They Left Me Out of Their Group So I'll Leave Them Out of My Life novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Out by Sunday

Corina plays her cousin the recording and gives her until Sunday to leave. At ten that night her father arrives with a casserole, believing she sends a couple hundred a month for books. She tells him the number is fourteen hundred.

I got home at six and the whole apartment smelled like garlic.

Keely was at my stove in my apron, stirring a pot of sauce.

"Lasagna," she said. "You looked wrecked this morning, so I went to the store."

She had bought the good noodles.

She had put a candle on my table.

I put my keys in the bowl by the door and stood there with my coat still on.

"Sit," she said. "I'll make you a plate."

"I'm not hungry."

"Corina. You have to eat."

"Keely, I need you to watch something."

I took out my phone, opened the video and set it on the table, propped against the candle.

She came over drying her hands on the apron.

On the screen, my thumb scrolled up through the chat, message by message.

Don't tell Corina.

She's so petty.

I've got her home till 6:30.

Keely watched her own words go past.

When the video ended, the sauce was spitting on the stove behind her.

"That's not what it looks like," she said.

"Then tell me what it is."

"It's a family chat. People say things in family chats, they don't mean anything by it."

"You said you had me home until 6:30."

"Aunt Bernice asked me to keep you company. She said you've been lonely."

"She said I'd make the dinner about myself."

"I didn't write that."

"You wrote 'lol.'"

Keely's face crumpled all at once.

She sat down in the chair across from me and cried the way she always cries, quickly and completely, with her hands over her mouth.

I handed her a paper towel.

I have handed Keely a paper towel since we were eight.

"I didn't know it would hurt you," she said. "I swear. I thought it was a surprise. I thought it was something nice."

"A surprise doesn't have a rule that says don't tell me."

"I'm sorry."

"I know you are."

"I fixed your cabinet. I did your laundry."

"I know."

"I love you, Corina."

"I know that too," I said. "You need to be out by Sunday."

She stared at me.

"Where am I supposed to go?"

"Aunt Bernice's house is ten minutes from here. She has a spare room."

"She'll ask why I'm there."

"Then tell her."

I said it quietly.

I could hear how quiet it was.

Keely stood up and took off the apron and folded it into a square.

She put it on the counter next to the pot.

"The lasagna is for you," she said. "Eat it, okay? Please."

Then she went down the hall and I heard her open her duffel bag.

I put the sauce on a back burner and turned it off.

I ate nothing.

I sat at the table and watched the candle burn down until the buzzer went off downstairs.

It was 9:50.

I looked out the window.

My dad's work truck was at the curb with the hazard lights blinking.

He came up the stairs slowly, because of his knee, and stood in my doorway holding a foil-covered dish.

"Pot roast," he said. "Your mother made too much."

"You didn't have to drive over, Dad."

"I wanted to see you, kiddo. Is that all right?"

He looked around my kitchen and his eyes landed on Keely's duffel bag sitting open in the hall.

"Is she moving out?"

"On Sunday."

"Hm." He set the dish on the counter. He didn't ask why.

My dad has never asked why about anything.

He sat down at the table, the chair creaking under him.

"I don't want to fight with you," he said. "Your mother's upset. You're upset. We'll get it all straightened out Sunday."

"Okay."

"She says you've stopped helping with the books. That's fine, I'm not mad. A kid ought to buy his own books at some point. Your mother worries, that's all. Everything's so expensive."

"Dad," I said. "What books?"

"The textbooks. The money you send for the books."

"Dad, I don't send money for books."

He frowned, puzzled.

"Your mother said it was a couple hundred a month. She said you wanted to do something for Colby. I thought that was real good of you."

I looked at my father.

He was sitting at my table in his work jacket, with grease on his thumbnail, waiting for me to say it was true.

"It isn't a couple hundred," I said. "It's fourteen hundred dollars a month."

He didn't say anything.

"For two years," I said.

My dad's hands lay flat on the table.

Behind him, in the hall, Keely had stopped packing.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend