Never Too Late

Lucy's Point of View

“I really hate that fucking bitch.” I wasn’t sure how many times those words had escaped my mouth in the last hour, but the count was definitely rising between the drive from my house over to my boyfriend Eli’s, and continued all the way up to entering his apartment. I’d mostly gone to Eli’s place to cool off a little before heading over to Uncle Nick’s, but I’d somehow managed to catch him in between the end of his shift at the tattoo place and the beginning of his shift at the bar.

“I know,” Eli said sympathetically from his bathroom. I was sitting on his bed in his studio apartment, waiting for him to finish getting ready for his second job. “I can’t blame you. And that’s shitty what your dad did. He should be looking out for you and your sister.”

“There’s no reason for it,” I continued to rave. “I mean, there was just no warning whatsoever. Just bam, pulled out of class with a new guardian. He could have at least said something this morning before we went to school.”

Eli finally came out of the bathroom, fixing the collar of his shirt. He paused to kiss my forehead. “I’m sorry, babe. You know you could always just stay here and blow your uncle off.”

“Tempting,” I murmured. “I should probably go stay there, though. I haven’t seen my uncle in a long time, but I remember him being a bit grumpy so I don’t really wanna piss him off right away. Plus I don’t know if he’s gonna be a giant snitch to my dad or not.”

“Fuck it,” Eli said. “You’re eighteen, do what you want.” Being twenty-four, it was easy for Eli to say things like that. He’d been independent for a long time and growing up in foster homes, he’d never really had anyone to answer to anyway.

“I wish.” I scoffed. “Just promise me that as soon as I graduate, we’re both just going to say ‘fuck this place’ and leave together.”

“We will,” he promised and kissed my forehead again. He glanced down at his watch and sighed. “Listen, I’ve gotta start my shift at the bar. Are you gonna be okay?”

I nodded, though we both knew that that wasn’t the complete truth. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I just needed to calm down a little.”

“Okay,” Eli said. “You can stay and hang out if you want. Just lock up if you do.”

“I’ll stay for a little while,” I decided. I wasn’t in any hurry to get over to Uncle Nick’s, especially if he had roommates. I found it hard to get along with most people with the exclusion of a few, so having to live with two other people I barely knew as well as an estranged uncle was not something I was looking forward to. “I won’t be here when you get back, though.”

“Okay,” Eli repeated, heading for the door. “I’ll text you tomorrow then. Love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said with a wave, and just like that he was out the door. I laid back on his bed and sighed, curling up on his sheets and breathing in his scent. I loved Eli but being with him was incredibly frustrating at times. The majority of our relationship always seemed to center around someone being too busy and leaving, usually him. But despite any complaints I had about his distance and our six-year age difference, I couldn’t see myself with anyone else.

I put off going to Uncle Nick’s as long as I possibly could. I watched TV for a little while, though nothing really kept my interest. I attempted to straighten Eli’s apartment and settled on doing some of his laundry to pass the time, and I even worked on homework as a last resort. Still, time was my enemy and I knew I’d eventually have to show at my uncle’s. I finally left and locked up with Eli’s spare key, heading down to my car and finding my way over to Uncle Nick’s. When I pulled up outside the building, he was waiting outside with a cranky look on his face. And so it begins, I thought to myself.

“Hi,” I greeted a little hesitantly as I got out of the car. I was exhausted and not exactly in the mood for another explosive argument.

“Hey, I tried calling you a bunch of times,” he said. He sounded at least slightly irritated, but he seemed to take that tone about ninety percent of the time.

“I don’t spend that much time looking at my phone,” I replied smoothly. I walked to the back of my car and popped the trunk, beginning to take my stuff out.

“I don’t either,” he said and walked over with me to my trunk. “Hey, do you have any idea where your sister is?”

“I didn’t know she left,” I said, lifting a suitcase out and slinging a duffel bag over my shoulder. “How long ago?”

“Like maybe fifteen minutes or so,” Uncle Nick guessed. He lifted the remaining two of the boxes from my trunk, his face straining a little. “I introduced her to my roommates and after she met Schmidt, she kind of ran off and I don’t really understand.”

I shrugged. “I don’t understand Aria. Never have.” I closed the trunk and motioned for Nick to lead the way to the apartment. “She probably just panicked and needed some quiet time.”

“Would you mind looking for her or something?” he asked, nudging the door open with his foot.

“You’re doing pretty great with the whole parental responsibility thing,” I told him sarcastically.

“Please?” he pleaded. “You know her better than I do.”

“Fine.” I sighed and followed him to the elevator, pressing the button for the fourth floor after he directed me to do so. “Let me get this stuff in the apartment and I’ll go look.”

“Thank you,” Uncle Nick finally relented.

We got to the apartment and after setting my stuff down, Uncle Nick introduced me to his roommates Jess and Schmidt. Jess I recognized as Miss Day from school and I could have sworn that I knew Schmidt from somewhere, but couldn’t quite place it. I stayed for another minute or two before going to look for Aria. Luckily, this didn’t take long; all I had to do was walk around to the back of the building, where she was sitting by herself.

“Hey,” I said and sat down next to her. She didn’t seem to react to this at all. “Weird day, right?”

“You think?” She rolled her eyes at this.

“I have no idea where you got that sass from,” I said, trying to get her to smile a little bit. When this didn’t work, I tried again. “So what happened?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” she said and crossed her arms.

“Whatever,” I replied, fighting the urge to roll my eyes at her. I hated when she got like this. Not that I was super-emotional, but Aria was more closed off than anyone else I’d ever known, Eli included. Half of me wanted to shake her and the other half wanted to be nice and try to coax it out of her, but I never did either one of those things. “Either way, you’re going to have to come upstairs. I don’t know why you’re so bothered, but you’re gonna have to suck it up.” I stood up and looked down at her, extending one hand. “So are you coming or not?”

Aria was quiet for a few moments, like she was trying to mentally prepare herself. Finally she took my hand and pulled herself up. “Fine, let’s go get this over with.”