Crystal Lies Read Online Free PDF

feel.”
    “How
do
you feel?”
    “Like you’ve taken his side, Glennis.”
    “His side?”
I envisioned our family, divided and lined up against each other, stones in our hands ready to be thrown at the opposition. “But he’s
our
son, Geoffrey. I thought we were all on the
same
side.”
    He didn’t respond.
    “Jacob
needs
help, Geoffrey,” I continued, making my best plea. “He
needs
his family. He
needs
you.”
    “He needs to quit screwing up.” His voice sent an actual shiver down my spine.
    Then he set down his coffee mug with a thud and marched upstairs. I could tell by the sound of his footsteps that he was heading for Jacob’s room. I followed him, certain this would not go well. But before I could say anything—not that I could’ve stopped him—he had burst into Jacob’s room.
    “Get up!” he yelled.
    “Huh?” Jacob rolled over and looked up with sleepy eyes. “Get out of bed!”
    Jacob just groaned and crumpled into the fetal position. “I said get up!” yelled Geoffrey. Then he reached over and jerked Jacob out of his bed. “Geoffrey!” I cried.
    “This is
my
house,” said Geoffrey. “And if I say it’s time to get up, you’d better get up.”
    Jacob cussed at his dad, and it quickly went from ugly to frightening as both of them began yelling and swinging fists. I ran for the phone and came back holding it like a weapon.
    “Stop it!” I screamed. “Or I’m calling 911.”
    That managed to bring Geoffrey back to reality, and he released Jacob with a shove that threw him back onto his bed with a loud crash.
    Jacob’s nose was bleeding, but he didn’t seem to notice as he let loosewith a few more foul words, then finally said,“You’re such a hypocrite, Dad. No wonder I’m such a freakin’ mess. I hate your guts!”
    “And you are no longer welcome in this house!” yelled Geoffrey. “Be out of here by the time I get home from work.”
    “Fine!” yelled Jacob. “This place makes me crazy anyway. I should’ve left a long time ago.”
    Geoffrey straightened his jacket and stormed out the door.
    By noon, Jacob had heaped some of his belongings into his old Subaru wagon. I had tried to talk him out of leaving, but he insisted it was the only way.
    “It’s just going to get worse, Mom,” he told me as we stood outside in the driveway.
    “What do you mean?”
    “This family,” he said. “It’s like we’re all going down any minute.”
    “What are you saying?” I felt more confused than ever.
    “There’s stuff going on,” he said. “Everyone’s going to get hurt.”
    “Jacob.” I looked into his eyes. “What exactly are you saying? Is this some kind of threat? Are you going to hurt us?”
    He laughed and shook his head. “Not me, Mom. It’s Dad. Watch out.”
    I frowned. “He’s just upset, Jacob. He’ll be fine.”
    He just shrugged. “Dad hates me, you know.”
    “He doesn’t hate you, honey. He’s frustrated by all this.”
    “No, Mom, he hates me. Can’t you see I’m an embarrassment to him? Just like Grandma was. I gotta go.” He hugged me so tight that it reminded me of his first day of school when I thought he’d never let go.
    “Where will you stay?” I asked.
    “I’ll be okay, Mom. I’ll call you once I get settled.” And he got in his car and drove away.
    As I followed the faded blue blur of the Subaru down our street anddisappearing over the crest of the hill, I thought about what Jacob had said—“just like Grandma…”
    Although she’d been gone a few years, I knew he meant Jeannette, Geoffrey’s mother. She’d had what Geoffrey had loosely termed “mental problems.” But never properly diagnosed, the poor woman had been shifted from one treatment center to the next until she’d finally ended up in a nursing home where she was sedated around the clock in the years before her death. Jeannette had never taken the role of a real mother in Geoffrey’s life. It was her parents, the Madisons, who had raised Geoffrey after