Chapter Text
Shauna drags a finger over her phone screen, moving her character around to cut down enemies. Loud music blares from her phone speakers that she’s too lazy to turn down. Only a minute leaning against her front door, and she’s already shifting on her feet, the wood digging into her back too hard. In her game, she gets surrounded by a horde of enemies, and her character dies, not strong enough to defeat them.
“Fuck,” she mutters.
Her eyes stray to the time.
“Fuck!” She shoves her phone into her pocket. “Callie, we’re going to be late! I told you to be ready ten minutes ago.”
Stomps sound down the stairs before Callie scrambles around the corner. Her foot slips on the carpet. She gasps, her body pitching toward the floor.
Shauna catches the back of Callie’s shirt, narrowing her eyes. “Callie Sadecki, what have I said about running?”
“Sorry, Mom,” Callie says, her shoulders raising toward her ears.
Shauna shakes her head, already exhausted after only an hour awake. She opens the front door, gesturing for Callie to go first. Callie sprints out of the house, shooting straight toward the car, and Shauna trudges after her, her jaw ticking.
Eight-year-olds shouldn’t be this belligerent, right? Aren’t they supposed to be cute and listen? Maybe next time, Shauna should just let Callie fall on her face. At least she’d learn.
Metal slams from the house next door, and Shauna flinches, turning to look. Two men march up the ramp of a moving truck. The sound must’ve been them dropping it. But why is there a moving truck? She looks closer and notices a sold sign in front of the house. Is that new?
A thump sounds beside her, and she flinches again. Everyone needs to stop making noise. She turns and sighs as Callie makes faces at her through the car window, leaving smudges on the glass. Shauna smacks her palm against the window. Callie yelps, tumbling backward.
When Shauna finally starts the car, she glances at Callie in the rearview mirror. ‘Why are you so goddamn annoying?’ sits heavy on her tongue. She swallows it.
“What do you want for dinner?”
“Pasghetti!” Callie pauses, her face twisting up.
Shauna tries not to laugh, her eyes crinkling affectionately. Callie’s been having trouble with a few words since she lost her tooth last week.
“I’ll see if they have that at ShopRite, but no promises.”
Petulantly, Callie crosses her arms and looks out the window. Shauna forces herself to stop looking before they crash. It’s the exact move Jackie used to pull. She’d only stop pouting after Shauna apologized.
Karma? Bad luck? Jackie Taylor fucking with her from hundred of miles away? Whatever it is, Shauna always needs to remind herself that Jackie was not somehow in the room when Callie was conceived.
She’s pretty sure being a brat isn’t genetic anyway.
By the time Shauna gets to the ShopRite, she swears everything is out to get her. The fluorescent lights inside are bright enough to burn. She realizes too late that she’s managed to get the squeaky cart again. The combination makes her temples throb.
In front of the pasta, she stops the cart. Her eyes slide over the brands, pausing on the cheapest. She shakes her head, grabbing the more expensive one that always cooks easier.
She hasn’t had to hoard coupons or worry about overdrafting her bank account for years—not since Jeff got promoted to District Manager at his job selling… something in bulk to businesses all over New Jersey. He’d started there right out of high school and shot up through the ranks. Shauna doesn’t know how.
Rolling through the aisles, she grabs everything she needs for the rest of the week, and is about to head to the registers when she passes a display of snickerdoodles on sale. Her steps slow. Shauna doesn’t like them—Callie does. Yet another thing Callie has in common with Jackie.
Shauna leaves the cookies where they are and looks toward the registers.
Later that day, Bowser slams into yet another barrier on their living room TV. Shauna curses, backing him up to try the turn again.
“Mom.” Callie leans over the back of the couch, getting her face way too close to Shauna’s. “Can I play?”
“Don’t you have homework?” Shauna has to stop herself from throwing the controller when Bowser falls off the road.
“I finished.” Callie pushes out her lower lip. “Can I play, please?”
Shauna side-eyes her, trying not to scowl. Callie always wins when they play.
“Uh, no. Adults only,” Shauna says.
“It’s Mario Kart!” Callie says. “That’s for kids!”
“Not with the number of times I’ve cursed at it,” she mutters.
Bowser falls off the map again.
Shauna’s head sags back. “Fine.” She gets to her feet. “You can play. I have to make dinner, anyway.”
Callie grins too widely as she rounds the couch, and Shauna pauses, eyeing her expression.
Her daughter needs a better poker face.
“I’m checking your homework after dinner,” Shauna says. “So if you have anything you’d like to look over first, I’d do it now.”
Callie’s smile falls. She glances at Shauna, then at the game, and back again. Her shoulders slump. “I-I might’ve forgotten something. I’ll go check.”
Only after Callie leaves the room does Shauna allow herself to laugh. When it tapers off, her smile fades. Sighing she goes to start dinner.
The rest of the evening goes fine. Checking Callie’s completed homework goes fine. Everything is fine. That’s what it always is. Fine.
“Mom!” Callie calls.
“Go to bed, Callie!” Shauna yells back, not even looking up from her phone. “It’s bedtime.”
“But I need your help,” Callie whines.
An alarm bell rings in Shauna’s head. She finally stops scrolling and gets up, fighting the urge to smack Jeff as he suddenly seems very interested in his stupid cartoon. She’s surprised he doesn’t try to sink into the couch to hide while he’s at it.
As Shauna walks upstairs, worsening scenarios fly through her mind, but when she makes it to Callie’s room, she only finds Callie standing next to her bed, the comforter half off the mattress.
Shauna’s adrenaline fades. “What are you doing?” she asks tiredly.
“I can’t find Stuffie.”
Shauna’s expression softens as she crouches beside her. Stuffie is Callie’s teddy bear. She’s slept with it every night since getting it two years ago.
“Where’s the last place you remember seeing him?”
“This morning before school.” Callie’s lower lip wobbles, and Shauna puts a hand on her back.
“Alright, let me think,” Shauna says. “I promise we’ll find him.” She looks around. “I took you to school, got groceries, came back and…” She gets lower, looks under the bed, and makes a triumphant sound as she pulls Stuffie out from under the bed. “I must’ve knocked him over while making your bed.”
Callie grins, hugging the bear to her chest.
“Maybe it’s time you make your own bed,” Shauna says dryly.
Callie ignores her to lean in and clutch her shoulders. “Thanks, Mom!”
“Uh-huh.” Shauna gives her a quick squeeze, then picks her up and drops her to the mattress. “Now go to bed.”
“Fine,” Callie says, settling in with Stuffie against her chest. “Love you.”
Shauna’s lips quirk. It’s nice having someone always willing to say it now, even if it is just her daughter.
“I love you, too.”
She makes sure the door is cracked open when she leaves, knowing Callie doesn’t like it shut all the way.
Some days are easier than others, but she wishes they could be more than just fine.
By the following week, the sold sign next door is gone. There’s nothing different about the outside of the house. If Shauna hadn’t caught the movers, she probably would’ve never known the Daltons left. They had a dog. A sweet Rottweiler named Darcy. Shauna couldn’t tell you the wife’s first name.
Shauna shakes away her thoughts and stops staring at the house through her driver’s side window. If anyone caught her sitting in her driveway, watching the house like this, they’d call her a creep.
Getting out of her car, she treks to her mailbox.
Junk. Junk. A letter for Jeff. Junk. A credit card bill.
“Hi!”
Shauna jerks, the mail flying out of her hands.
“Oh my god!” a woman yells, jogging closer from the driveway next door. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Clenching her jaw, Shauna crouches to gather her mail. “It’s fine.”
It’s all bullshit anyway.
The woman kneels, helping her gather everything. As they stand, Shauna finally gets a good look at her—pretty, brown hair, brown eyes, a small scar on her chin.
Shauna stares at it, watching it bounce up and down as the woman keeps moving her lips for some reason. Should I take a nap now or after I do the laundry?
“Anyway, as I said, it’s been a crazy morning, but I hope we can be friends,” the woman says, smiling. “Though I never did catch your name.”
Shauna blinks out of her thoughts. Had this woman been talking that whole time?
“Sorry, I just realized my, uh, dryer is on.” Shauna gestures behind her. “I should go make sure nothing happened while I was gone.” She spins around without another word.
“Because of your dryer?” The woman asks, following beside her.
Shauna gives her an annoyed glance as she unlocks her front door. “Yes.”
By some miracle, the woman doesn’t follow her in. “It’s supposed to be the oven.”
“What?”
“The excuse." Her voice grows lyrical, like she’s teaching a class of five-year-olds. “It’s your oven. If you work on it, I’m sure you’ll get it right next time.”
They stare at each other.
“The oven is also on.” Shauna slams the door in her face. “Weirdo,” she mutters.
Thankfully, the woman isn’t everywhere after that. But she is around—waving from her driveway, smiling at Shauna’s sulky frowns. It’s been almost a week since they first met, and Shauna hasn’t seen her husband yet. She only knows he exists from the second car usually parked out front of their house, and would like to keep it that way. He must be obnoxious if he married such an annoying woman.
“Shauna!” Jeff calls, slamming the front door behind him.
“Living room!”
Lying across the couch, Shauna curls deeper into a throw pillow, not looking away from the Golden Girls rerun.
“Hey, honey.” Jeff looks down at her from over the back of the couch. “Did you get my text?”
Shauna glances at her phone on the coffee table. She’d heard it vibrate, but ignored it. “Must’ve missed it. Sorry.”
Jeff’s lips flatten, but he doesn’t comment. “Well, I was trying to give you a heads up. I invited our new neighbors to dinner.”
“Please tell me you don’t mean the woman with rainbows coming out of her ass from next door.”
“I didn’t notice any when we spoke, sorry,” Jeff says.
“Then you weren’t looking very hard.”
Jeff leans farther over the couch to catch her eye. Shauna used to find that endearing. Now she only thinks it's cute when Callie does it.
“Her name is Lily.” He gives her a knowing look. “Just in case you didn’t catch her name.”
Shauna doesn’t rise to his bait, going back to watch Rose do something stupid again. But even as almost half a minute passes, he still hovers.
“What?” she says.
“You’ll do it, right?” Jeff asks. “Make sure there’s enough for two more tonight.”
“Jesus, yes—“
“I’ll even pick up Cals for you.”
Shauna shoots him a startled glance, only to see he’s watching her every move. She sits up, narrowing her eyes. “Why do you care so much about this?”
His mouth flaps open and closed a few times before he straightens again. “Honey… I was trying not to upset you but…”
Shauna glares, her patience thin.
“I had to talk the Daltons out of a restraining order after you threatened to drive Linda over with your car,” Jeff says.
Shauna scoffs and finally gets up, storming into the kitchen. “That’s so fucking dramatic.” She smacks the sink handle, squirts soap onto her hands, and scrubs too hard. “I told her I’d only do it if she kept throwing her leaves in our yard.”
“Shauna,” Jeff says, “they’re just leaves.”
“Two trash bags worth, Jeff.” Shauna slams the tap off. “And I’m the one who had to clean it up.”
Jeff stays quiet for a moment.
“Right, I forgot.” He clears his throat. “They’ve moved. It doesn’t matter anymore. I just don’t want any issues with the new neighbors, alright?”
“Fine,” Shauna mutters, getting the chicken out of the fridge.
Jeff lingers before walking out of the kitchen. “I’ll go pick up Callie from school.”
Shauna waits for the door to close, then tilts her head down, taking a moment to breathe.
It’s only two more plates. Just get it over with.
She exhales and preheats the oven.
Their guests should be there any minute, and somehow, Shauna still isn’t done cooking. She keeps getting distracted, wondering how long Jeff knew about the potential restraining order. It must’ve been almost a year.
“What are they like?” Callie asks, watching Shauna put the pot to boil. “Are they nice?”
Shauna shakes her thoughts away. “I barely talked to the woman, and I haven’t even seen her husband around.”
“It’s two women, Shauna,” Jeff says, pouring himself iced tea. “I forgot to mention that Lily said she had a wife.”
“Oh, okay,” Shauna says, her mind already drifting away to something more interesting.
“Stacey has two dads,” Callie says. “She always comes to school with sourdough they made together.”
“That’s nice. Do you like it?” Jeff asks.
“Not really.”
A knock sounds from the front door, and Shauna turns back to the stove, stirring the sauce. She hears Jeff open the door. Then—nothing. Silence.
Suddenly, Jeff’s heavy footsteps echo close to the kitchen again, and they seem slightly faster than before. The kitchen door opens, and from the hallway behind him, a woman’s voice whispers something Shauna can’t make out. The only word she catches is: “Later!”
Shauna starts to turn to see what the hell is going on when Jeff appears at her shoulder, looking like he’d seen a ghost.
“Shauna, it’s—”
“I hope you’ve gotten better at cooking since high school, Shipman,” a very familiar voice says from behind her.
Shauna freezes. Her stomach does something then. It goes cold, then warm, then twists—actually, this might be nausea. She might be about to throw up.
Swallowing hard, Shauna steels herself and turns.
Jackie Taylor stands in Shauna’s kitchen, honey-blonde hair draping over her shoulders, navy dress perfectly molded to her body, eyes flintier than ever.
Shauna opens her mouth, trying to decide what to say:
‘I guess that makes sense.’
‘Is that why you wanted to make out so much?’
‘How did you find someone more annoying than you to marry?’
Finally Shauna settles on, “It’s Sadecki now.”
Jackie’s lips tremble, then she scoffs.
Shauna should’ve just hit Mrs. Dalton with her car.
Forks clink against plates. No one talks. The air is too thick. Hopefully, they’ll all choke and die soon.
“This chicken is great, Shauna,” Lily says.
“It’s burnt,” Shauna and Jackie say at the same time.
“No, it’s not,” Shauna snaps.
“You also said it was,” Jackie says.
“I meant it differently.” Shauna glares down at her plate, putting an end to the conversation.
Jackie said it to be a bitch. Shauna was only stating a fact.
A buzz sounds. Without hesitation, Jackie fishes into her purse. She glances at her phone, types something, then puts it away again.
She’s acting like the bad parent in a Disney Channel movie.
“And you all knew each other in high school?” Lily asks, her smile growing strained.
“Oh, yeah,” Jackie says, venom in her voice. “I was dating Jeff, and Shauna was my childhood best friend. Funny story actually—“
“Mom, is she the one in your pictures?” Callie interrupts.
Shauna can feel Jackie’s stare burning onto the top of her head. She doesn’t look up.
“So,” Jeff cuts in, “what are you up to these days, Jackie?”
Jackie stays silent, gaze still boring into Shauna.
“She’s a consultant,” Lily says. From the corner of Shauna’s eye, she sees Lily stroke Jackie’s forearm before gripping her limp fingers. “She’s great at it, too! So many companies she’s worked with have been saved with her help.”
“Aren’t those the people who end up getting most of the employees laid off?” Shauna asks.
Jackie laughs roughly. “Now you decide to weigh in?”
“They are though, right?” Shauna asks.
The least shocking development possible. Jackie works as a soulless harpy who tells companies how bad they are and demands they change without caring who she hurts in the process. Someone must have handpicked her for the job.
“Would anyone like some wine?” Jeff asks with an uncomfortable laugh.
“I don’t drink,” Jackie says, her tone oddly harsh. The declaration barely hits the air before Jackie is moving on. “What do you do for a living, Shauna? Let’s see, what’s something judgey?” She looks up, pretending to think. “A critic—books, movies, restaurants. Tell me when I’m getting close.”
Shauna presses her lips together. What will Jackie do when she finds out the actual answer? Laugh?
“Mom plays video games,” Callie says innocently.
“A video game critic?” Jackie gets quieter, like she’s speaking only to herself. “Since when do you play video games?”
“I’m a stay-at-home mother,” Shauna says, her voice flat. “My family is my whole world.”
Jackie stares, looking oddly troubled—a furrow in her brow, a frown on her lips.
“Happy wife, happy life,” Jeff says with too loud a laugh.
Lily joins in instantly. Whether she actually thinks it’s funny or is being polite isn’t something Shauna cares to know. But Jackie and Shauna roll their eyes at each other like they always did when Jeff was being a dumbass—then they blink, awareness coming back. Right. Not high school. Not friends.
Shauna turns away and sighs at the mess on Callie’s face. She grabs a napkin, leaning down to cup Callie’s jaw. “Sweetie,” she says, softening her voice in the way she only does with Callie, “the food goes in your mouth.”
Callie scowls, but stays still as Shauna wipes the melted cheese from the broccoli off her face. It’s oddly gratifying to be able to do something. Even her typical impatience disappears at feeling useful. Callie is a pain in the ass, but she’s not dead or running amok. It’s better than nothing.
When she looks back up, Jackie studies her face, then Callie’s. She gives nothing away before looking down at her meal, eating quietly for the rest of dinner.
Shauna wonders if she can’t read her anymore, or if Jackie’s just gotten better at hiding her thoughts.