Saving Grace

Chapter Twelve: Let the Corruption Begin

"Shit, Layton! That sounded awesome!" Gracie exclaimed genuinely. It was Saturday and Gracie had just finished catching up to where the rest of her peers were in their schoolwork. It had taken long hours and a million headache-inducing phone calls to Pi, the Math whiz, and Layton, the History geek, and about a trillion trips to the library, but somehow she'd managed it. The principal had even agreed that she was on target for graduation, and he'd actually sounded impressed for once, which had been a totally different side to him than Gracie had ever seen, normally he was red-faced and screaming at her.

Layton grinned, setting his guitar on its stand and sinking back into the couch as silence enveloped them. The two of them were sitting in Pi's basement waiting for he and his mom to come back from the grocery store, while upstairs Ms. Tate's new boy-toy attempted to grill up some steaks. As far as Gracie and Layton could tell, though, he was doing more charring than he was real grilling.

"I've been working on it for a while. I have lyrics too, but they're not finished, and I kind of want to record it before I show you," he said, eyeing her with a serene expression as she stared at an old photo of the three of them that Layton's step-dad, Ryan James, had taken the year the four of them went all the way to San Diego for Comic Con. Layton's parents had promised to take them for his birthday, and somehow Ryan had drawn the short straw. He was a sports guy, not a comics guy, and he'd been miserable the entire trip, but Gracie, Layton, and Pi had had one of the best times of their lives.

"When do you think that's gonna happen? Ryan still won't let you quit soccer, right?"

Layton fought back a groan. "No. And he won't let me quit any of the other stupid extra curricular shit he's always signing me up for. It's like he thinks if I'm not constantly busy I'll become a drug addict," he complained, throwing his head against the back of the couch and staring up at the textured ceiling. "If it turns out I even remotely like something, he says it's not doing enough character building and somehow convinces my mom to force me to drop it, every fucking time. Remember what happened when I was playing hockey?"

Gracie nodded her head bitterly. "She was just looking for a freaking excuse. Too violent, my ass," Gracie growled, still just as irritated about it as he was. "For someone who insists he wants to do right by your mother's infidelity, he's sure doing a lousy job at not playing the I-didn't-ask-for-you-as-my-son-in-the-first-place guilt-trip card."

Layton busted up into unflattering snorts of laughter. "No shit," he agreed full-heartedly. "You'd think it was my fault that Ma cheated on him with a terminal Native American dude."

Gracie giggled. "Is that the story she told you of who he was?" she asked incredulously.

Layton rolled his eyes. "Well... no," he reluctantly admitted. "But she did tell me he was a Cherokee Indian or something like that. Maybe it was, Pawnee. I forgot as soon as she said it. Anyway, I figured the guy had to have been terminal if he didn't bother to come back around ever again."

"Maybe he was afraid that Ryan would kill him for impregnating his wife," Gracie suggested, barely able to keep a straight face.

Layton laughed so hard he nearly choked, managing to sputter, "Nobody's afraid of that douche. My mom wears the pants in their relationship. Shit, all of us kids were given my mom's last name, instead of our dads'. That right there's gotta tell you something." He started laughing all over again, which caused Gracie to do the same.

That was how Pi found them, two and a half minutes later, still doubled over and laughing at the preposterous notion that his step-dad was any sort of intimidating. He had been going down to get them, but when he spotted Gracie actually laughing for what seemed like the first time in ages, he froze on the stairs, unable to remove his eyes from her face. His heart raced erratically against his ribcage, and all the feelings he'd been trying to suppress for years flooded right back to the forefront of his mind, drowning all other thoughts.