Someone We Know - Shari Lapena Page 0,3

this by denying it. He’s caught like a rat in a trap, and now all he can do is damage control. ‘I did sneak into somebody’s house, but I wasn’t stealing. It was more like – just looking around,’ he mutters.

‘You actually broke into someone’s house last night?’ his mother says, aghast. ‘I can’t believe this! Raleigh, what were you thinking?’ She throws her hands up. ‘Why on earth would you even do that?’

He sits there on his bed, speechless, because he doesn’t know how to explain. He does it because it’s a kick, a thrill. He likes to get into other people’s houses and hack into their computers. He doesn’t dare tell her that. She should be glad he’s not doing drugs.

‘Whose house was it?’ she demands now.

His mind seizes. He can’t answer that. If he tells her whose house he was in last night, she’ll completely lose it. He can’t bear to think of what the consequences of that might be.

‘I don’t know,’ he lies.

‘Well, where was it?’

‘I can’t remember. What difference does it make? I didn’t take anything! They won’t even know I was there.’

His mom leans her face in toward him and says, ‘Oh, they’ll know all right.’

He looks at her in fear. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You’re going to get dressed, and then you’re going to show me the house you broke into, and then you’re going to knock on the door and apologize.’

‘I can’t,’ he says desperately.

‘You can, and you will,’ she says. ‘Whether you want to or not.’

He starts to sweat. ‘Mom, I can’t. Please don’t make me.’

She looks at him shrewdly. ‘What else aren’t you telling me?’ she asks.

But at that moment, he hears the front door opening and his dad whistling as he drops his keys on the table in the hall. Raleigh’s heart starts to pound, and he feels slightly sick. His mother he can handle, but his dad – he can’t bear to think of how his dad’s going to react. He didn’t anticipate this; he never thought he’d get caught. Fucking Mark.

‘Get up, now,’ his mother commands, ripping the rest of the covers off him. ‘We’re going to talk to your father.’

As he makes his way down the stairs in his pyjamas, he’s sweating. When they enter the kitchen, his dad looks up in surprise. He can obviously tell from their expressions that something’s up.

The whistling stops abruptly. ‘What’s going on?’ his dad asks.

‘Maybe we’d better all sit down,’ his mother says, pulling out a chair at the kitchen table. ‘Raleigh has something to tell you, and you’re not going to like it.’

They all sit. The sound of the chairs scraping against the floor rips at Raleigh’s raw nerves like nails on a chalkboard.

He has to confess. He knows that. But he doesn’t have to tell them everything. He’s more awake now, better able to think. ‘Dad, I’m really sorry, and I know it was wrong,’ he begins. His voice is trembling, and he thinks it’s a good start. But his dad’s brow has darkened already, and Raleigh’s afraid. He hesitates.

‘What the hell have you done, Raleigh?’ his father asks.

He stares back at his dad, but the words don’t come. For a moment, he feels completely paralysed.

‘He broke into somebody’s house,’ his mother says finally.

‘What?’

There’s no mistaking the shock and fury in his father’s voice. Raleigh quickly averts his eyes and looks at the floor. He says, ‘I didn’t break in. I snuck in.’

‘Why the hell did you do that?’ his father demands.

Raleigh shrugs his shoulders, but doesn’t answer. He’s still staring at the floor.

‘When?’

His mother prods him with a hand on his shoulder. ‘Raleigh?’

He finally raises his head and looks at his dad. ‘Last night.’

His father looks back at him, his mouth hanging open. ‘You mean, while we were here having friends over for dinner, and you were supposed to be at a movie, you were actually out sneaking into someone else’s house?’ His voice has grown in volume until, by the end of the sentence, his father is shouting. For a moment, there’s silence. The air vibrates with tension. ‘Were you alone, or were you with someone else?’

‘Alone,’ he mumbles.

‘So we can’t even console ourselves with the idea that someone else led you into this completely unacceptable, criminal, behaviour?’

Raleigh wants to put his hands over his ears to block out his dad’s shouting, but he knows this will only incense his dad further. He knows it looks worse that he acted alone.

‘Whose house was it?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘So