“I’d fly away with you.”
They shared a heart-warming smile.
Tula continued: “I wish that they were just bad parents, you know? Then we’d have a good reason to leave. But instead they’re reasonable and otherwise well-meaning enough, so we want to stay in their good graces. If they were yelling and screaming at us at the dinner table, we would just tell them we were leaving. If they made us do crazy chores all the time or were a terror to live with otherwise, we would want to leave no matter what they said. But I love my mom and dad. I want them to approve of me and my choices. Ugh, I wish they could just choose whether to be perfect parents or terrible ones. This ‘in the middle’ stuff just makes my life more… I don’t know. Frustrating, I suppose.”
“Aren’t a lot of families like that?” Suggested Rhett, turning on his side. “Most parents have their flaws, but they aren’t child abusers. Your family is run-of-the-mill. Hell, they’re probably better parents than the ordinary, in their own way.”
Flat on her back, she looked up at him with her big blue eyes. “I suppose you’re right. I just wish we could leave. I wish… Oh, this would get everyone terribly mad, but it is on my mind.”
“You wish what?”
“I wish that we could just run off and get eloped. My parents would be angry about it, particularly my mother, but we could then live together without worrying about all that sin nonsense. I suppose my parents wouldn’t be too fond of you after a move like that, either.”
He smirked. “I’d be the man that corrupted their sweet young daughter.”
She looked away, a thoughtful expression on her face. “I suppose that I’m not as sweet as they think I am. I’m gonna go to bed, Rhett. It’s getting late, and as you know, I need to get up early tomorrow.” Kissing him on the cheek, she sat up and exited her room for the bathroom.
As he lingered on the bed for a few minutes, he could hear her down the hall brushing her teeth. Forcing himself to get up, wishing he could stay with her in the bedroom, he marched off to his own room down the hall. Only when he walked down the carpeted passageway this time, he felt a heavy dread on his shoulders. Something about his life didn’t feel right then, but he couldn’t tell if it was just the residual feeling Tula’s parents had left him with. As Rhett sat down on his own bed, staring at a blank wall, all he could think about was what had transpired in the last twenty-four hours:
I told her to go out with me for dinner.
I wanted to talk about her brother.
We were happy on deciding that we wanted to move out.
That very night we found listings.
Her parents told us they wanted to talk with us the moment we had decided on a place.
Is this all just a coincidence, or is there something more going on?
He ran a hand through his hair, contemplating on this. As soon as he realized that there were no more noises coming from the shared bathroom, he decided to head in for a shower. The ambient noise of the water cascading against the solid material seemed to help clear his mind. Shedding his work clothes on the ground, he stepped in and watched as the first layer of grease slid off his firm body. Taking the bar of soap and lathering it against his brawny chest, he let his mind wander back to the issues at hand.
Since the moment I stepped into this world, I decided that something felt off about Tula’s brother. He’s never taken a liking to me, even after I’ve been more than cordial to him, and I’ve never known why. After seeing him holding Tula in the way that he had, I don’t know what the fuck is going on with that guy’s head. Does he desire Tula in some sick way that she’s trying to brush off?
He found himself lathering the same spot over and over in a circular motion. Moving on to another spot on his body, he continued to ponder:
Something in my bones tells me that he’s been behind something. He’s an engineer or something, right? I bet he knows how to bug someone if he really wanted to. I’ve seen some crazy stuff on YouTube that engineers have cooked up. If he’s in some kind of masters program, he’s more than capable of coming up with a way of spying on us. This whole time… has he been spying on us? He’s like some little rat that works in the shadows. He wasn’t exactly smart enough to keep his dislike of me to himself. If I’m right, that is. I still don’t know for sure if he’s the one behind all of this.
Which brings in his other odd behavior—Layla. Why would he have gone out with her unless it was an alternate way to keep an eye on Tula while also meddling with her affairs? That little cunt has made Layla’s life miserable since she came to live with us. I wonder if Max was the one who encouraged Layla to come here during the renovations at her house. I wouldn’t put it past the guy.
Moving on to washing his hair, he came up with his course of action.
I know what I want to do. Tomorrow I’m going to call in sick, but no one is going to know that. I’m going to play at that guy’s game and spy on him. I’ll watch him leave the house, then go into his room and start poking around. If he’s as careless with his emotions towards me as he is with Tula, he’ll have left some kind of evidence lying around for me to find. If that’s the case, I’ll have my ammunition to throw at him when I find out he’s really the one who’s been meddling with us.
Satisfied with his thought process and course of action, Rhett rinsed the shampoo out of his hair, climbed out of the shower, and then dried himself off. As he walked down the hall back to his room, he couldn’t help but stop at Tula’s door. It was open to only just a crack, so he took the opportunity to take a look inside. Tula still preferred to keep a night light in the corner of her room, which cast an auburn glow on everything it touched. She was sleeping on her side, looking as heavenly as Snow White might have when her prince took his first glance of her. He remained there for a few minutes, just looking.
Maybe we should elope,
he thought.
Who cares what your family thinks. I don’t like them. I want us to start our own life.
Taking a deep breath, he walked off towards his room.
No, she wouldn’t want that. Tula still wants her family in her life. I can’t turn her into the pariah. That’s exactly the opposite of what she would be hoping for. Just another year of this… Another year and I’ll see her all in white walking down the aisle towards me. That’s worth waiting for.
Chapter 6
And so Rhett followed through with his plan just as he’d conceived of it. Covering the mouth of his cell phone, he mustered up enough of his acting skills to sound pathetically debilitated from some kind of cold. His boss actually sounded kind of cheery about the news, telling Rhett to stay home and eat some chicken noodle soup. Rhett reflected on the fact that he’d only called in sick once in his five-year career at the garage. He’d been sick a few times in the past few years, but always pushed himself to come in. Now that he thought about it, when he did that, half of the mechanics who worked with him always seemed to come down with something pretty quickly afterwards.
I guess that explains why the boss sounded so happy about my absence. Unless there’s something I don’t know about, hah.
Rhett didn’t play the part of a sick man, however. He didn’t want to raise anyone’s suspicions, so he went about his daily routine as usual. He knew what Max typically did in an average day: he would usually get up at nine o’clock, shower, and leave for the university. Max was usually gone for the entire day, only coming back at around dusk.
At least I have a lot of time to poke around today,
thought Rhett.
I just need to make myself scarce for around an hour before he leaves to start his day. Maybe I could drop in for a little bit and see Tula. I’d just have to be careful that no one at the garage sees me. Maybe I could try and look a little under the weather while I’m hanging around at Karma’s.
Skipping his usual protein bar and coffee, Rhett got in his car and headed for the other side of town. As he was pulling into Karma’s parking lot, he couldn’t help but hear something a little bit odd about his car. The untrained ear wouldn’t have been able to pick up on it, but Rhett could make out the smallest of signs of another layer of noise coming from under the hood.
Odd. It’s probably nothing, though. Maybe from that ball that came down a few days ago. I’ll check it out later. I don’t really have time for it now.
Going into the bakery, he scored a free scone and latte from Tula. The place was uncharacteristically mellow that day, so Rhett took the opportunity to chat up with Tula while she made is espresso drink.
As she lowered the steam wand into a pitcher of milk, she asked, “So you’re here a little later today than usual. What’s up with that?”
“Just overslept. I figured I might as well come in and see my sweetie if I’m already running late.”
The peach gloss she wore that day shined like a summer glow as she smiled at him. “Try not to get into too much trouble today.”
“Oh, I’m all about trouble. Can’t talk you into eloping and running away with me yet?”
She sent him a questionable look. “Don’t tempt me. I might just take you up on it.”
“I could always just knock you up. Then you’d have to have a shotgun wedding with me. At least that way there’d be a bundle of joy to distract your parents from wanting to throw fireballs at me.”
She let out a cute little cackle as she poured the espresso into his paper cup. “Nice idea, but I am definitely not ready for a kid. As much as I’d love to marry you right this minute, I’d also like to live out my dreams.”
“Fair enough,” said Rhett.
“And what dreams would that be, my dear?” Came the familiar voice of Karma.
Tula outright jumped when she realized that her boss was right behind her, and the entire pitcher of steamed milk cascaded to the ground. Karma let out a little hoot as he bounced back along with Tula, his white hair elevating in a way that didn’t seem natural. In his pleasant manner, he brushed aside the toppling of the milk as a simple accident and helped Tula mop everything up with some spare towels. Rhett did his best to distract Karma from asking any more questions about Tula’s ‘dreams,’ asking how he felt the universe was treating him that day. Glad that he had nowhere to go that morning, Rhett stood with the old man for a good fifteen minutes as he described the visions he’d received during his morning meditation.
Tula made Rhett another drink quickly, scurrying off to the back as Karma talked his ear off. Rhett completely understood her trepidation about sticking around, and waved as she coyly left.
A line of people soon showed up, and Karma had to regrettably get back to the concerns of ‘the mortal world.’ He parted with a cheery grin, taking orders and grabbing pastries just like any of the employees working there might do.
It’s hard to dislike the guy,
thought Rhett.
Any man who works right alongside his workers is a good person in my book. Too bad Tula is terrified of letting on what she plans on. He probably wouldn’t even be that mad about it. I can understand, though—she doesn’t want anything to change about their relationship as long as she has to still be around him for the next year.
Rhett walked out, making sure to cover his head with his hoodie as he went, and climbed back into the car. By the time he got back to the house, every one of the cars were gone. He’d consumed the latte and scone without much difficulty as well, so all there was left to do was to go into the house and begin inspecting. He parked a few blocks from the house, not wanting to raise anyone’s suspicions if they came home for lunch, and walked back. Before going into Max’s room, he checked every single room to make sure that no one was still lounging about somewhere. Once he was sure the coast was completely clear, he went down his hall and climbed the stairs to the upper level of the house. He didn’t often go up there, and had actually never once taken a look inside of Max’s room. He had never seen the need to look inside, and besides felt that it was a slight breach of privacy.
He opened the door slowly, though he didn’t know why he treated the opening with such trepidation. Perhaps he half expected the door to be locked. In any event, he took in the faint smell of body spray and spices as he took his first step inside. The room was larger than he expected it to be—surely larger than his room. The walls had a few punk rock posters hanging along with some shelves covered messily with books and stuffed animals. He had two large black desks that were wedged up against opposing walls, completely covered in a mess of electronic pieces that Rhett had no comprehension of naming. The twin bed was the only thing not covered with stuff, neatly tucked with a navy comforter.
“Okay,” Rhett mouthed to himself, surveying the space.
He didn’t know exactly what he was looking for as he closed the door on himself. There was a desktop computer on one of the desks, so he figured that would be the best place to look in case Max had some kind of manifesto written out in opposition to Rhett. To his delight, the computer was about as easy to get into as the room had been. All he had to do was hit the power button and wait for the operating system to warm up. A little jarringly, the wallpaper was nothing more than a black wasteland. There were no icons besides the recycle bin.
Rhett clicked around at the task bar, bringing up all the files that he wanted to go searching through. Rhett wasn’t the most computer savvy of guys, saving all his technical knowledge for working on cars. He clicked through some folders, occasionally thinking he was onto something when he found some word files. Most of the files he opened were simply homework or some kind of resume for jobs around campus. There was nothing close to personal to be found, aside from the family photos he had stored in an easy-to-access area.
Curious, Rhett decided to enter the word ‘boobs’ into the search bar. What came up was a very large list of pornographic videos featuring what seemed to be made up exclusively of blondes.