all american | lance tucker

ch. 43 • mother dearest

"Holy shit. Lance, she's with my mom." I panicked immediately, pulling on my jacket and getting ready to head over to Thea's apartment. Lance stopped me as I got ready to dash out the door, holding my shoulders gently.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"I can't just leave her there."

"She's at her own house." He reasoned, letting me go. I hesitated, then remembered how panicked I had felt when I had to talk to our mom. I couldn't leave her there.

"At least let me go pick her up." I pleaded, ducking past him and rushing into the living room, where the kids were apparently taking turns throwing their soccer ball in the living room. Lance followed after me, grabbing the ball as it was thrown towards the kitchen.

"How many times have I said no ball in the house?" He snapped. He grabbed my shoes as I tried to put them on.

"Cara. This isn't a good idea." He was done reasoning. Now he was telling me. I shook my head.

"She's my sister. I have to go."

"Well then I'm coming with you." He handed me my shoes, grabbing his from beside me.

"What about the kids?"

"Uh...hold on." He pulled out his phone, dialing and calling someone. "Hey. Um, maybe. No, no! Wait! Don't hang up!" He pinched the bridge of his nose, then pulled a triumphant look. "Thank god! Please watch them. It's an emergency. We'll only be gone for a little bit. I promise." He begged. I betted he was talking to Adele. Pregnancy hormones and being fed up with all of Lance's shit had resulted in her refusing to babysit for us ever again. He uttered about three hundred apologies before saying goodbye and hanging up.

"So?" I asked hopefully.

"She's on her way. Do you want to wait another ten minutes?"

"Not really."

"Alright, kids. Listen up. Aria, I'm leaving you guys home alone for about ten minutes. I want you to all go upstairs into Aria's room and stay up there until Adele gets here. Do not do anything you're not supposed to or you'll get your asses whipped." He rushed, pointing to the stairs. "Go. I love you guys." He kissed the top of each of their heads as they passed him, heading up the stairs.

"Alright. Let's head out." I opened the door, locking it behind us as we made our way to the car.

"So, what do you think is going on?" Lance asked as he got in the passenger seat. I tapped my fingers impatiently, pulling out of the parking lot a little too fast.

"The problem is, I don't know. It's my fault, too. I told her to get mom's number for the wedding. I shouldn't have let her talk to her." I huffed, tapping my left foot impatiently. He put his hand on my thigh gently, squeezing it.

"Cara. It's gonna be fine. If I need to kick an old lady's ass, I will." He reassured, his hand jerking to the wheel as I took a turn too sharp.

"Lance, I've got it." I snapped, pushing his hand off of me. I was too distracted to let him try and "relax" me. "If you want to be helpful, call Thea and see what's going on." I leaned forward so that he could get my phone out of my pocket. He did so, muttering something about something being up my ass as he found Thea's number and called her, putting her on speakerphone.

"Cara?" Her voice was raspy, as if she had been crying. Or yelling.

"Hey. What's going on?"

"I uh, I got her number from Marco and she suggested she come over so we could 'talk some things over' and then she started saying all this shit and I just can't deal with it." She explained.