Ashley Cooper's Arc

Chapter 15 of 37

Ashley drove home with Mike's words still ringing in her ears. He was taking her mom to prom. It sounded fake, like a joke he'd forget by morning. She parked in the driveway of the brick house with green shutters. She would tell Mandy the whole story. Her mom would laugh it off. That was the plan. She pushed open the front door. The living room stopped her cold. Mike stood there in his red jersey, his mustache pressed against her mother's mouth. Mandy's hands rested on his shoulders. They were kissing. In the Cooper house. In the middle of the afternoon. "Mom!" Ashley's voice cracked. Mandy broke away. She wiped her lipstick with the back of her hand and smiled like nothing was wrong. "Ashley. You're home early." "He's in my grade," Ashley said. Her bone arm shook at her side. "He was my boyfriend this morning." "He asked me to prom," Mandy said. She smoothed her sweater. "A woman likes to be asked." Mike wouldn't look at Ashley. He stared at the floor, at the couch, anywhere else. That was the worst part. He knew it was cruel. He was doing it anyway, to punish her. Ashley wanted to scream. She wanted to throw something, the way she'd thrown the diaper. But that was exactly what they expected. That was the old Ashley. Better, not meaner. She swallowed the heat rising in her throat. Her father walked in from the kitchen holding a coffee mug. Danny Cooper blinked behind his round glasses. He looked at Mike, then at his wife, then at his daughter. His face went pale. "Mandy," he said. Just her name. Quiet. But it landed harder than any shout. Mandy's smile fell. "Danny, it isn't—" "He's a child." Danny set the mug down on the table. His hand didn't shake, but his voice did. "He's our daughter's classmate. In our house." The room went silent. Mike finally lifted his head. The anger drained out of his face. Seeing Danny stand there, boring and steady and hurt, seemed to snap something loose in him. "This was dumb," Mike said. "I'm sorry, Mr. Cooper." He grabbed his gym bag off the couch. He passed Ashley without a word and walked out the door. Mandy reached for Danny. He stepped back. "We'll talk later," he said. "Not in front of her." Ashley stood frozen between her parents. The prom threat was dead. Mike wouldn't take Mandy anywhere now. She'd won that much, without throwing a single thing. But she watched her father turn away from her mother. She watched Mandy's face crumble. And she understood the price. Her fight with Mike had cracked open something bigger. Her parents' marriage was bleeding in the living room, and Mike was gone for good. She hadn't lost the boy to prom. She'd lost him for real. And now her home was breaking too.