Chapter Thirty-Six
“Where are you going?” Darcy's mom asked.
Ashleigh was packing Darcy's suitcase. The clothes all seemed unreasonably big to her, especially the underwear. But that was the crappy body she inhabited.
“I'm just going on a little weekend trip,” Ashleigh said.
“A trip? Where?”
“The beach.”
“With who?”
“Just some friends.” Ashleigh zipped up the suitcase.
“Morris!” Darcy's mom screamed toward the living room. “Morris!”
“What now?” Darcy's dad yelled back.
“Darcy says she's going to the beach for the weekend! With friends!” Her voice grew shrill.
“Like hell she is!” Darcy's dad wheeled from the living room to the hall. He glowered at the sight of Darcy's suitcase. “I didn't give you permission to go nowhere!”
“I'm eighteen years old. I'm a high school graduate. I can go on a trip if I want.”
“Who the hell put that idea in your head?” Darcy's dad yelled.
“The United States Constitution,” Ashleigh said. “Look, it's no big deal. I just need a vacation.”
“All you need is a job!” Darcy's dad said. “How the hell you gonna pay for a vacation?”
“Yeah, how?” Darcy's mom asked.
“Seth's paying,” Ashleigh said. “For everybody.”
“Seth?” Darcy's dad asked. “You don't mean Seth Barrett?”
“That's the one,” Ashleigh said.
“Who else is going?” Darcy's mom asked.
“Um...”
“Not those two you've been running around with, I hope,” Darcy's mom asked. “I don't trust them.”
“Mom, Tommy is Ashleigh Goodling's cousin. How bad can he be?”
“But he's always with that Mexican girl,” Darcy's dad said. “I never thought I'd live to see the day, my little girl running around with Mexicans.”
“Don't be racist, Dad.” Ashleigh pushed by them, walking towards the front door. She had no intention of ever coming back.
“Don't you pull that politically correct horseshit on me!” Darcy's dad wheeled after her, and Darcy's mom trailed behind him. “I ain't no racist, but Mexicans are filthy, weird people! Chuck O' Flannery did a whole show about it! Diseased welfare-suckers, taking up our jobs and our schools.”
“What job?” Ashleigh snapped. “You don't work. You live on welfare.”
“You take that back!” Darcy's dad shouted. “I ain't on welfare, I'm on disability! I can't get no welding job when I ain’t got no foot!” He jabbed one sausage-shaped finger at his missing foot, in case she just hadn’t noticed yet.
Ashleigh watched out the window, gripping the suitcase tight.
“I know what this is about,” Darcy's mom said. “You're going to the beach so you can have sex with those boys.”
“Yeah, that's right,” Ashleigh said. “Gang-banging the fat pregnant chick is every boy's fantasy.”
“Don't use language like that under my roof!” Darcy's dad said.
Mercifully, Seth's blue Audi convertible pulled into the driveway.
“Seth's here,” Darcy said. “I'll see y'all Monday.”
“Don't you go sinning!” Darcy's mom said.
“But I am,” Ashleigh said. “I'm gonna have sex with Seth, and I'm going to let him stick it in my ass, too. Because that's where I like it. Right in the butthole.”
Darcy's mom gasped and covered her mouth.
Ashleigh flung open the front door, and Darcy's dad wheeled out after her. She ran down the front porch steps two at a time.
“Darcy Hortence Metcalf, you come back here now!” he screamed. His face was bright crimson.
Ashleigh gave him the finger as she ran to Seth's car.
“What's going on?” Seth asked from the driver's seat. “Everything okay?”
She dropped the suitcase into the back seat, then climbed in beside him.
“My dad's just being a total lame-o,” Ashleigh said. “I can't leave without him yelling at me.”
“Darcy, you come here!” Darcy's dad screamed from the porch.
“He just wants to yell at me for getting pregnant, for the millionth time,” Ashleigh said. “Drive, drive, drive. Get me the hell out of here.”
“Okay...” Seth backed out of the driveway, and they left Darcy's parents glaring at them from the front porch.
“You sure everything's okay?” Seth asked. “Your parents look pissed.”
“We just had an argument,” Ashleigh said. “Like we do every day. No big whoop.”
Ashleigh lay back in the passenger seat and let the wind blow through her hair. It was a gorgeous Friday evening, with the purple sunset behind them and the night ahead. Orientation began early on Saturday morning, and Seth wasn't a fan of getting out of bed before dawn on Saturday to drive two hours to Charleston, so they were staying in a hotel tonight and tomorrow night.