Untrustworthy - Chapter 7/The Truth About Arden
"Gotcha."
It had been a month and a half since Arden moved in. It was January and things were rapidly going downhill. A couple more of Jacob's new friends had been suspended and kids were talking, but a lot of people were saying it was just because Jacob was bad news. They knew Mayor's house was trouble though, and there was a distinct split between the people who went there weekends and those who didn't. No one was telling parents though, when they got caught going out they lied and said they were partying somewhere else. A few times people had shown up to school with broken noses. I heard it whispered that they were people who owed Gage money.
There were now five people living in Mayor's house besides him and Elysa, and they all paid him rent. Including her. She had a job now, and worked there after school. She usually came to my house after that, when I was done with piano.
"Life is awful over there. It's loud all the time, I can't get nothing done, and Arden's friends are rude as hell. I wish I could live with you." She said miserably. She grabs my hand. "Remember, we're renting a place after high school, and leaving this hell hole behind."
"Yeah!" I say, looking out the window at the gray winter sky. I see my neighbor, Mrs. Ewing driving slowly past the school. She was in her eighties and always looked lonely and sad. She loves it when mom and I come over to visit, out of pity. "Life sucks everywhere." I murmur, wishing I could find some way for Elysa to escape.
"But," I say suddenly, turning to her with a light in my eyes. "Bryson is taking us to the movies!" Her eyebrows raise and she giggles. I can't pretend not to see the relationship that's forming between them, almost as strong as his and mine. She admitted to calling him and asking him to come hang out, not that he needed any encouragement. When I asked her again about Royal she brushed it off.
"It was nothing, really. Believe me, it was a mistake."
Mom saw it too and warned him last time he came over, "Be careful Bry. She's not as old as she looks." Which he knew, but I had a feeling if he didn't ask her out now he would wait for her.
At home Elysa and I put on makeup in my bathroom. While the rest of highschool was out partying or studying tonight, we were going to try to forget our problems in school and out of it. Elysa removed her patch to outline her eyebrow and apply gold eyeshadow under it. I glance at her eyelid hanging uselessly. She's so pretty though, probably the best friend I've ever had. A feeling of companionship and protectiveness spread inside me as I look at her.
"Why didn't you get a glass eye, Elysa?" I ask. I've wanted to ask for a long time, and the moment seemed right somehow. It felt like I could ask or tell her anything.
"My parents couldn't afford it. We didn't even have insurance, that's how poor we were. Plus." She attempted a light hearted laugh, "I don't want some big ole chunka glass in my eye. I want people to accept me as I am, and that includes my empty eye."
She put down the makeup. "Mayor's scared of being poor. I don't know what Aunt Jen said to him, but he always has been. Always looked down on me and my mom I think. It's part of the reason he's doing alla this, letting all these people into the house his dad left him. Why he's letting it turn into a den of evil."
Interesting word choice, Elysa. I mused. Roger's words that I had tried to dismiss come back to mind. I'd had a hard time accepting that about my brother, I refused to accept that my best friend was somehow caught up in drugs. No, that can't be it, she has to mean the partying. I asked my next question based on that assumption.
"About that, how does Mayor's house stay so clean?"
"Like I said, Jacob cleans it. That's his deal, that and shmoozing kids from school."
"I can't see big, bad Jacob being a house maid."
"Arden makes him do it. He scared of him, they all are. He puts in a couple hours before school. Otherwise Arden will send him right back to live with his stepdad, and he didn't want that."
"Before school? No wonder he sleeps through class."
"Yeah and what he didn't get everyone else gets. The yard, the bathrooms, the kitchen. They all got chores and if they don't do it Arden will kick 'em out, or worse. I swear, they're all like his slaves. Everyone 'cept Mayor and me. And Mayor makes me pay rent cuz he's money hungry and power hungry and I'm refusing to bring money by getting kids addicted to cocaine." I stare at her, my heart swelling in my throat and choking my breath off.
I whisper, "Say again please?" She looks at me bitterly. Images flash through my brain. Mayor driving a new car, going on shopping sprees. Mayor always with a girl, now surrounded by women. Mayor hardly bothering to go to work anymore. Lastly I thought of cute Andrew getting kicked out of school because he wasn't 'careful.'
How can you be careful about an addiction? You can't.
"How can he keep this hidden?" I ask. "It's got to be obvious..."
She shrugged. "Arden keeps a tight watch on everything. Remember when you caught me kissing Royal in the hall? Well, cocaine is a stimulant. It ramps up your sex drive." Her calm voice turned bitter. "I tried to keep it from you as long as I could. I think Mayor's been dealing with Arden for a while now, at least as long as we've been friends. I tried to ignore it because I ain't got no place to go and I'm only sixteen. But it's everywhere now, everyone does it...even though Arden says he'll kick us out if he catches us doing it inside the house. I tried it once. Just once Sara, I swear! That was the time when you saw me and Royal. It's just one of those things where everyone is doing it and you think it can't be that bad right?"
"You need to tell the police." I say, and the words don't sound real. She grabbed me then, and the strength of her grip scared me.
"Arden told me he would kill you if I told. Kill your momma. Kill your dad in Texas. He knows all about you, Sara." My throat tightens like a fist and I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe. "Remember when you said you met him the first time? He knew everything back then, because he asked me about you. Just because you were my friend and I lived there, he needed to know everything. He made me tell." I remembered bruises she'd lightly passed off as my fault for the time we grappled in the snow. It'd been my fault all right. There was a slow burn starting at the back of my throat and nasal cavity.
"This man is meticulous. He has dirt on everybody. He knows where they live, where they work, and who they're related to. He even knows people in jail! Jacob told me that if someone gets busted they won't tell, because they're not safe anywhere. If you cross Arden, he will find out and he will kill you. It would be nothing for him to put someone on a plane to go kill your dad. You can't tell, you can't." As I stand there struggling for air a face forms in my mind's eye; curling black hair, shark blue eyes following me out the door, straight nose and chin, strong jaw with black stubble under a curving red mouth that whispers, "Gotcha."
Dumbly I shake my head, more scared by the desperation in her eye than anything else. "Does, does he threaten other people like this too?"
"Yeah, everyone he sells to or who works for him. He gets them under his power and blackmails them. But that isn't the only weapon he uses. Power. All those guys are with him because they want to be." Mayor had been seduced by the drug dealer lifestyle. My mother's voice jarred the tense silence and made us both jump.
"Sara are you and Elysa ready? Bryson's here!"
"Y-yeahhhh!" I yell and go down to meet her. "Can Elysa spend the night?" I ask.
She studies me. "She's been spending the night a lot lately." I didn't like that matter-of-fact tone.
"Yes?"
"Is anything wrong over at Mayor's house?" I don't look at her. I wanted to tell her and have her fix everything, because all of this was too heavy for Elysa and me. 'He told me he would kill you. Kill your momma. Kill your dad in Texas.' Elysa's fear-stricken face and her terrorizing words were too fresh in my mind. I also knew if I didn't tell her now, I wouldn't be able tell her at all.
"No. We just like sleepovers." I see her suspicion, but I know how to make it go away. I make eye contact and smile wide. She smiles back.
"Ok. Bryson's outside in the car." She turns away to leave the room and my last chance to tell her disappears.
There were now five people living in Mayor's house besides him and Elysa, and they all paid him rent. Including her. She had a job now, and worked there after school. She usually came to my house after that, when I was done with piano.
"Life is awful over there. It's loud all the time, I can't get nothing done, and Arden's friends are rude as hell. I wish I could live with you." She said miserably. She grabs my hand. "Remember, we're renting a place after high school, and leaving this hell hole behind."
"Yeah!" I say, looking out the window at the gray winter sky. I see my neighbor, Mrs. Ewing driving slowly past the school. She was in her eighties and always looked lonely and sad. She loves it when mom and I come over to visit, out of pity. "Life sucks everywhere." I murmur, wishing I could find some way for Elysa to escape.
"But," I say suddenly, turning to her with a light in my eyes. "Bryson is taking us to the movies!" Her eyebrows raise and she giggles. I can't pretend not to see the relationship that's forming between them, almost as strong as his and mine. She admitted to calling him and asking him to come hang out, not that he needed any encouragement. When I asked her again about Royal she brushed it off.
"It was nothing, really. Believe me, it was a mistake."
Mom saw it too and warned him last time he came over, "Be careful Bry. She's not as old as she looks." Which he knew, but I had a feeling if he didn't ask her out now he would wait for her.
At home Elysa and I put on makeup in my bathroom. While the rest of highschool was out partying or studying tonight, we were going to try to forget our problems in school and out of it. Elysa removed her patch to outline her eyebrow and apply gold eyeshadow under it. I glance at her eyelid hanging uselessly. She's so pretty though, probably the best friend I've ever had. A feeling of companionship and protectiveness spread inside me as I look at her.
"Why didn't you get a glass eye, Elysa?" I ask. I've wanted to ask for a long time, and the moment seemed right somehow. It felt like I could ask or tell her anything.
"My parents couldn't afford it. We didn't even have insurance, that's how poor we were. Plus." She attempted a light hearted laugh, "I don't want some big ole chunka glass in my eye. I want people to accept me as I am, and that includes my empty eye."
She put down the makeup. "Mayor's scared of being poor. I don't know what Aunt Jen said to him, but he always has been. Always looked down on me and my mom I think. It's part of the reason he's doing alla this, letting all these people into the house his dad left him. Why he's letting it turn into a den of evil."
Interesting word choice, Elysa. I mused. Roger's words that I had tried to dismiss come back to mind. I'd had a hard time accepting that about my brother, I refused to accept that my best friend was somehow caught up in drugs. No, that can't be it, she has to mean the partying. I asked my next question based on that assumption.
"About that, how does Mayor's house stay so clean?"
"Like I said, Jacob cleans it. That's his deal, that and shmoozing kids from school."
"I can't see big, bad Jacob being a house maid."
"Arden makes him do it. He scared of him, they all are. He puts in a couple hours before school. Otherwise Arden will send him right back to live with his stepdad, and he didn't want that."
"Before school? No wonder he sleeps through class."
"Yeah and what he didn't get everyone else gets. The yard, the bathrooms, the kitchen. They all got chores and if they don't do it Arden will kick 'em out, or worse. I swear, they're all like his slaves. Everyone 'cept Mayor and me. And Mayor makes me pay rent cuz he's money hungry and power hungry and I'm refusing to bring money by getting kids addicted to cocaine." I stare at her, my heart swelling in my throat and choking my breath off.
I whisper, "Say again please?" She looks at me bitterly. Images flash through my brain. Mayor driving a new car, going on shopping sprees. Mayor always with a girl, now surrounded by women. Mayor hardly bothering to go to work anymore. Lastly I thought of cute Andrew getting kicked out of school because he wasn't 'careful.'
How can you be careful about an addiction? You can't.
"How can he keep this hidden?" I ask. "It's got to be obvious..."
She shrugged. "Arden keeps a tight watch on everything. Remember when you caught me kissing Royal in the hall? Well, cocaine is a stimulant. It ramps up your sex drive." Her calm voice turned bitter. "I tried to keep it from you as long as I could. I think Mayor's been dealing with Arden for a while now, at least as long as we've been friends. I tried to ignore it because I ain't got no place to go and I'm only sixteen. But it's everywhere now, everyone does it...even though Arden says he'll kick us out if he catches us doing it inside the house. I tried it once. Just once Sara, I swear! That was the time when you saw me and Royal. It's just one of those things where everyone is doing it and you think it can't be that bad right?"
"You need to tell the police." I say, and the words don't sound real. She grabbed me then, and the strength of her grip scared me.
"Arden told me he would kill you if I told. Kill your momma. Kill your dad in Texas. He knows all about you, Sara." My throat tightens like a fist and I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe. "Remember when you said you met him the first time? He knew everything back then, because he asked me about you. Just because you were my friend and I lived there, he needed to know everything. He made me tell." I remembered bruises she'd lightly passed off as my fault for the time we grappled in the snow. It'd been my fault all right. There was a slow burn starting at the back of my throat and nasal cavity.
"This man is meticulous. He has dirt on everybody. He knows where they live, where they work, and who they're related to. He even knows people in jail! Jacob told me that if someone gets busted they won't tell, because they're not safe anywhere. If you cross Arden, he will find out and he will kill you. It would be nothing for him to put someone on a plane to go kill your dad. You can't tell, you can't." As I stand there struggling for air a face forms in my mind's eye; curling black hair, shark blue eyes following me out the door, straight nose and chin, strong jaw with black stubble under a curving red mouth that whispers, "Gotcha."
Dumbly I shake my head, more scared by the desperation in her eye than anything else. "Does, does he threaten other people like this too?"
"Yeah, everyone he sells to or who works for him. He gets them under his power and blackmails them. But that isn't the only weapon he uses. Power. All those guys are with him because they want to be." Mayor had been seduced by the drug dealer lifestyle. My mother's voice jarred the tense silence and made us both jump.
"Sara are you and Elysa ready? Bryson's here!"
"Y-yeahhhh!" I yell and go down to meet her. "Can Elysa spend the night?" I ask.
She studies me. "She's been spending the night a lot lately." I didn't like that matter-of-fact tone.
"Yes?"
"Is anything wrong over at Mayor's house?" I don't look at her. I wanted to tell her and have her fix everything, because all of this was too heavy for Elysa and me. 'He told me he would kill you. Kill your momma. Kill your dad in Texas.' Elysa's fear-stricken face and her terrorizing words were too fresh in my mind. I also knew if I didn't tell her now, I wouldn't be able tell her at all.
"No. We just like sleepovers." I see her suspicion, but I know how to make it go away. I make eye contact and smile wide. She smiles back.
"Ok. Bryson's outside in the car." She turns away to leave the room and my last chance to tell her disappears.
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