Ordinary (Anything But) (2 page)

She
could make out the sound of her mother’s and sister’s voices in the kitchen, but not their words. Scarlet always made it home before her, the middle school being close to their home than the high school. The television blared in the living room and Honor walked into the tan-walled room with old brown carpet and brown furniture. She found the remote on the coffee table and turned the TV off.

“Honor?
Is that you? We’re in the kitchen.” She rolled her eyes at the unnecessary proclamation of her mother’s location. And who else would it be?

Honor walked into the room with pale yellow walls and grabbed an apple from a bowl on the counter. The kitchen was small. It was decorated with lemon and apple décor and red-checked curtains. It was Honor’s favorite place in the whole house, aside from her bedroom. She loved the smells of her mother’s cooking
, the hominess of the room. Some days, when she was quietly sitting at the table, it was like she could hear her father’s booming laughter, like she could feel his presence in the room along with her mom’s and sister’s. It was silly, but on those days there was completeness to her life not normally there anymore.

“Hey, Mom.
Brat.” Scarlet stuck her tongue out at her and Honor retaliated by crossing her eyes.

Her sister
laughed and went back to drawing at the round wood table situated under a set of windows. The sunshine streamed in through the glass, casting a glow to her. Honor cocked her head, thinking her sibling was stunning when the sunlight caught her golden head and profile just right. Her sister was ten, blond, and brown-eyed. She took after their father in looks. She hadn’t lost her baby chubs yet, but Honor was certain she would merge into a great beauty the older she got. Her sister was infatuated with all animals, but lately her favorite was horses. Honor wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up being a veterinarian as a career. She took a bite of the sweetly tart fruit and swallowed, leaning against the counter, simply observing. Her mother stood nearby at the stove, stirring a pot of what had to be chili.

Moments like this, they were
some of the best—so simple, yet so needed.

“What are you drawing?” Honor asked her sister.

Scarlet smiled in that sweet, shy way of hers. “A horse.”

Of course it was a horse.
Honor leaned toward her. “Can I see?”

Scarlet slid the sketchpad to her chest and shook her head. “Not yet.”

She shrugged and took another bite of her apple. Honor wouldn’t push her sister; she understood how important one’s privacy was.

“How was school?” her mom asked, glancing at her.

Cassie Rochester was a mature version of her oldest daughter with her ebony hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. She always smelled like cinnamon and sugar, and was taller than Honor at five feet five inches but not as thin, although at Honor’s age she had been. Hands perpetually red and cracked from all the manual labor she did between her two jobs that no amount of lotion could change. Honor was always buying different kinds for her to try, but nothing had been able to heal her mother’s hands yet.

There was weariness to her mother
she tried to camouflage behind bright smiles and animated chatter. The smiles didn’t quite reach her eyes and the exuberance in her voice was a little flat. Cassie was a housekeeper at the nursing home in town and she worked in the bakery at the local grocery store. She worked seven days a week, but she always made sure she was home at night for her girls. There was a warm meal for them every day at supper time, clothes laundered, and her mother’s presence when they got home from school. She tried so hard to make up for the loss of a parent by doing twice the work she should.

“Fine.
It was school.” Honor avoided her mother’s gaze.

She and her mother were
pretty close and talked about most things, but something held her back from mentioning the odd occurrence during class and later.
She’ll think I’m being melodramatic and exaggerating.
Plus Honor didn’t really know what had happened. Maybe they had simply been helping Christian because he was sick.
Then why had he tried to fight them off?
Had he really? She didn’t know. Honor shifted uncomfortably, the apple like lead in her stomach. She set the uneaten portion down and pushed away from the counter.

“
Is everything okay?” Cassie’s eyes were trained on her daughter.

She worried too much, about everything. Cassie worried about not being there for her daughters, she worried about their health, she worried that something bad might happen to them. Honor understood why her mother was the way she was, but sometimes, she wished she wasn’t.
It was exhausting, continuously trying to deflect apprehension from her mother’s conscience, and it had to be fatiguing to her mom as well, trying to live under that suffocating weight of never knowing what the future held. That was thing—
no one
knew what the future held. People had to live with that knowledge and make the most of the time they had, because they never knew when it would be gone. They didn’t know if tomorrow would always come, for them anyway.

“Yeah.
Everything’s fine. I gotta get ready for work.” Honor tossed the apple in the wastebasket beside the fridge and went to her room.

The third step
groaned as Honor rushed up the stairs, opening the first door on the left. The walls were pale pink from Honor’s younger days when she was infatuated with fairies, princesses, and the myth of a happily ever after. The room smelled faintly of the vanilla lotion she favored. Sheer white curtains covered the two windows in the room. She’d glued swirls of glitter on them that sparkled when the sun hit them. Iridescent butterflies attached by string hung at different lengths from the ceiling and a small bookcase full of anything from science-fiction to romance to horror books was beside her bed.

Honor quickly undressed, kicked her clothes toward the laundry basket, and rummaged through the dresser drawers for her work uniform. Dressed in a burnt orange polo shirt that read
McDermott’s
and black slacks, Honor pulled on a pair of black socks and dug black tennis shoes out of the back of her closet. She braided her hair and was ready to go, pounding down the steps.

“Mom, I’m leaving. ‘Bye Scarlet!”

“’Bye, Honor,” her sister’s high voice called back.

Her mother hurried out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. “But you didn’t eat supper.”

Honor grabbed keys to their lone vehicle from a hook on the wall. “I’ll eat when I get home.”

“But that won’t be until nine or later.
” Brushing a strand of hair out of Honor’s eye, she said, “That’s too long to go without food.”

“So I’ll eat at work.”
She took a ten dollar bill from the wallet in her purse and shoved it into the pocket of her pants.

“That food is not healthy.”

She tossed her hands in the air. “Mom! I have to go. I’ll get a salad or something. Okay?”

Cassie pressed her lips together and slowly nodded. “Okay.” She put her hands on Honor’s shoulders and pulled her close. “Love you, baby cakes.”

Warmth swept through her as her eyes stung. She felt so safe in her mom’s arms. “Love you too, Mom. I gotta go.” She disengaged herself from her mother’s embrace though it was the only place she wanted to be at that moment, and with her face averted so her mother wouldn’t see the wetness of her eyes, Honor left.

***

The house was small and tan and there was an old, rusty green swing set in the yard. The drone of a television flowed out through an open window. A little girl laughed; the sound tinkling and reminiscent of Scarlet’s laughter. Honor jiggled the Impala keys in her hand and took a deep breath.
It’s now or never.
She hadn’t really planned on stopping there on the way to work, but she recognized the house as she passed by and decided it wouldn’t hurt to make sure Christian was home and okay. Now that she was there, Honor had to quit being a chicken and walk up to the front door. She didn’t feel comfortable showing up at a classmate’s house she barely spoke to. Honor also knew she wouldn’t stop thinking about it and worrying and wondering until she knew Christian was safe.

She closed her eyes, counted to ten, and forced her feet to move.

A tall woman with gray eyes and dark brown hair answered the door. The resemblance between her and Christian was so striking she could only be his mother. The longer Honor stared, the more she thought the woman’s eyes were more silver than gray, which was unusual. She didn’t think she’d ever seen eyes that shade of gray before.

The lady
tilted her head and studied Honor’s face. “Yes?”

Honor smiled. “Hi. Are you Christian’s mom?”

The woman’s throat convulsed as she swallowed. Her face went from curious to suspicious. “Who are you? What do you want?” She held onto the door so tightly her knuckles were white.

The smile fell from Honor’s lips. “I’m Honor Rochester. I go to school with Christian. He seemed sick today and
I saw him leave with two men.” She tried to see behind the woman into the house, but it was dark inside. The television was quiet. The whole house beyond the woman seemed silent and still. She looked at the woman. “Is he okay?”

“Are you one of them?”

“One of
what
?”

Christian’s mom looked over her shoulder and then faced
her. The fire in her eyes swept Honor back a step. “I don’t know who sent you or what you think you’re trying to do, but you better leave.
Right now
.”

“But—“

“Get out of here!” Her chest heaved up and down and her face was twisted into something scary and ugly.

Honor’s jaw dropped. “I just…I was worried. I…” The door slammed. A lock slid into place. “…wanted to make sure he was okay,” she ended softly.

The windows closed and the curtains shut. Honor stared at the house in disbelief. She slowly turned on her heel and walked on shaky legs back to the car.
What. Just. Happened.
Talk about weird. Honor shook the episode off to a case of crazies and drove to work. She couldn’t get over the woman’s odd behavior, try as she did.
That wasn’t normal. That wasn’t right.
Honor had a strong feeling something seriously wrong was going on. It made her think back to when her father died and no one wanted to tell her. She’d known something terrible had happened. She’d felt it. It hadn’t mattered that no one told her. Honor had known, somehow. She swallowed, pushing the thought away. Dwelling on the past didn’t change it.

***

“Honor. Table three. Hustle, hustle.” Honor’s boss, Richard McDermott, clapped his hands together an inch from her nose. He was in his fifties, happily divorced, and reminded her of The Hulk, except he wasn’t green and The Hulk wasn’t overweight. When she gave him a look, he raised his eyebrows at her on his way past to holler at some other poor soul unfortunate enough to have to work for him.

She kept seeing that lady’s face in her m
ind. She’d been so scared and upset that Honor had thought she could almost
smell
it. It was unnerving and making it hard for Honor to concentrate. And she
still
didn’t know anything about Christian as far as whether he was all right or not.
Not your problem, either way. Don’t think about it. Do your job.

Taking a steadying breath,
Honor dug a pad of paper and a pen from the apron tied around her waist and walked into the dining area. The walls were wood, as was the floor, and the room was accented in navy blue décor. It smelled like onions, burgers, and French fries. Voices were loud and the clank of dishes and silverware rang throughout the establishment. There were five tables in the building, all full, and Honor was the only waitress with two hours left to her shift. Her feet were already killing her. She felt old and she had only recently turned eighteen.

Someone nudged her back and Honor looked up into eyes the color of the ocean. “Oh.
Hey, Anna.”

Annalise
Becker was tall and slender with wavy brown hair halfway down her back and the prettiest turquoise eyes. She liked to dress in loose, fluttery pale-colored clothes that made her look ethereal, like a fairy or goddess. Anna was Honor’s best friend, had been since their first day of kindergarten when their nap mats had been placed by one another.

Her friend
smiled. “Hey. Where were you after school?”

A flashback of
Ryder in the bathroom swam through her head, then of Christian being pushed into a vehicle, followed by his mother’s weird behavior, and along with it came unease.

“What are you talking about? I wasn’t anywhere,” she answered quickly. “Why?”

A pucker formed between Anna’s eyebrows. “Ooh-kaay. Moving on from odd reaction to completely innocent question.” She shook her head and the scent of lavender teased Honor’s nostrils. Anna rested a hand on a hip and zeroed in on Honor with her eyes. “You weren’t where you said you’d be after class. I thought you were stopping by my house. So? Where were you?”

Honor thumped a hand against her forehead. “
Crap.
I am
so
sorry, Anna. I completely forgot you wanted to show me your dress.” Anna’s older sister was getting married in June and Anna was the maid of honor. Apparently the dress was hot pink and horrendous. Anna wanted Honor to commiserate on the pain of having to be seen in public in such a fashion atrocity.