Little Rooms

Chapter 21

Cassie helped me re-hang my clothes and put my shoes back in the closet. Thankfully, my mother hadn't touched my books or computer. Once we had things in place, my phone rang.

"Nicole." The flat, masculine voice held a tense undertone.

"Joe?"

"Is there something you want to tell me?"

The air went silent as my mind scrambled for answers to potential questions. If he knew I was the alibi, would I tell him about Isaiah? Would there be a choice?

"Yeah. I've been worried about you, ever since the day that--"

"That your boyfriend kicked me in the balls? Nice try. There's something else you need to tell me."

"Oh, what?" Playing dumb was the only card I had left to play.

"My parents talked to a detective this afternoon. Know anyone named Olivieri?"

I didn't say anything as I watched my playing card burn into a pile of ashes.

"This Olivieri guy says the alibi talked to him today. Said it was a girl. A smart, pretty girl. Someone you'd never think of seeing with someone like... your boyfriend."

The urge to vomit hit me at lightning speed. I made it to the trashcan, filling it with bile while Joe's voice barked through the phone still sitting on the bed.

I picked it back up only to have a hostile voice greet my ear. "Answer me!!!"

"I wasn't here. I got sick."

"You must be sick. I can't believe it. It scares me, to think of you with that guy... that guy who killed my brother. And to think I liked you. Did you know that I thought I was in love with you, Nicole? I was wrong. It's over. Done. Gone. You're gone."

"Wait, I can explain," I said, hoping for a minute to speak.

"You can't explain anything, except you're defending that fucker against what he did to my BROTHER!" Joe's voice had reached a husky, screeching tone that made me hold the phone away.

"I don't wanna ever see you again, Nicole. You're just as evil as that guy you're fucking."

I was barely aware of my finger pressing the cancel button on my phone, but Joe disappeared and I was in peace. My ear rang with his voice, burned into my eardrum for an all-night replay. The phone rang again. I turned it off and fell back on the bed. The ceiling was flat, scraped and painted gray. I'd wanted a cloud mural, which my mother thought was silly for a grown girl.

"I make the decisions now," I said to the ceiling, planning to find some white paint and create the clouds myself as soon as I could. But the clouds that were already around me were thick with fear and anger.

Nicole did something wrong.

More than that, she'd done something bad and hideous. I was an outcast, spread out on the bed waiting for my mother to come home and damn me to hell.

Her heels clacked against the hardwood floors when she arrived, bringing clatter up the stairs to her room. She came back out, crossed my doorway, and went back to her room without stopping at my door.

Cassie stuck her head in. "She's not talking. I can't complain."

"Does Dad know?"

"Oh ya, I heard her on the phone earlier. Not sure what his take on it is."

"Probably just as bad as mama's. He'll be pissed, but instead of yelling at me he'll eat more toast." I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Let's hide the bread! Then he'll have nothing to stand behind," she said, laughing back.