, right?" I question.
"Not if he's armed. He's shot someone before, Ada. I'm nothing against a bullet."
I stroke his hair to comfort him. "He sent me a threatening text last weekend. I can't go back."
"And you won't," I assure. "I'll make sure of it."
Dean sighs in relief.

The next night as I'm just slipping my pajama bottoms on, thunder sounds so loudly from outside I won't be surprised if it'll shake the whole house. Without thinking, I run out of my room and bursts into the one I gave Dean. He's able to slip his T-shirt on in time to catch me as I leap into his arms.
"What's wrong?" he asks.
He gets his answer when thunder claps again and I squeeze his neck.
"Oh," Dean mutters. "You're afraid of thunderstorms."
I nod into his shoulder. He snatches the covers away before slowly lowering himself onto the bed. I don't let him go.
"It really is okay, Ada," he says. "It's not going to hurt you."
If only he knows how false that is.