Cuffed

TWELVE

"Emmy, sweetie, your parents had to cancel their plans. Your mom was called into work. Your dad said he'd be by to pick you up in about an hour."

That icky, weird taste fills my mouth at the sound of Mrs. Malone's voice. "Okay." The word barely makes a sound when I speak it.

Grant nudges me. "That stinks, but at least we have another hour to play."

"You okay, Em?" Mrs. Malone asks from the porch. She has a funny look on her face that makes me want to cry and get one of her awesome hugs. But I know that will cause questions. According to Daddy, questions cause trouble, and trouble is punishable.

I don't like his punishments.

"Yeah. I was just looking forward to spending the night."

"I asked if you still could, but your dad said no. I guess you now have plans early in the morning, so it wasn't going to work. I'm sorry."

"Kay." I shrug and lean back against the tree trunk next to Grant as she disappears inside.

My tummy doesn't feel good, and my hands are sticky with sweat.

"C'mon Emmy, we can finish making our wine before you have to go."

I look at the mess we've made. The two bowls are full of the smashed grapes Mr. Malone let us take off the vines growing in the backyard. My fingers ache from trying to mash the juice out of them. They made it look easy on our field trip to the grape vineyard last week, but for some reason, I don't think the clear juice will taste anything like the red stuff my mom drinks from her bottle.

"Nah, I don't want to make anymore."

"How come?"

Because I don't want to go home.

I close my eyes for a minute and just feel the cool breeze on my cheeks. I fight back the sting of tears burning against my eyelids and the sound of my heart beating in my ears. "Just cuz I'd rather hang out with you."

"You never want to go home." he knocks his knee against mine. "How come?"

"This is our little secret, Em. You can't tell anyone or else it will hurt your mommy very badly."

My dad's whispers fill my ears and make my throat burn. I try to swallow over it, but I feel like I have one of those grapes stuck there, and it hurts.

"Just cuz." I pick up one of the rocks on the ground beside me and absently rub it against the inside of my arm until my skin starts to turn red. "Your house is much more fun than mine. You have brothers and a dog and stuff."

"Yeah, I guess. Stop it, will ya?" He takes the rock from my hand and tosses it. "We could always play at your house next time if you want. I'm sure we could find fun things to do there."

"Thanks, but..." I take a deep breath as I run my fingers over the red mark. "My house is kinda scary."

"You're just a girl. Girls are scared of everything. What's so scary about it?"

I shrug. "I don't know."

"You don't need to be scared, Emmy. I'm taking karate now. I could protect you."

There's laughter from inside his house, and we can hear it from where we're sitting in the backyard. The sound makes me smile even though my eyes are blurry with tears.

"My mom's drinking wine," he says. "You know what that means?"

"Uh-uh, what?"

"Kissy, kissy."

"Ewww, gross."

"Yeah," he says as he picks up an escaped grape and throws it into our bowl. "She gets all giggly and then my dad will dance with her in the family room and sing horribly, and then the grossness happens - they kiss."

"Ick." I giggle but hate that feeling in the middle of my belly that loves the idea of dancing and laughing. "My parents never kiss."

"They had to have kissed at least once because that's how babies are made, and they have you, right?"

"True." I lean forward and grab a bowl as I try to forget what will happen when I go home in a bit. "But if your mom and dad kiss now, doesn't that mean they're gonna have another baby soon?"

"That's not how it works, silly."

"Then how does it work?"

"I'm not quite sure."