Pieces of it All (17 page)

His dad's voice, filled with anger, matched the loud booms on the floor as he approached Harvey's bedroom. How would he react if he opened the door to Beth standing there, naked? As fast as she could, she pulled her shorts up and her shirt over her head. The window wasn't her first choice. Or second. But Harvey's eyes pleaded with her. She stumbled to put her sandals on, and hoisted herself through the window, clumsily falling on the other side. She wiped her knees off and turned to give him a kiss goodbye, but he'd already shut the window.

He was gone.

Harvey's dad plowed through the door. "Anyone here with you?" He shoved past Harvey. "Where is she? Smells like pussy in your room. Where's your latest skank?"

"I just got home."
Call her a skank one more time and I'll fucking kill you.

"Bullshit." He crossed his arms across his chest, his face fiery red. "I stopped by that auto place on the way home and your boss said you didn't work today. What have you been doing all damn day while I busted my hump?" He picked up a remote control from Harvey's Wii system. "You been playing video games?" He threw the remote at Harvey, who caught it.

"No." Harvey's eye began to twitch as pumped air into his lungs.
Keep yourself under control.

"Your community service is about done. Tell me how you spent the day if you weren't earning money for rent or frying your brain with video games?"

"I helped a friend."
Lose her virginity
.

His father tossed his hands up. "Whatever. I don't really care. I got your rent money, almost late. You're lucky."

Harvey reached down and picked up his socks laying on the floor. He rolled his eyes and let out a sigh as he balled them up and tossed them in his drawer. His past experiences proved the inappropriateness of his response, but after the day he had with Beth, he didn't give a fuck. The name calling, the bruises, none of it made a difference to him. Beth did. Maggie helped him understand he was more than what his father gave him credit for, and when he was with Beth, he knew it to be true.

His father stomped over to the dresser, yanked open the drawer and threw every single pair of socks on the floor. He swiped his arm across the top, knocking everything down. "Don't you disrespect me."

Relaxing breaths. One. Two. Three. He had to count to ten, slowly, before responding, or regret would follow. Harvey stood in front of him, well aware of what was coming. He left this behind for so many months. No other choice existed but to come back to a life of abuse. Without savings, where else could he go? His mom wasn't around to take him in.

Spit covered Harvey's face as his father invaded his space. "Pitiful. That's what you are." He kicked the small trash can next to the dresser. "Clean this fucking place up. Company's coming over."

Harvey's breathing sped up, the room around him shrinking. Why did he think he could come back to this? What made him think he'd be able to handle this? "You're drunk again."

"I ain't fucking drunk, Harvey. Who's the drunk around here, huh? Who's the one who spent eight months up in a rehab center? Not fucking me, right?"

His sour breath invaded Harvey's nose, and the aroma was amazing. He inhaled the liquor scent, masked only by cigarettes. Eight months, three days and six hours ago his world came tumbling down, shattering into pieces. Maggie would tell him the pieces actually started to come together that day. He wasn't so sure anymore.

He didn't respond with the punch to the face he craved. Instead, he locked the fragrance in his nose, gritted his teeth and said, "No. It was me." Man, he wanted a fucking drink.

His father pushed his finger into Harvey's chest. "I thought so. Good night."

Chapter Twenty

Of all the things sex came with, Beth doubted nausea was one of them. They used a condom, and it's not like she got pregnant on the drive home. She jumped in her car and took off fast to be sure Harvey's dad didn't see her, and wondered if she pulled a muscle. She clutched her stomach as she opened the door into the house, her legs weak.

"Beth, you're home!" She plucked at the hem of her shirt when her mom came bouncing into the breezeway.

"Oh, hi Mom." Her hands found their way to her elbows. She pinched at the skin. "Are you going somewhere?"

Keys dangled in front of her face. "What gave me away?" She laughed. "I have book club." She patted the small bag she carried on her shoulder. "We read a Nicholas Sparks novel."

"Okay." Beth ran her hands through her hair. "Have fun. I'm going to take a shower."

"At six in the evening? Didn't you shower this morning?"

"I worked today. I'm all dirty from cleaning." A fake shiver forced its way out of her body.

"Well, your dad's up in his office. Peek in first and let him know you're home, okay?"

She nodded and waited for her mom to leave before falling onto the railing. She had to pull herself together. He didn't really kick her out. Afterward, they laid together, like couples do. He didn't toss her out the second after they finished. His dad came home and expected an empty house. If Harvey's relationship with him was as tumultuous as it sounded, maybe it made sense she left out the window. She didn't envision her first time with a sprint for the window; it just worked out that way.

After a few attempts, she managed to drag herself up the stairs with a stop at her dad's office to say hello. He barely turned his head from his computer, only offering a wave of his hand. She was relieved because looking into her father's eyes would cement her in guilt. The weight of her body already felt like too much to handle. She unhooked her robe from her closet and managed her way to the bathroom. Her clothes fell at her feet as she stood in front of the mirror. Her body didn't look any different. Should it? Physically, everything appeared the same. Inside, she ached. Sex didn't make her seem older or more mature, and it definitely wasn't how Heather had always described. She needed practice. After a few more times, she'd be an adult in a sexual relationship.

Beth turned the knob on the faucet and water poured out of the shower head. She didn't even wait for it to warm up, and let the water pelt her like ice. The water sluiced over her skin, enveloping her body. The soap created a lather in between her hands, and she touched her hand to her skin, massaging the soap in. With her eyes closed, she relived those moments with Harvey, before his dad came home and he so rudely shoved her out the window as though she didn't mean a thing to him. Tears spilled out of her, joining with the water. When she imagined her first time, everything was perfect, down to the delicate, sweet goodbye.

No matter how she spun the situation, Harvey didn't take that piece of her. She'd given it. She was ready. At least she thought so. Only now when the water sliced through her, she knew she lied.

A good cry in the shower soothed Beth, and she relaxed enough to curl up on the couch with a book. Drowning herself in the words of her favorite authors and entering into someone else's world always helped her realize her problems were minuscule. After reading twenty-five pages of painstaking prose, her rendezvous with Harvey resembled an episode of
Hannah Montana
more than something as serious as
The Fault in Our Stars
. So what if her virginity slipped away from her? Considering everything other kids went through, she was blowing the situation completely out of proportion. Sex wasn't anything to get worked up about, right? After a couple of times, the pleasure would forgo the pain and they'd be rolling around in his sheets, wrapped up in each other. Healthy and her full life ahead of her, she didn't need to spend her time worrying about such petty stuff.

"Knock, knock," her dad rasped on the wall. His face like stone, the color gone from his face.

Beth earmarked the page. "Hi, Dad. Is everything okay? You look pale." He never got sick. The day he sensed a cold coming on, he popped Cold- Eeze, drank tea, and within a day was whipped back into shape.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Your mom..." His eyes refused to meet hers. He cradled his arms, and rubbed his chin.

She tossed the book on the couch, glad to take a break from the drama inside. "What about her? She's at book club tonight." She thought she'd ask her to go with next time. She seemed to enjoy getting together with the other women, and Beth would meet some new people. She'd text Harvey later. Maybe they'd kiss and make up, but her parents were right. She should expand her horizons, spend time with more people than Harvey.

He shook his head. "No, she's not."

"Okay, then where is she?" Whatever game he was playing, she gave up. Her stomach growled. She hadn't eaten dinner yet and it was after seven. "I need to get something to eat." Popcorn sounded good. Her body still ached, and a full meal didn't appeal to her. A movie, something funny to keep her mind off Harvey, was a good choice for the evening.

When Beth reached the kitchen, her dad found the words. "She's at the hospital."

Beth coughed to avoid choking on her tongue, and then broke out in laughter. "You're kidding, right?" After what happened with Harvey earlier in the day, things really couldn't have gotten worse. The universe was playing some cruel joke on her and her dad was in on it.

He met her in the kitchen. "I'm not kidding. They brought her in twenty minutes ago. She was mugged."

"Mugged?" Beth held the wall. "Mugged? At a book club meeting? You can't be serious." Muggings didn't happen in her tiny town. Every once in awhile she'd read in the police blotter about a neighbor missing an item from their garage, or a ticket issued for disorderly conduct, but never a
mugging
. And not with her mom involved.

Desperation flooded his face. He wasn't joking. "She didn't go to her book club, apparently. For some reason, she was at the community college." He grabbed his keys, yelling impatiently, "Let's go!" He ran out the door, not willing to wait.

Frozen, Beth stood in the kitchen, her mouth wide open, shock charging through her. A thousand questions clouded her mind.
How did this happen? Was she alive? Did the police catch who did it?
She tried to move, her legs stuck to the ground.

The front door ripped open. "Beth! Get in the car, now!" her dad yelled.

She pushed the thoughts out of her mind, knowing she'd have answers soon enough. There wasn't time to change out of her pajama pants and striped tee, so she slid on her sandals and ran to her dad's car, texting Lucy to meet her at the hospital.

Guilt consumed her on the way to the hospital as her thoughts played ping pong between her mom and Harvey. God, please let her be okay. And Harvey, oh Harvey, she hoped everything worked out for him. The way he freaked out when his dad came home seemed odd. More existed behind his relationship with his father than not getting along. Worrying about him had to come later.

Lucy arrived right when Beth and her dad did. He raced through the emergency doors, while Lucy took Beth's hand and guided her in, already providing comfort.

The ER wasn't as hectic as the show her mom watched by the same name. Fast-paced, but more organized, patients came and went quickly. A woman sat at the desk typing on her computer while people filled the waiting room watching the movement on the muted TV. Some flipped through magazines, and another lady tried to soothe her crying child. "Sharon Overland. She got here about forty minutes ago." Her dad exchanged conversation and insurance cards with the admitting representative.

A police officer stood approximately ten feet away. After Beth's dad checked in and received the information he needed, he went over and spoke with the officer. He interacted with the man for a few moments, waving his hands around and nodding his head a lot. He joined Beth and Lucy after he finished.

"According to the police, a group of young punks attacked her in the school parking lot."

Young punks like the type of people Harvey used to hang with
, Beth thought. Even though Lucy probably thought the same thing, she kept her mouth shut. Good. Beth didn't want to rehash the argument right now.

"What was she doing there? Why didn't she go to her book club?" Every week, her mom read the books religiously and she even prepared notes. She kept a notebook full of commentary on what she read. Why would she skip something she enjoyed so much? What was so important at the school?

"I don't know those answers, Beth. I'll ask her once she's taken care of."

"So she's okay?" She rubbed her hands together. "She'll be all right?"

Her dad scratched his chin. "The officer thinks so. She only had a few scrapes and a broken arm, thankfully."

"Only a broken arm!" He lost his mind.
Thankful
for a broken arm?

He pressed his hand out in the air. "Beth, we're lucky it wasn't worse. Let's be grateful she'll be okay. The doctors will treat her, and we'll bring her home tonight." He glanced into the waiting room. "Why don't you two go sit down and wait for me? A nurse is going to take me back to her."

The waiting room, painted with cream walls, brought a softer tone than the white wash hallways just outside. A large glass window separated them from the rest of the hospital. The chairs outlining the perimeter were unattractive with their multicolored plaid pattern, and the padded handles brought ease to Beth's arms as she rested them on top. An end table sat next to each chair, and a coffee table occupied the space between the couch and a flat panel TV playing reruns of
Full House
.

Beth and Lucy sat across from one another on either end of the couch. "Do you remember the last time we were here?" Lucy broke the awkward silence.

Beth tucked her knees to her chest. "Sure do. About six years ago, I think, when you fell off your bike and broke your arm."

"Seems like yesterday." She put her arm on the back of the couch. "They fixed my arm, and they're going to fix your mom's. It's not as bad as you think."