Chapter 9
You've Got a Friend In Me
Wes had trouble sleeping that night. His pillow was too warm, he flipped it a million times but it seemed like it had a heater in its core. The bed felt lumpy and the blankets and sheets kept tangling. Wes ripped through the snarled fabric and found himself halfway off the bed.
He figured he might as well get up. He flicked on the light and grabbed his sketch pad and pencils. His arm tore across the page. Wes didn’t concentrate, he didn’t think, he didn’t even care if he breathing, he just drew. His alien hand darted across the crisp white paper. His mind wondered to an unearthly place. An hour had passed before the trance ran it’s course and Wes could feel the tug of the real world.
Yawning began breaking up his thoughtless drawing and he saw for the first time that he was on his fourth or fifth sketch. He flipped to the first image breathing it in for the first time as a human. It was the Eifel Tower and a sea of buildings surrounding it. The next page was a village somewhere; the house reminded him of Acacia’s. Then there was a sail boat on a coast line. While flipping to the next one he stopped.
He knew why he was drawing this. He wanted to go. Every part of his being was screaming to go. It was reality creeping into his being that stopped him. It was Farrah drawing him in and when he turned the page and stared, it was Farrah staring back. He looked at her in a new way and hated himself for it. He was angry with her. She was keeping him from living a life he wanted, and in that same moment felt horrible for thinking that. He knew it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t choose for any of this to happen but he couldn’t help being mad at her. He looked at her deep set eyes and said “I love you and your worth it” trying desperately to believe every word.
The morning didn’t bring any less turmoil. Peter woke Wess up with a phone call from Riley Benson.
“Hello” said Wes.
“Hello Wes, I got your message, Vicky filled me in too. You got some time today to come down?”
“Yeah, why do you think you can help?”
“Well, kind of with some things and not with others.”
Wes had no idea what that meant but someone was willing t talk to him so how could he give up the opportunity? “Okay what time?”
“Well I have a client in an hour, and I am booked the rest of the day. How fast can you get down here?”
“I need an address, I will make it work.” Wes said.
Wes was in and out of the shower in three minutes, his Dad used to time him for fun when he didn’t want to take a shower. He called them military showers and you turned off the water. He left the water on this time but used the practical training. Peter drove Wes to a Victorian building in the oldest part of town. It seemed out of place, each building on either side looked as if it was built in the 1970’s or 80’s. The wheezy voice of Vicky suited her face. She was wrinkled and grey. Her eyes sagged, and her dentures were stained a dingy tan. “You must be Maggie’s artist” she said.
“I guess. I’m Wes here to see Riley. Riley Jr.” He corrected himself.
“Second door on the left. Walk on in he told me you were coming.” A large cough filled the air, and cleared the gravel out of her throat.
“Thanks” Wes said.
Riley’s office smelled like a library. Old books lined the wall. His desk had a dozen different stcks of paperwork. There were even stacks of paperwork on the ground. Riley was reading a file and holding one finger out at Wes, instructing him to wait. Then he put the file down and looked at Wes.
“Take a seat.”
Wes looked at the chair in front of Riley’s desk, it too was a home to a heap of files and paper work. Wes glanced at the pile and then back at Riley.
“Oh, sorry, let’s use the other office.”
Wes followed Riley into another room. This one had huge leather chairs, and it smelled like cedar. There was a large old window that looked like it had melted a little. The invisible wavy lines mad it look like a heat wave over the snow outside. The room was clear of papers except for the pad that Riley held in his hand. They sat at a large conference table across from each other.
“Okay Wes, what can I do for you?”
“I want custody of my sister. I am 18 and that should be good enough, but I guess that there is some rule about needing to be 10 years older than the person you are the guardian of. Farrah is going to be 12.”
“Well Wes, it will be a while before I can get a check cut from the trust account. The family is fighting hard against it. Maggie however was very smart. She went to her doctor and had him write a letter on her behalf, saying how together she really was. She submitted that with her will.”
“Well can you help?”
“I probably could but I don’t think I would do you justice. I am not a family law attorney. My father and I do trusts and wills and financial cases.”
“I can’t pay anyone. No one wants to take our case.”
“Well I think I might know someone. She will take some convincing, but I asked her to come today. She should be here any minute. Her name is Gina Lotti, soon to be Gina Benson.”
Wes could hear talking at the front desk and seconds later a tall brunette walked in the room.
“Hey honey.” Riley said.
“Hi, you must be Wes.”
“Yeah, you are Gina?”
“Yes, I want to hear what you need help with.”
Wes went into the whole story from his dad’s death to their current situation. He stopped only once when Riley excused himself for his next client. Gina threw in questions here and there but mostly let Wes talk. When he finished Gina said “alright, we have a lot of good things for our side.”
“Our side? You mean you will help me?”
“How could I not. After all you have shown you can take care of Farrah. You have a social worker who quit his job to help you, and to be honest Wes, you are so passionate about Farrah it is hard not to fall in love with you.”
Wes could feel a warm blush rise to his cheeks.
“The question we have to answer is what exactly does social services want, and we have to get in contact with your mom. If your mom was dead you would actually be worse off, but because your mom is still alive she has rights. The state has not terminated them. If she wanted to give you rights, and a judge agreed to let you have them then social services would have to comply with the judge’s orders.”
“My mom? Do we really have to involve her? She is a druggie loser what judge is going to want to listen to her?”
“See we need to see how far gone she is. So how do we get in contact with her?”
Wes left with Gina’s information and a quest. He was to find his mom, talk with her, and schedule a meeting with all three of them. Wes wanted to avoid this assignment like the plague.
Farrah noticed Missy was not at school. She was a little disappointed. She had wanted to try out her new powerful self on Missy. She didn’t let the opportunity stop at Missy. In class she did all the things she was afraid to do before. She answered questions about their reading without worrying what people thought. She jumped into the double dutch ropes at recess, something she had never done before, and she went right up to Jake and told him what she thought.
“Jake I think it is really dumb that you are dating Missy. She is a mean nasty girl who thinks she can have whatever she wants. I guess you are okay with that and that makes me feel stupid for ever liking you.”
Jake looked at Farrah. “You like me?”
“No, I did like you. But you are dating Missy Mistress of Evil, and anyone who dates her is not someone I would be interested in.”
“You did like me?”
“Yes, did. Past tense. Don’t worry I won’t bother you and Missy.” Farrah felt proud. Everything she had wanted to say come out perfect.
She invited Veronica over after school. When she got their Peter met Veronica’s mom, and the girls disappeared into Farrah’s room. Veronica saw the painting of Farrah hanging on her wall.
“Wow that is beautiful.”
“Yeah I know, my brother did it. He made me look like a model or something.”
“No, it looks exactly like you.” Veronica said.
“Hey did you get that math worksheet done in class?”
“Yeah, I kind of finished it during history. I already know all about Greek Mythology. So I used that time to do it then.”
“I finished too.” Farrah said.
“Hey, I wanted to tell you. That I heard Rachel tell Jenna that you made Jake cry.”
“What? I did not.”
“He went and saw Ms. Jennings and everything.”
“I wasn’t mean. I didn’t call him names. I just said he was dumb for dating Missy because she was so mean.”
“I don’t know. Maybe he cried because he finally realized he was dating Medusa.” Veronica said.
Farrah should have laughed normally she would have, but she felt bad. Had her new power hurt someone? She wasn’t supposed to hurt anyone.
“Well, I hope I didn’t make him cry. I mean I don’t like him anymore, but I don’t want to make him cry.”
“Well, you may not like him anymore, but he sure is a hotty.”
Farrah didn’t want to admit it. “I guess so, if you like the Justin Beiber look.”
“He does kind of look like Justin Beiber doesn’t he?” Veronica asked.
“A little.”
“I wonder if he can sing.” Veronica asked.
“I don’t know, but I know you can. I heard you in music, you are awesome how come you never go out for the solos?”
“Me I am not that good.”
“Uh, yeah you are.”
“Whatever, the popular girls always get voted for the part anyway.”
“That is because no one hears you Veronica.”
Farrah enjoyed having another girl to talk to. Wes was incredible but something’s like worrying about her period coming or her breasts growing were conversations meant to be with girlfriends and she was glad she found one.
Veronica was still there when Peter brought Farrah the phone.
“Who is it Peter?” Farrah asked.
“A girl named Missy.” Farrah’s pulse raced. How did Missy get her number? Why was she calling? Farrah put her index finger up to Veronica to tell her to be quiet. Veronica calmed her body and sat as still as possible on the bed. Farrah clicked the speaker button on the phone, and said “Hello”.
“Is this Farrah?” Missy’s voice sounded nearly angelic.
“Yes. What do you want Missy?”
The angelic tone flew away, halo and all. “Why do you think you have the right to talk to my boyfriend, I am gone one day and you just start coming on to him like some kind of slut. Tomorrow everyone will know what you said you would do to him”
“What are you talking about? They only thing I said was that he was dumb for dating you.”
“Go ahead try to lie, but tomorrow everyone will hear how you told him you would go down on him.”
“What? I did not! You better not say that lie. I would not do that. I never said that!”
“Well, who will they believe you or me?” Farrah hung up on Missy in exasperation.
“Veronica what do I do? I never said that stuff.”
“Don’t go to school tomorrow. Pretend to be sick. I will call you and tell you what people are saying.”
“No, I am going to go to school. I will not let Missy win.”
Acacia sat on the floor of her bedroom feeling the soft prickles of hair starting to grow out of her scalp. She leaned against her bed, and felt sick of feeling sorry for herself. She stood up and looked in the mirror. She hated her sunken in face and boney collar bone. She felt anorexic. Looking at her breasts which were once verging on a C cup had shriveled into less than an A. She hadn’t wanted to loose so much weight but she could never keep anything down while she went through chemo. She was excited that her appetite was somewhat back and the fact that she could keep it down was even better.
She picked up the phone to call her sister and then realized it was probably the middle of the night. Even if she wasn’t going on the whole trip she still liked the idea of seeing her sister again. She had always looked up to Sage, and thought of how cool it must be to be designing clothes in the city known for fashion. Acacia heard a knock on her door.
“Come in” she said.
There was the look again. The pity oozed from her mother’s face. Iris stood there just looking at Acacia.
“Mom, what do you need?”
“Sorry, I was noticing your hair. It is growing back in.”
“Yep, what did you need.”
“Dana and Peter wanted to go out to dinner, they wanted to bring Wes and his sister and they wanted you to come. Dad is working but I figured we would eat at the steak house and he could join us there.”
Acacia felt awkward. She had left Wes on weird terms. First he was holding her and then she stomped out upset. She knew he was telling the truth, but it hurt and she didn’t want to hurt anymore. Walking away was easier than hearing the truth. “I guess” she said. At least this way she could apologize.
“Good well, get ready. Maybe wear your wig if you want.”
Acacia hated the itchy wig, but loved that she looked half way normal in it. She went to her closet and found an old black dress that at one point was too small. Now it fell over her body with room to spare. She found a belt that went nicely with the silver high heels she picked out. It was nice knowing her feet didn’t shrink too. Then she threw on the wig. It was just like the natural color of hair she had before it all fell out. It was auburn brown with dark blonde highlights. It was hard finding her hair color, but her mom would not stop until she found one. Acacia was pretty sure her mother had somehow gotten this custom made, because every time they went together she never saw anything like this.
Acacia had not put make-up on in months. What was the point, she felt like hell everywhere she went, tonight was different. It had been 2 weeks since her last chemo session and the groggy effects were wearing off. She felt good. She was still applying make-up when her mom knocked on the door again, this time just walking through without an invitation.
“Acacia, you look stunning.” For the first time in years her mother didn’t look at her like a dying puppy. A chunk of stress fell from Acacia’s body. She felt happy knowing that it was still possible for her mother to see her as a living person.
A deep and meaningful “thank you” came from Acacia’s lips.
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