Chapter 12
Cora
This old car is a fucking death trap. The brakes hardly slow it down. I have to pump the gas pedal fifty fucking times to get it to start. Every bump in the road is like a roller coaster, bouncing around. At least the seatbelts work, otherwise I'd be in the roof, which is only canvas and metal framing so that's encouraging. Gus definitely did not maintain it very well at all. Maybe that's why he gave it to Jess instead of me to begin with. Those guns are worth more than this car and now that Jess and her friend are being bitches, I feel no remorse at the thought of taking them.
I park the damn thing in our driveway and slam the door when I get out. I'm surprised when nothing falls off of it. I have no clue why Glenda honestly thinks that she's getting anything out of this heap of metal and rubber. It's ugly and worn out. I don't even feel safe driving it, but until I buy something different it's all I have. The minute they put it in my name Glenda took her LYRIQ back.
Thankful I made it home alive, I head into the house. I don't see Glenda's car, but she might have parked in the garage. Dean's, however, is right next to mine. Which is odd because this time of day on a Saturday afternoon, he's usually showing homes. In fact, I thought he had an open house across town in the Bruns addition, but I could be wrong. Regardless, I'm going to have to face the music when I see them anyway, now or later. They'll be pissed at Jess's response, and that means I have to go back over there prepared to steal, or at least scope the place out so I know how to get in. She has a dog too, so that means even more risk.
I push the door open and instantly I'm met with sex sounds. Glenda is cool with walking in on me fucking Danny, but the idea of me walking in on my parents having sex doesn't appeal to me. It makes me cringe and plug my ears, racing for the steps.
"Oh shit, Dean..."
I barely hear the woman's voice. It's muffled, but I know well enough to know it's not Glenda's voice. I stop at the bottom step and listen again, this time with my hands clenched at my sides.
"Fuck, do it... Harder..." The voice is distinctly not my mother's, and I am livid.
I march around the corner into the kitchen where Dean has the bitch on the counter. His pants are around his ankles, and she is groping him with her legs wrapped around his hips. Her head is back, mouth agape, eyes closed. It's the ugliest sight I've seen in my life, and I've seen some disgusting porn before.
"What the actual fuck are you doing?" I don't even shy away from it.
Dean's body jolts, and he bends, yanking his pants up hastily as I move closer. I get an up close and personal view of his hairy ass as he does so, then a pussy shot of the skank he was fucking.
"Oh shit," she hisses, slapping her thighs together and sliding off the counter. "Oh God." It's not even his secretary. How many women is he fucking?
"Cora, get out," Dean snaps, his voice raised and booming loud.
"I won't. Who is that?" I glare at her. "Who are you?" I may not respect Glenda much, but she's still my mother. She doesn't deserve this.
"Oh God," she whimpers and fusses with her skirt. Her panties dangle around her left ankle but she doesn't seem to notice it as she scrambles around the kitchen for what I can only assume is her purse, which is draped over the back of a chair in the attached dining room.
"Cora, out!" Dean shouts, but I remain planted.
"Fuck you, Dean."
"I am your father. You will listen to me." He fiddles with zipping his fly around his boner, which is also disgusting that he can stay so hard for so long after being exposed to his daughter like that.
"You aren't my father. You're a cheap fucking whore. You're cheating on her? I knew it. I assumed it was the secretary. How many are there, Dean?"
"I'm gonna go," the woman whispers and dashes out the front door. I didn't see an extra car, so that probably means she's walking the walk of shame with panties around her ankle, but I don't give a fuck.
Dean spins around and watches her scamper to the door as he glares at me. "You were supposed to be at Jess's getting those guns."
"And you were supposed to be at an open house." I hold my ground, going toe to toe with the man who could make me an orphan at the drop of a hat. I hate him. I hate him more than anything at this moment, and I am going to tell Glenda exactly why he is trash, and she should take him to the curb. "What's wrong? Embarrassed your daughter caught you?"
His lips are drawn into a tight line and his nose twitches. "Where are the guns?"
"Where is your decency?"
"I'm not playing, Cora. Where are the guns?" He tucks his shirt in as he speaks, clearly not planning to address what just happened, and I hate him more.
"I'm telling Mom." It's the first time in months that I've used that word to describe her, and I say it in a very distinct manner, so he knows I'm not playing.
"What do you want?"
I have him in a noose now. He's going to hang himself.
"I want my money," I start. "And I want my car." I take a step toward him. "And I want you out of our lives. For good. And you pay the bills to make sure Mom can keep living the lifestyle she is comfortable with."
"Not going to happen. Don't you realize she knows?" He seems flustered now.
"So why are you nervous about me telling her? Huh? Because she knows you fuck your secretary but not other woman too?"
Dean rubs his forehead and sighs angrily. "You can keep the car, but the money is already spent." He shakes his head and grits his teeth.
"And who is going to fix the car? Because it's going to cost thousands of dollars to make it safe enough to actually drive daily." I cross my arms over my chest. I still plan to tell her, but I'm milking this for every fucking cent I can get.
"Fine. Steal the guns and sell them. I'll get the car fixed." He is panicking now. He deserves to panic. He's an asshole in the lowest regard. "Just don't tell her."
I thrust my hand forward and he shakes it. "And I want an allowance while at college of one thousand dollars a week."
"No." He drops my hand and shakes his head. "You're not getting a fucking cent. You tell her, and you're cut off. Got it? Nothing. I'll cancel your tuition, get the money back, and sell the car, and you'll be on the street with her."
"What? We have a deal. You shook on it."
He turns and walks toward the back door, and I follow on his heels. As he turns over his shoulder I nearly bump into him I'm so close. "Steal the guns. She can't have them. You do that, and we'll talk. But you know what? Just consider yourself cut off already because I don't see how you're getting those guns."
Dean walks out the back door and slams it in my face, and I stand there in shock. I knew they were evil people; I just didn't realize the level to which they would stoop to make a buck.
"Ahhhh!" I scream at the top of my lungs and feel like pounding the door. Instead I stomp up the steps and lock myself into my room. If I come out again before I have to be at OSU it will be a miracle.
Chapter 13
Allie
"Get the fuck off me, Shep!" The damn mutt keeps licking my face, and Jess has to pick him up and lock him in his kennel to get him off me. I sit up and wipe the slobber from my cheek. My hands are shaking, knees too. I sit in the pile of my clothing with my legs curled to my chest. It's freezing in here, and I'm naked. This is terrifying and humiliating.
Jess rushes back to me and drops to her knees again, covering her mouth. Tears stream down her cheeks, and she shakes her head in as much disbelief as me. "Oh God, Allie. I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened. What happened?"
We are both freaking out, and that isn't a good thing. I'm usually the one who snaps her out of it and gets her to a place where she can think coherently again, but my mind is a whir of scary thoughts. That gun shrank me. Why? And how do I get back to normal? We have scoured the internet for nearly ten days trying to figure out the damn gun to make Shep normal again. What if there are lasting side effects?
"Oh God...." She rocks back and forth over me.
"Jess, you're not helping!" I shiver and close my eyes, trying to focus. If I let the emotion overwhelm me, I'll pass out. My blood pressure has to be through the roof. "We have to stop freaking out and think about this logically."
"Oh God," she whimpers again, and all I can do is shiver. It's the shock more than the temperature--I know that. It's not good. In fact, that's scarier than the idea of being small, because a person can die of shock following a trauma. I take deep breaths to ground myself and blow them out slowly.
"Allie..." Jess is sobbing. "Oh God. I need to call someone. Who do I call?"
I shoot to my feet, suddenly sobered enough to think. "Are you fucking kidding me!" I pound my tiny fist onto her knee. "Look at me. Just fucking look at me, Jess. What do you think will happen when you call someone? The first thing they do is haul me in for all sorts of testing. I'll be violated in every sense of the word. You are not fucking calling anyone."
"Oh God, Allie. What are we going to do?" She flops her legs to the side, landing on her ass and leans against the cupboard. I'm not quite as tall as her shoulder as she sits there. "Oh shit..."
"Get ahold of yourself." I grab a strand of her hair and pull hard, and she whimpers and leans toward me.
"Hey, ow!" she yelps as I smack her cheek. I can't actually smack any sense into her because she's way bigger than me, but she gets the point. She holds her head where I pulled her hair as I release it, and she sits back up. "Why did you do that?"
"Because I'm shrunken, not dead. Now fucking calm down." I swipe at my eyes wiping away the tears. Jess has no ability to self-regulate her emotions. I shiver again, not as violently, but know if I don't warm myself up I'm going to head back into shock. The dark blue t-shirt I was wearing is wadded up next to me. I lift the hem of it up and wrap it around my shoulders and it helps. "I'm freezing. I need a blanket or something."
Jess grimaces and looks around. She whimpers again and crawls toward the stove where a hand towel hangs from the oven handle. It's perfect, albeit a little scratchy, and I use it like it's a giant comforter.
"What are we going to do?" She curls up, hugging her knees to her chest, and looks down at me for answers. This entire thing is fucked up. First Shep, now me. I have no clue what to do.
"We're obviously going to figure out a way to reverse this." The shivering is beginning to subside, but the way my mind races probably won't stop for days. Even if we manage to figure out how to reverse this.
Jess's eyes are filled with fear. I'm certain she sees the same thing in my eyes as I sink down beside her and lean against her hip. Shep has been tiny like this for more than a week. It doesn't seem to have affected him at all, except the amount of food he eats and the size of his poop.
