On Ice

OI Chapter 15

“Okay, gather round kiddies, because I’m only going to say this once,” I declared after herding my reluctant sister out of her room and down the stairs into the living room. I watched her face light up when she realized that Kale was in the room.Yup, this was way more serious than two people just having "fun."  It was a great improvement, as she’d been upstairs moodily packing her things into boxes much to my surprise and had likely been up to it all day. I’m surprised her principal hadn’t called me. Shaking the thought off, I waited until she took a seat next to Kale on the couch.

Clearing my throat, I pointed at Calla, “This is the deal, no negotiations. If you want to stay here there are three rules you’re going to have to abide by.” She looked up at me warily, and I ticked the first off on my fingers, “One, I don’t care who you talk to, whether it’s a licensed psychologist or your school counsellor, but you will talk to someone about the accident.” She made a face, but I continued before she could object, “Two, figure out a way to ride comfortably in a car, because you can’t avoid it forever.” Again, she made a displeased face and her gaze narrowed, so I finished up with the one that was most important, to me that is. “And three, no more fucking lying.”

Her gaze dropped, I suppose she felt guilty. And she should, I’d asked her not to lie to me before and she’d promised not to, but then she’d gone and done it again anyway. True, it’d been a note, but it still had been a lie. I suppose I should’ve been relieved that I’d gone to Kale’s house first, before setting out to track down Quinn. That could’ve been disastrous. When her mouth opened, to object to one if not two of my new rules, I wagged a finger and said, “Ah-ah! I’m not done yet.”

“I’m just going to say that this,” I said gesturing from Kale to Calla, “Does not thrill me. I don’t like it. But,” I paused, “I’ll tolerate it, because I know if I try to forbid it you two will just sneak around and lie to me and that would just piss me off more. So pay attention! The dating rules are these: One, Monday through Thursday Calla is to be home by 11:30. Unless requested by me, Kale leaves by midnight at the latest. You have work and school, and if I see either suffering, I’ll make the curfew earlier.”

I rolled my eyes as I saw the two of them sneaking peeks at the other. “Two, I don’t care where you are or what you’re doing, if I call either of you, you’d better answer the damn phone. Three, don’t lie to me, be straight with me. Even if I don’t like what you’ve got to say, it’s going to go a lot better for you if you don’t lie to me.”

Exhaling, I hated even having to mention this again, since it seems like I’d just had this conversation with Calla yesterday. Okay, it’d been the day before, but whatever. “Four, use protection because I swear to God if you get my sister pregnant Kale…” my threat died off as I saw Calla’s face blanch and Kale’s gaze skitter away from me.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me! What the hell, you were standing right there when I had the birds and bees conversation with her,” I shouted at Kale. Calla’s pale face flushed with colour and Kale looked a little green around the gills as he mumbled something. “What,” I growled, bending down to get in his face.

“It was just once,” he said, his expression slightly miserable as he admitted, “I was half asleep, didn’t think about it until it was too late.”

I wasn’t happy, believe me, I wasn’t happy, but it was done and now I was going to have to ask Calla questions that I’d never wanted the answers to. Feeling beyond my years, I sank carefully to sit on the coffee table in front of the pair. I slanted my lower body and turned a little toward her. My hands were fisted in my lap and I really wanted to slug Kale right now. But instead, I asked Calla, “Are you on the pill?”