Their mother nodded forcefully. "Yes. But you know your dad. This is just so out of character for him. It has to be what he says. And I agree, it was poor judgment on his part to let her stay, to––I don't know––try and be understanding, I guess. He should have put a stop to it immediately. I told him with all these accusations of molestation these days, you just can't. Even if you're trying to be kind." Their mother's voice broke and she started to cry, but neither Steve nor Carrie felt inclined to step forward and comfort her.
"I don't want her in this house ever again," Carrie hissed.
"No. We're done," Steve said quietly.
21
Serene - June 1996
“No. I'm putting my foot down about this. Kanani's not welcome here. Not after the trouble she's caused. Not when she's probably still using ice.” Aarav's narrow features screwed up tight in anger. He had to look up when he talked to Serene, who was several inches taller than him.
“It was a one-time thing!” Serene screamed back at her stepfather.
“It's never a one-time thing,” he hissed.
“So, it's okay for Ramani to smoke all the fucking pot she wants. That's not a problem?”
“To be fair,” Darpan interrupted, “marijuana and methamphetamine are two very different drugs.”
“Shut the fuck up, Darpan!” Serene whipped around, her rage so hot she felt that she might just exhale fire. “You stupid fucking haole!”
“Watch your language,” Aarav yelled, stepping so close to her that he now screamed in her face.
“Whoa, whoa,” Darpan made patting motions with his hands. “Let's all calm down. We can talk. We don't need to scream at each other.”
“Shut up! Just shut up!” Serene wanted to put her hands around his long thin neck and squeeze.
“You need to go to your room until you can calm down,” Aarav ordered.
“You're going to stand up for him?”
“Yes. You're out of control.”
“And you're not? Are you really in control, Aarav, or is it just an illusion?” Serene gestured upstairs and watched her stepfather's face redden.
“You need to go to your room now. Right now.”
Serene stomped away, feeling childish and silly. She was too old for such tantrums, too big to be stomping around. She went into her room and slammed the door, despite recognizing her own immaturity. Ramani wasn't home. Ramani wasn't there to settle how things would shake out, because it always came down to Ramani. She always had the final say about everything.
Their explosive argument, like the kind of spitting mad fights Serene used to have with Aarav, was the first in a long time. Like warring countries that suddenly had a more formidable enemy to contend with, she and Aarav had formed a tepid alliance out of necessity since Darpan's arrival. Ramani was the superpower in the household, but Darpan was gaining more control over how that superpower handled their lives.
Serene was steaming. She felt betrayed that Aarav would take Darpan's side, even if she had been verbally trashing him.
Before the meltdown with Aarav, Kanani had called to tell Serene she had, unbelievably, won tickets to Disneyland from a radio show. All expenses paid for five days for herself and a friend. Kanani wanted to extend her trip for several weeks. Summer had just begun.
“It's going to go down,” she'd gushed to Serene over the phone.
Half an hour later, Serene had her stupid argument with her stepdad over a one-time event, an arrest at a party Upcountry on Maui last year. A neighbour had called the police about the gathering of teens at a remote residence in the forest. At the party, Kanani decided to try a little meth for the first time, offered by a scraggly twenty-year-old. Serene had declined. When the police arrived, they were both arrested, along with several others. Serene had drunk a few beers, but she had no drugs on her––the police searched. Searched the pockets of her shorts, her sweater. Two hours later, she was released to Aarav and Kanani to her mom, who loudly berated her for three meth crystals the cops found in a little plastic bag in her pocket. Kanani had been so high and belligerent with the officers when they showed up at the party, she'd forgotten what she'd pocketed until they began to manhandle her right then and there. At the station, they'd taken her blood.
The cops’ handling of the teenagers, Ramani declared inept. Ramani put on her lawyer cap, contacted the public defender, Bob Pearce, before he'd lifted a finger to dial their number. The underage drinking charge was dropped for Serene. After all, she wasn't drunk at the time of the bust. And the police didn't find her with actual alcohol in her hands—end of story. Kanani wasn't charged either, but that was because a cousin and an uncle of hers were in the MPD. Maui police were notoriously crooked.
Aarav had expressed his concerns before about Kanani trying meth that night. He'd complained to Ramani about Serene hanging out with Kanani, but Ramani pooh-poohed his worries. And Serene gave it no more thought until now. Why was he putting his foot down all of a sudden?
“Serene's making a fresh start.” Aarav's voice was whiny and wheedling. Serene strained her ears to listen to her parents through their bedroom door. “Kanani's trouble. She's always been trouble. Why have her come here when Serene is finally making a fresh start with new friends?”
Ramani let out a throaty laugh. “What are you afraid of, Aarav?”
“For once, Serene has a chance to go to a good school, to meet kids who want to make more out of their lives than surfing and working as a gas station attendant or landscaper.”
“More out of her life?” Ramani echoed his words with disbelief. “Just who are you these days, Aarav Berman? Since when did you start caring about the status quo?”
“Dammit, Ramani! We got our education. We have a foundation.”
“A foundation?”
“This is the life we chose to live, but if push comes to shove, you
