Texts from Bennett Read Online Free Page B

her driveway.
    ME: She wasn’t using it. She had a string of surgeries and was out of work for a while.
    HARPER: What kind of surgery?
    ME: Not 100% sure. My aunt has some serious medical issues. Back problems, nerve damage etc. She takes lots of pills.
    ME: Anyway . . .
    ME: Yada yada yada she insisted and we took it.
    ME: For 5-6 weeks it worked great.
    ME: Until it completely died in Gainesville, FL on the highway.
    ME: Just crapped out on us. We had to take a Greyhound cross-country back home. Luckily, the tour was two shows from being over when it happened.
    ME: I was going to fly back to Florida to get it but the repairs were so expensive. The engine was shot. It was gonna cost like $2,000 to fix. But Aunt Lily said not to bother.
    ME: She said she had another old car she could drive if she needed to.
    ME: And was genuinely happy that she contributed to my tour. Didn’t sweat me to pay her back at all.
    HARPER: I get it. I guess. I mean that’s very nice of her.
    ME: Right.
    HARPER: So who all would be moving in with us then?
    ME: Aunt Lillian, her boyfriend Tim, and my cousin Bennett.
    HARPER: Ok.
    ME: They’re good folks.
    HARPER: Just to clarify: from what you’ve told me in the past, Aunt Lillian has a terrible OxyContin addiction, can barely pay her bills, and sleeps all day. Her boyfriend Tim is apparently a conspiracy theory nut who believes Barack Obama drinks human blood and “shapeshifts” into a reptile that lives underground. And Bennett is a 17 year old gangbanger who says he’s partially black, when he’s not. Amiright?
    ME: Yes. You’re right. Totally.
    HARPER: K. So I think I get why you want to do this. But a gangbanger? That’s scary.
    ME: Yeah. Hmm. Bennett is a troubled kid. I’m just being honest. But he’s got a good heart.
    HARPER: Like . . .
    HARPER: That’s neat and all. But there’s also a lot of people with good hearts in prison.
    HARPER: I watch a show about it on A&E. They give kittens to prisoners to make them good people. They’re still rapists and murderers though.
    ME: I doubt Bennett will ever end up in prison.
    HARPER: Hasn’t he been to juvie like five times already?
    ME: Twice.
    HARPER: For what?
    ME: He got into an argument with someone and kicked their car or something.
    HARPER: He went to jail for kicking a car? That doesn’t seem like it makes sense.
    HARPER: It doesn’t matter. I just don’t feel comfortable with this, that’s all.
    HARPER: I’ve never really been around people like them. I do NOT say that disparagingly.
    ME: I know you don’t, honey. But I promise, Aunt Lillian is one of the nicest relatives I have.
    HARPER: I see.
    HARPER: Why can’t she pay her bills again?
    ME: Well . . . she’s just a little irresponsible.
    ME: My grandpa Mike, her dad, didn’t exactly love her or put energy into raising her. He kind of hated her to be honest. She has mild Asperger’s. You wouldn’t be able to even notice.
    HARPER: God. Who could hate someone with Asperger’s? That seems uncool. Then again I guess I’ve never had a child with Asperger’s.
    ME: As a kid she had trouble learning and functioning. Grandpa Mike was very abusive and always drunk.
    ME: He accused Kitty.
    ME: My grandma/his wife . . .
    ME: Of having an affair on him and said Lillian wasn’t his, and that the night Kitty got pregnant with Lillian the mystery guy accidentally peed in her and contaminated the sperm cell causing it to not develop properly.
    HARPER: That’s hilarious. Did your grandma really have an affair?
    ME: Nah, Lillian looks exactly like Mike. He was just an asshole.
    ME: Btw that’s really not “hilarious.”
    HARPER: Well? Did she act up a bunch as a child or something?
    ME: No. She is seriously one of the sweetest people in the world.
    ME: At my mom’s funeral she sat with me and my sisters and just cried and hugged us.
    ME: To see her feel that type of pain over my mom dying brought me closer to her.
    ME: Hello?
    ME: You there?
    ME: Sorry.