When the Night Comes Read online

  I sat down and leaned forward, feeling underneath the couch. I grinned when I felt the cool edge of a metal tray. When I pulled it out, four beautiful, fat joints were neatly laid out in a line.

  “To you, Joey,” I said as I kissed the joint before firing it up.

  I let the drug take effect before I thought about what would happen tomorrow when I’d be sitting in my home, saying goodbye to Mama. She was going to be so disappointed in me. I wanted her to remember me like I was before my heart shattered beyond repair and I ran screaming into the night.

  Instead of deadening the memories, the drug seemed to make them come through in 3D at an IMAX theater filled with Dolby surround sound or whatever the fuck the supersonic sound system was called.

  “Go away,” I said to the ghost sitting by my shoulder. “I’m over you.”

  I sank further down into the couch, trying to hide from the memories. My shirt rode up and exposed the tattoo that sat just above my hipbone. I ran my finger over it and traced the word.

  lost

  “I’m still lost, you asshole.”

  I tugged on my hair, hoping the pain would chase away the memories, but I was out of luck tonight.

  “Talking to yourself again?” Joey asked.

  “I thought you went out?”

  “Came back. Holy shit. You’re stoned,” he stated.

  “Yes. I. Am.”

  He shoved the empty food containers off the couch and sat next to me. “There was no one interesting at the bar, so I thought I’d come home and finally get you to tell me your story.”

  He grabbed a joint and lit it.

  “You really want to hear the story about my last year in high school?” I asked.

  “Yes. I’ve earned it.” He let his head fall back against the sofa. “I’ve asked a million times, and you’ve never told me the whole thing, only bits and pieces.”

  I stole the joint out of his hand and took a hit. “Keep these things coming.”

  Chapter Two

  Five Years Ago

  The heat of the day sat on my shoulders. The air was stagnant, like it knew something was going to happen. Mama’s voice cut through the heaviness, sharp and loud, calling Ashley and me to come inside.

  Ashley brushed her blonde waves away from her sweaty face and unfolded her long legs, stretching before she stood up. Her sparkling blue eyes, high cheekbones, and full red lips mirrored mine.

  My twin sister and I knew how to work our looks. We could get almost anything we wanted with a strategic wink or heartfelt smile.

  We were going to rule the school our senior year. She was the captain of the volleyball team, and I was the starting quarterback for a very good football team. The talk around town had us winning state championships in our respective sports. Rumors about college coaches attending our games were in full swing, and I was excited about the prospect of landing a scholarship to a big-time school that would get me out of this town.

  Be careful what you wish for.

  “Ashley! Tyler! Now!” Mama shouted again.

  Ashley glanced at me and shrugged. I opened the screen door and let her go first. The moment I stepped into the kitchen and the door slammed shut, my world shifted beneath my feet. It crashed down on my head when Mama told us we’d be leaving Texas. My grandma was gravely ill, and we were needed in some fucking town called Middleton Lake way up in the land of mosquitos.

  The only thing I knew about my grandma was that she sent us cards on holidays and birthdays. I had no desire to move to Middleton Lake, Minnesota, and meet this woman.

  But what I wanted didn’t matter, because the ball was already in full motion. Our transcripts were on the way to the new high school, and Mama had put in her notice at work. My head spun, and I felt dizzy.

  “What the hell, Mama?” I shouted. “Can’t me and Ashley stay here and finish our senior year. It’s only nine fucking months. I’m sure we could find people to stay with.”

  “Language,” Mama said and shook her head.

  Ashley and I begged and pleaded our case, but Mama only shrugged. She told us our place was with her. When our arguments died away, I slammed my fist against the table and stormed out of the house.

  My friends didn’t know what to say when I told them. My girlfriend dissolved into a puddle of tears. The only bright spot of the whole fiasco was my girlfriend let me fuck her so many times, I was almost happy to be crammed into the car, driving away from the only home I’d ever known. My fucking dick needed a break.

  The drive was long and uneventful, which allowed more time for me to wallow in self-pity. Ashley did her best to make everyone miserable by choosing to be silent the entire drive.

  We were less than a hundred miles away from Middleton Lake when Mama’s phone rang. She answered and almost swerved off the road. She immediately pulled to the side.

  “Yes, I understand. We’ll be there in about an hour. Thanks for the call,” she said quietly. Her face was ashen when she set her phone down.

  “Mama? Are you okay?” Ashley asked and handed her a tissue. Mama wiped the tears from her cheeks and sniffled.

  “Your grandmother has passed.” Her voice sounded hollow.

  “So does this mean we can turn around and go back home?” I asked before I had a chance to think.

  “Middleton Lake is our home now,” she snarled.

  “But —⁠”

  “Ty, shut up,” Ashley said. To emphasize her point, she reached over and pulled my hair.

  I sank down into the seat, folded my arms over my chest, and pouted. The woman had died. Surely we weren’t needed in this fucking town. How much care did a dead person need? Call me heartless and selfish, but I didn’t want to spend my senior year in a strange town.

  “That woman was my mother,” Mama said, her voice strained.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  Mama sighed and pulled the car onto the road again. Everyone was silent until we passed the sign stating that we were in Middleton Lake. I immediately had the urge to burn it to the ground.

  “This is it?” Ashley said as we drove through the town. “There’s not much to this shithole.”

  “Ashley!” Mama shouted.

  Mama clenched her jaw and turned down a tree-lined street. We stopped in front of a large two-story house. I was sure I was in hell.

  She turned in her seat and faced me. “I don’t want to hear another word from either of you. You’ve both made it perfectly clear you don’t want to be here. I have to bury my mother. God forbid, you two think of anyone beside yourselves. Things weren’t good between my mother and me. This was my chance to set things right, but she died before I could fix things.”

  She climbed out of the car and slammed the door, leaving Ashley and me floundering in our guilt.

  “She’s right,” Ashley said. “We’re not in Texas anymore. I’ve never seen Mama so upset.”

  I grumbled again, so Ashley slapped me upside the head and swore at me. She jumped out of the car, grabbed her suitcase from the trunk, and stomped up the steps to the porch. She dropped her bag and stood next to Mama, who was staring at the front door.

  Resigned to my fate, I shouldered my guitar and as many bags as I could carry.

  “Mama, I’m sorry,” I said again as I lumbered up the steps.

  She ignored me and rattled the door handle. “I don’t have a key.” She sounded defeated. Tears welled up in her blue eyes and I felt terrible for all the things I’d said to her.

  “You guys wait here. I’ll go ask the neighbors and see if they have a key or at least know someone who can get us one,” I said.

  Mama nodded, so I jumped off the porch and was about to take off running to the nearest house when a lady, holding a bright yellow umbrella, headed up our driveway. Trailing behind her was a big guy who looked to be about my age.

  “Hi,” the woman said.

  I backed up the steps so I was out of the drizzly rain.

  “I’m Claire Vigen, your mother’s next door neighbor.
I’m assuming you’re Susan Rask. Your mom talked a lot about all of you and showed me pictures. Sorry for your loss. She was a really fun lady.” A blush tinged her cheeks. She held out her hand to Mama, who took it and soon found herself in a tight embrace. “Forgive me for rambling.”

  Mama sniffled and smiled at Claire. “I am Susan Rask and these are my kids, Ashley and Tyler.”

  “This is my son, Gavin,” Claire said pointing at the big guy with short dark hair, leaning against the porch railing. He was sort of hard to miss.

  He grinned and winked at Ashley, who turned about ten different shades of red. I didn’t even know my sister could blush. She’d been known as the ice queen back in Texas, which was a super nice way of saying that Ashley was a fucking bitch. No guy had ever broken through her icy exterior. She rarely showed emotion unless it was to bitch at me or some other unsuspecting soul.

  For a moment I was fearful for Gavin. I was afraid Ashley was waiting for her opening to hand him his balls. Instead, she smiled shyly as he approached her and then allowed him to stand next to her.

  My mouth fell open when he leaned close, whispered something in her ear, and she giggled. My sister never giggled. This was disturbing.

  Gavin laughed again and ruffled her hair. I held my breath, because touching Ashley’s hair without permission usually meant the death penalty. But nothing happened except what looked like an exchange of phone numbers and another smile. I felt nauseous while Gavin looked like he’d won the lottery. He walked toward me with a goofy grin on his face.

  “Hey man, Gavin Vigen. Most people call me V. Welcome to fucking Middleton Lake,” he said, holding his hand out to me. We shook and he clapped me on the back. “So are you gonna be joining the football team? I heard you’re one hell of a player, and we could use a quarterback.”

  I was a little taken aback by his knowledge. I eyed him suspiciously. “Uh, Tyler Rask. How do you know I play football?”

  “You’re kidding, right? New kids coming to town is big news here. Fresh meat and new gossip, ya know.”

  He glanced over his shoulder, looked at Ashley, and sighed. Ashley busted him staring and chewed on her bottom lip. This fresh Minnesota air must’ve been screwing with my sister. It was like she was flirting with no hidden agenda. It made me nervous.

  “Hey, wanna go check out the town? I can take you and Ashley around. Show off our great city. It would kill about twenty minutes,” he said.

  I shifted my bags and guitar. “I think we should hang out around here right now, so maybe later.”

  Gavin nodded, picked up Ashley’s suitcases, and held the door open for me. Mama and Claire were talking in the entryway.

  “Where should I put these bags?” I asked.

  “Your space is downstairs,” Claire said. “Ashley, your room is upstairs.”

  I glanced at my mother, who gave me a warm smile.

  The privacy of a basement room would be nice, and Ashley liked rooms filled with light. I was more of a dark cave sort of guy. While I headed toward the basement, Gavin was instructed to take Ashley’s bags upstairs.

  It took a few minutes for my eyes to acclimate to the darkness and find the light switch. “Holy shit!”

  The basement wasn’t exactly like I pictured it. Instead, it was decorated like someone knew I was coming to live in Middleton Lake.

  I stood in the middle of the large room, taking everything in until I heard someone thundering down the stairs.

  “Wow,” Gavin said, interrupting my drooling. “This place is awesome. Nice TV and gaming console. If I had something like that, I might never see the light of day.”

  “Is Ashley’s room nice?”

  Gavin shrugged. “Yeah, but definitely too much pink for me.”

  “Her favorite color is pink.”

  “Well, then it’s perfect,” Gavin said.

  We wandered around the room, admiring all the sports pictures on the wall. My grandmother must have been an interesting lady. I paused when I came to a wall covered with pictures and clippings of me on the football field, running track, and a few of the other things I’d participated in over the years.

  “Fuck,” Gavin grunted. “You must be really good.”

  “I had a good team,” I mumbled.

  Having my past accomplishments up on a wall was more than a little embarrassing, especially when some guy I barely knew was staring at me.

  Gavin eventually sat on the couch and turned on the TV while I went into my actual bedroom. In the middle of the room was a king-size bed. I jumped on it and surveyed the rest of the room. A couple of bookshelves surrounded a computer desk already equipped with a nice desktop. The closet had shelves dedicated for my shoes and sports equipment. A couple new pairs of jeans and several shirts were hanging in the closet along with some hoodies.

  “Jesus,” I muttered. A few hours ago I was whining about coming to this place, and all of a sudden, I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven.

  “So, Gavin, any girls in this lame-ass town of yours?”

  “Yeah, there’re a few, plus Minneapolis is just down the road, in case you can’t find anyone here. Pretty sure you’ll have your pick.”

  “Ty,” Ashley yelled from the top of the stairs. “Can I come down?”

  I swear something had possessed my sister. She never asked permission to come into my room. In fact, she usually didn’t ask permission to do anything. She just donned her high heels and walked over anyone in her path.

  “Sure, Ash.”

  She sashayed down the stairs, giving Gavin a warm smile before she gasped. “Wow, Tyler! This place is really great.”

  “Are you going to try and switch rooms?” I asked.

  “Dude, why would I do that? Clearly this space was meant to be yours,” Ashley said. “This is a little too man cave for me.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Did you just call me dude?”

  She ignored my question and plopped down next to Gavin. “Maybe this place won’t be so bad.”

  She pressed her leg against Gavin’s and he sucked in a deep breath of air. She certainly wasn’t wasting any time claiming him. In the next few minutes, she established he didn’t have a girlfriend and would be picking her up for school, even though school didn’t start for a few weeks.

  I shook my head. At least Ashley seemed to be settling in okay. It would be great if I didn’t have to leave the basement, but Gavin had already decided I’d be trying out for football in a few days. He’d also volunteered to be a pack mule and help us unload and unpack when the rest of our stuff arrived.

  Besides getting settled, we also had to attend a funeral in three days. Mama would have to make peace with her past, or at least I hoped she’d be able to let the past go. I wasn’t looking forward to the next few days.

  Gavin hung out for a little while before his mom dragged him home, saying we needed a chance to get used to our new surroundings. I found Mama upstairs going through some photo albums.

  “Hey, Mama. Can I ask you a question?”

  She sighed and gestured for me to sit next to her. She ran her fingers through my curls, moving them away from my eyes. “I bet you want to know how your rooms were ready.”

  Ashley came around the corner. “Yes, Mama, care to explain?”

  “When your granddad passed away, your grandma had hopes that we’d move here. She’s had these rooms ready for a couple of years.” Mama coughed. “I always thought she was trying to control my life. We fought constantly about my choices. I couldn’t take it, so I stayed in Texas to spite her.

  “It would’ve been much easier for us to move here after I lost your father. I wouldn’t have had to work so much, but I knew you kids really liked your school and your friends. But in the end, I ripped the rug out from you both anyway.”

  “Mama, don’t worry about Ty and me. We’ll be fine. We’re sorry for making you feel bad.” Ashley wrapped her arms around Mama’s shoulders and they focused on the photo album laid out on Mama’s lap.

  I w
asn’t sold on Middleton Lake, but I kept my mouth shut. The dark circles under Mama’s eyes spoke volumes. She had too much on her plate, and I didn’t need to add to the mess by whining about things I couldn’t change.

  We spent the next hour getting to know our grandma through photos and stories. It was hard to listen to Mama tell about the fighting and the bad feelings she harbored for years.

  “None of it was worth it,” she said as she shut the last album. “We both were stubborn and stupid, and now I can’t take it back because she died before I could say I was sorry.”

  Her chest heaved as she ran her hands over the photo album, and I could almost feel the pain in her heart.

  Ashley touched Mama’s arm. “Did Grandma know we were coming?”

  Mama hesitated. “Yes.”

  “Then she knew you were reaching out to her,” Ashley said firmly.

  “Perhaps you’re right. Just promise me that you two will never hold grudges. The regret isn’t worth it. Forgiveness is easier.” She sighed and stood. “It’s late, and I’m tired.”

  “Night, Mama.” I hugged her. “I’m sorry for being such an ass.”

  “Things have been difficult for all of us. I know you didn’t mean it. You’ll always be my sweet, golden boy.”

  I rolled my eyes but bit my tongue. I hated that nickname. It always made me feel like I had something impossible to live up to, and I wasn’t quite sure what it was.

  Ashley and I watched Mama from the doorway. She looked older and more worn down than I’d ever seen her before. It was painful to witness her sadness.

  Ashley glanced at me, sighing heavily. “I’m going to bed. The next few days are going to suck.”

  She disappeared into her bedroom and I headed for the basement.

  Ashley was right about the next few days being difficult. People dropped by the house unannounced, offering condolences, and since we were new in the community, we were a curiosity as well. We had enough food to feed the county for the next three months.

  We made arrangements for the funeral and burial. Everyone seemed to want something from Mama. Ash was good at running interference, shielding Mama from some of the shit. I just wanted to punch someone or yell at them to get the fuck away from us and let us grieve properly.