Read Online Autumn Leaves by Barbara Winkes - Free Book Online Page B

she’d managed to escape homophobia pretty well. To her, it had presented itself more as a practical thing, the lack of equality in law, health care, and so on, which was bad enough. She never had someone as determined as Betty LaRue in her face before.
    “You have no right—”
    “There was a time when people like you wouldn’t dare talk like this,” Betty yelled.
    It made something within Callie snap. “This is my house, and I won’t let anybody with a stripper name insult me here, not to mention someone who’s a walking cliché out of Desperate Housewives !”
    The sound rang obscenely loud in the room when Betty slapped her.
    “That’s it. You leave right now, or I’m calling the police.”
    Callie wasn’t sure if Craig Lowman, whom she’d met briefly, would be of help here. At least the idea had a slight impact on Betty. Before she left, she made a point of wiping the books off the table, then she all but ran to her car. Callie picked up the books again, smoothing the edges before she carefully laid them back on the table. Then she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table.
    She cried.
    * * * *
    “Mom?”
    Rebecca quickly closed the lid of her laptop when Dina came into her office, unusually subdued. She was on the phone for nearly two hours.
    “Yes, honey, what’s up?”
    Dina didn’t even roll her eyes at ‘honey’. This was serious, then.
    “Could you drive me to Anna’s later?”
    Rebecca regarded her daughter attentively. Anna was the friend out of town with whom things were rocky lately. Dina hadn’t wanted to go into detail before, but Rebecca wondered what might have been the reason for the girls’ breakup. It had always bothered her that she didn’t know Anna’s parents too well. They moved out of town right after the girls finished elementary school.
    “Everything okay there?” she asked.
    “Yeah. I’m an idiot,” Dina said.
    “Oh, no. That’s not true.”
    “It is. She’s my friend. I shouldn’t have let her down.”
    It sounded ominous enough to make alarm bells ring for Rebecca. Also, trying to be a good parent was a welcome excuse not to think about her own shortcomings in friendship. She saw Betty’s car in front of Callie’s house. Betty had not stopped to say hi. It couldn’t be good.
    “This wouldn’t be any problem where adults should be involved? You’d tell me if it was?”
    “Of course.” Dina looked weary. In a fourteen-year-old, it was heartbreaking.
    “You want to go right now? I’d run some errands and come get you tonight.”
    “Actually...” Dina hesitated. “I was wondering if I could stay the night.”
    “What about school?”
    “It’s an emergency.”
    Rebecca thought of Betty and her struggle to connect with her son. She thought of her own struggle, and how irrelevant it became when at this moment, one of her girls really needed her.
    “Please, Mom, just this one time. I promise I’m okay. I just really have to make up for being a shitty friend.”
    Knowing exactly how that felt, Rebecca was inclined to go along with her daughter’s plan. Dina had many friends in school. Her grades were usually good, except she didn’t have much of a grasp of sciences. One day wouldn’t really bring a major change to that.
    “Her parents know?”
    “They said yes.” Dina smiled sheepishly.
    “Well, what choice do I have then?”
    “I love you, Mom.” Dina all but jumped to her feet, hugging her tightly. A wave of emotion came over Rebecca with this unusual display of affection.
    “I love you too, honey. Why don’t you pack some things while I finish up here? You know, we should get you some tutoring for chemistry...”
    Dina made a face at her, and Rebecca laughed. “Come on, get going.”
    When her daughter had left, she went back to the windows open on the screen, the HTML editor, and the online bookstore. Praise for Callie Bryan...
    The church was lit up when Rebecca drove by on her way back. Making her decision on the spur