the middle ≫ jj maybank

xxi. the family

"So, I hear you're hanging out with Sarah Cameron," Vic asked.

The Shoupe-Cambry family was seated around the kitchen table, eating dinner, and Vic had just gotten done telling a long-winded story about his latest arrest out of the Cut. Now that he'd finished his story, he'd turned his attention to Slater, who he was finding to be way too quiet as of late.

Like she had something to hide.

"Yeah," Slater said, nodding.

"I didn't know you two were friends."

"We weren't. But, well, we started talking at Midsummers, actually. She's really nice."

Vic nodded. "Her parents are good people."

Slater forced a smile. "Yeah."

She knew what he really meant -- Ward and Rose were good people, but the pogues' families -- mainly Luke Maybank, she supposed -- weren't.

Slater agreed that Luke Maybank was a piece of shit -- she'd seen the way he took his anger out on JJ. But she couldn't stand the way her father looked down on the pogues. It made her sick.

"Since when are you such good friends with Ward Cameron?" Slater asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Vic replied with a frown.

Slater shrugged as she thought back to what Rafe said, about how his dad just wanted to be close to the police. Ward was Sarah's dad, and he'd taken John B in, seemingly out of the goodness of his heart, but she still couldn't help but not trust him.

He'd fathered Rafe, after all.

"I don't know. Y'all have known each other forever, and all of a sudden you're friends? It's weird," she said.

"The same could be said about you and Sarah," Vic replied.

"Sarah goes to the private school, Dad. We've literally never hung out in the same circles."

"Well, I'm glad you're hanging out now. It's much better than that pogue company you used to keep," he said.

Slater frowned. "You do realize Ward is John B Routledge's legal guardian now, right?"

Vic nodded. "Yes, it's a good thing for the boy. Straighten him out a bit. He should spend more time with Sarah's friends, and less time with that Maybank boy."

Slater caught her sister's eye, and Maeve stifled a laugh by shoving a dinner roll into her mouth. Oh, if only Victor Shoupe had known just what "that Maybank boy" and his step daughter had done under his own roof.

"Isn't it true that Ward and Rose kicked Rafe out of the house?" Maeve asked.

Slater turned to her sister in shock. Ward had kicked Rafe out? She knew that their father-son relationship was quite strained, and that Rafe had never quite lived up to the legacy that Ward wanted. That had created the initial strain, and she was fairly certain that never meeting his father's expectations had fucked Rafe up so bad that he'd turned to booze and drugs as a mean of self-comfort.

Still, she'd never imagined he'd kick his own son out of the house.

Vic cleared his throat. "That's not our business to discuss, Maeve."

Maeve shrugged. "Well, I heard about it, so I wanted to see if it was true. Guess it is, if you won't talk about it."

"Probably because of the drugs," Slater muttered, stabbing at a piece of broccoli on her plate.