a busting headache. I’ll be right back.” I needed to take something before it got worse. From down the hall, I heard them continuing to talk, but they were a touch quieter.
Since we’d begun dating, for obvious reasons, Shane felt much more comfortable talking to my mom than he did with my dad, even though he’d known him most of his life. Somewhere around the time Shane went through puberty, his relationship with my father had changed. Not in a bad way, in an “I’m watching you, Lair, so don’t fuck up” way.
After popping two pain relief capsules, I headed back toward the kitchen as Shane said, “Liv keeps it all in, refusing to tell me details,” and I stopped at the corner to eavesdrop a bit.
“We’ve all had a Molly to deal with in life,” Mom replied. “Liv knows the best way to handle that girl is to ignore her.”
“It’s hard for me to watch, though.”
A pause came before my mother said, “Shane, Liv knows you want to protect her and make it go away. But take it from me, by doing so you can inadvertently hurt her. Look what happened when you tried to reason with Molly. The best thing to do is support Liv. You guys have a few weeks left, and then you never have to see her again.”
“I’m not so sure it will miraculously stop after graduation.”
“She’ll get bored… and mature,” Mom countered. “Girls usually realize at some point their behavior was childish. Once Molly gets to college and is now the small fish in a big pond, her priorities will shift. You’ll see.”
A long stretch of silence came before he said, “I hope so.”
When their conversation flipped to my mother asking Shane to stay for dinner, I appeared. Sensing my tension, she casually said, “Your father won’t be home until seven. Why don’t you kids go study until then.” Not needing further encouragement than that, Shane snatched a few more cookies on a napkin, grabbed our bags by the door, and headed for my room even before I moved a muscle.
“You heard us?” Mom asked.
“Yeah.”
“He is just concerned. You don’t have to hide anything from him, Liv,” she whispered.
“I don’t trust that he won’t flip out and confront her again.” I told my mom everything, but I wouldn’t tell her what Molly had said today. It would hurt Mom as much as it had hurt me. And except for the Molly shit, Shane was the only other person who knew me as well as Mom did. “Who knows what she’d lie about next time. It could be more than just a kiss. She could claim he forced himself on her.”
“I know, sweetie.” Mom nodded. “Then tell him enough that he’ll stop worrying about you.”
“Liv… bring me a Snapple, please,” Shane called out from my room.
My mother moved to grab a bottle for him, placed it in my hand, and said, “Go.”
With his and my drink in hand, I did as she asked and found Shane lounging on my bed. I almost laughed at the difference in him when my dad wasn’t around. Mom was always cooler than Dad at giving us privacy.
So much so he smirked when I kicked the door shut. “I know how to relax you.”
I shook my head. “It’s not happening.” I put our drinks down on the end table as disappointment caused that smirk to fall off his face.
“Don’t you want to be adventurous?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“Now I have to deal with you cockblocking me too?” The pout and his question caused me to laugh, and I loved him more for the brief distraction. Jumping on the shift in my mood, he reached for me until I fell over him. “There’s my girl. I haven’t seen that smile since yesterday after I ate your pussy.” He untucked my white polo from the waistband of my khakis and slipped his hands under it. “How about a finger fuck?”
“Shane.” I shoved at his chest.
“What? I’m just trying to help.” We lay entwined for a few minutes before he cut right to the chase. “Tell me what happened today?” The way he twisted an errant curl around his finger reminded me of the hurtful things I’d heard about my appearance… and that led to the hateful thing Molly had said in chemistry.
My emotions got the best of me, and like an idiot I asked, “What do you see in me?”
He released the strand and scowled. “What the fuck are you talking about,