Chapter 13

Ara dropped Dallas at the top of his street. “It’s probably better this way,” Ara explained when he pulled over. “You’ll have a hard time explaining to your mom what you were doing in a car with two strangers. If I drop you off here you can at least say you were with people that she’s familiar with.”

Dallas sighed and sat back in his seat. “It doesn’t matter who I’m with,” He said, “She’s going to be too angry at me to listen to anything I have to say.”

“Best to go now then,” Ara said “ instead of wasting more time in the car, hm?”

“What am I going to tell her anyways?” Dallas asked.

Andor shrugged, “The truth?”

“That’ll go over well,” Dallas said, “Sorry I’m snuck out. I had to help my psychologist’s best friend pay off a debt to some guy who is blackmailing him by going into casinos and pretending to be Norwegian.”

“Sometimes honesty isn’t the best policy,” Ara said, “Here, give me your phone.”

Dallas handed Ara his phone. From the back seat, Dallas couldn’t see what exactly he was doing with it. He handed it back to Dallas, the screen blank.

“What did you do to it?” Dallas asked. He tried pressing buttons, but the screen stayed black.

“I drained the battery,” Ara said, “It takes a bit of practice, but if you ever need to, Andor and I can both do it. Now, not that I condone lying to your parents, but I want you to go home, and tell your mom you were out with some friends and that your phone died.”

“Fine,” Dallas muttered. He got out of the car and walked down the street. It had apparently been raining while they were in the casino. The sidewalk was lined with puddles. Dallas tried not to step in them, but somehow by the time he reached home water had soaked through his shoes.

He walked up to the door and opened it slowly. He almost hoped that his mother would be asleep just like she usually was at this time, but he knew it would not be the case. He was already trying to figure out how his mother would punish him. He walked into the front hall and pulled off his shoes. He tiptoed over to the closet and gently put them away.

“Dallas? Is that you?”

His mother came running into the front hall. “Where have you been?” She shouted, “I’ve been worried sick about you!”

“I’m sorry!” Dallas said quickly, “I was just out with some friends.”

“You should have called me,” His mother said in a frantic tone, “I almost called the police!”

“I’m sorry,” Dallas said again, “My phone died and the busses were running late.”

“I don’t want to hear any more excuses,” His mother snapped, “You’re grounded. You’re not allowed to see any friends after school for the next week. You’re to come straight home after school, understand?”

“Yes,” Dallas mumbled bitterly.

“Good,” His mother said, “And I’m making sure your father hears that you're grounded, by the way.”

“Fine,” He muttered. He turned to go upstairs, but his mother called after him.

“Dallas?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m booking you another appointment with Dr. Davies,” His mother said, “I think you’re still having troubles adjusting to not having your father around all the time.”

“Well, yeah I am,” Dallas said quietly. “I mean I definitely feel like you could have worked it out or something.”

“Dallas,” his mother said calmly, “your father and I had been fighting for a long time. Years, in fact. It wasn’t an easy decision, but we both felt that it was the right one.”

Dallas didn’t respond right away. He bit his lip, and shoved his balled up fists into the pocket of his blue hoodie. He wanted to tell his mother how he really felt about the divorce. He felt like it wasn’t the right move, and that it was his fault. He wanted to yell about how he hated only seeing his father on weekends, how the only thing he wanted was to be living with both his parents. But he didn’t.

Instead, he awkwardly mumbled, “Well… whatever. Fine,” then he turned around to go back upstairs. He wandered into his bedroom, plugged his phone into his charger then lay on his bed.

Hey, are you still alive? What’s the damage report? Andor’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

I’m grounded for a week, Dallas answered, My mom wasn’t too happy with me coming home late. He could almost feel Andor smirking at him.

She was mad, huh? How mad?

Very mad.

Did she threaten to kick you out of the house?

No, Dallas answered, frowning. I’m just grounded for a week.

That’s good, Andor said, So it wasn’t as bad as it could have been then. Trust me, I’ve been there before. It’s not a good feeling when you know your parents want you out of their house.

Your parents kicked you out? Dallas asked, Why?

Andor was silent for a while. Long story, he said finally, very long. But they ended up not kicking me out. We were able to sort of work things out. Pretty sure they still hate me though.

Dallas didn’t want to dwell on the subject. He got the feeling that it wasn’t something that Andor talked about openly.

I was wondering if you could help me with something else? He said changing the subject.

Sure, anything, Andor replied.

I told my mom I was out with some friends, Dallas said.

So what’s the problem? Andor asked, That’s technically true.

Friends from school, Dallas elaborated, I’m worried that my mom is going to start asking around and she’ll find out that I wasn’t actually with my friends.

Andor sighed. Dallas didn’t even know that it was possible to mentally sigh. Is that a universal mom thing? My mom was always up in my business.

I was going to ask my friend to cover for me if my mom happened to ask, Dallas continued, But knowing my friend he’s going to want to know why. Any idea what I should tell him?

Andor was silent for a moment, before he finally said, here’s what you do. You come up with some elaborate story about how you were busy fighting off aliens, or preventing a zombie apocalypse or something, and---

I have a better idea, Ara cut in suddenly, It’s not ideal, but it at least makes more sense than whatever Andor was going on about. I know you’ve been concerned about your school lately, correct?

Yeah, Dallas said, That’s right.

Well, Ara continued, Tell your friend that you were buying a few Adderall tablets and--

NO! Dallas shouted back, No, I can’t tell him that!

Do you have an alternative? Ara asked.

No, Dallas said, My only real alternative is to hope that he doesn’t ask.

Alright, Ara said, So hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Go call your friend, and if he does ask, then just use the alibi I gave you.

No, wait, It was Kaitlyn who spoke this time, Sorry, I couldn’t help but to overhear. I have a better idea.

Do you now? Dallas asked, I’d love to hear it.

Dallas, how far away does your father live? He’s still in the province, right?

Dallas saw instantly where she was going with this. He’s in Surrey, he answered, That’s about an hour or so by skytrain. Kaitlyn, you’re a genius!

Let me know how it goes, Kaitlyn said.

His phone had only charged to two percent since plugging it in. He wondered if there was a way to use his powers to make his phone charge faster. He made a mental note to ask Ara about it later.  He scrolled through his contacts and called Mitchell.

“Hey, what’s up?” Mitchell asked casually.

“Listen, I just need you to help me with something,” Dallas said, “It’s not a big deal really, but if my mom asks you if I was with you tonight, can you just tell her I was?”

“Only if you tell me where you actually were,” Mitchell said, “I may or may not tell your mom if you were up to something illegal.”

“I wasn’t doing anything illegal,” Dallas assured him.

“Good,” Mitchell said, “Because you know I’d totally tell your mom if you were.”

“Yeah I know,” Dallas said. He lowered his voice and added, “I was just visiting my dad.”

“You miss him, huh?” Mitchell said.

“Yeah,” Dallas said softly, “It’s weird having to divide my time between both my parents. I wish we were all together again.”

“I’ll cover for you,” Mitchell said, “But if you ever decide to visit your dad again, just give me a heads up first.”

“Sure,” Dallas said, “Sounds good. And thank you so much.”

“No problem,” Mitchell said. They said their goodbyes, then hung up.

Dallas put his phone down, then said to Kaitlyn, Everything went better than expected.