“That photo is all over town? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to worry about it,” I say.
“Oh, Josie.”
“Anyway, Adrian’s the one who did this, probably to get back at Evie because she broke up with him again. And …”
And to get back at me.
This is his crowbar through our window.
I didn’t cover my tracks well enough—when I caught him in Evie’s bed, and I slipped up, talking about throwing the rock.
He knows it wasn’t Lucky.
“I can’t believe it,” Mom says, a stunned look on her face as she stands at the counter, taking off her glasses to wipe them on her shirt. “All these years, and those stupid photos are finally coming back to haunt me now. Unbelievable. I’ll tell you who I should sue, and it’s not the Summers family. I should sue Henry Zabka.”
Umm … “Excuse me?”
“They’re his photos. I should sue him for releasing them without my permission. I never signed anything that said he could.”
Now I’m confused. “You never signed a release?”
“Nope.”
“But weren’t they for class or whatever?”
“It was a private session on campus, but after he showed them in class as examples, I later found out that no current students are allowed to model, and definitely no one under twenty-one. He pretended to be ignorant about it, like it was an honest mistake. But he knew all along what he was doing. I wouldn’t be surprised if he distributed the photos online somewhere.”
“Whoa,” I say. “Let’s not go flinging accusations. You don’t know how Adrian got this photo. Maybe Henry donated them to the school?”
“Without my permission?
Yikes. Yeah, even I know that’s not legit. “I’m sure it’s just a mix-up. Maybe they were stolen—off the cloud, or something? That happens all the time.”
“You’re defending him?”
“Someone has to,” I say. “Everyone is always attacking him, and no one here knows him. Maybe give him the benefit of the doubt, okay? He’s a family man now. Why would he suddenly release nude photos of you for revenge?”
She chuckles darkly. “A family man. Oh, you know him so well, do you? Those yearly phone calls that last for all of five minutes? Because he can’t be bothered to come visit you anymore. The last time he saw you in person was for half an hour at Thirtieth Street Station in Philadelphia two years ago when he was waiting for a train. You were fifteen.”
“He’s busy! And we text.”
“Oh really?”
“I send him photos to show him what I’ve been working on.”
“And he comments on those photos?”
“He did once … a few months ago.” He told me to work on my negative space.
“That’s what I thought,” she says, sneering. “He’s a rat, and I’m going to sue him.”
This is ridiculous! Why is she going after my father when Adrian is clearly the enemy here? He’s the bad guy.
Something rises up in my chest, and I think of the invisible wall between me and Lucky. And how Lucky said there’s one between me and Mom, too. Maybe I have more control over it than I thought.
After all, communication doesn’t run one way.
“You want to know the truth?” I ask her in a low voice, feeling the need to divulge bubble up inside me, dark and angry and wanting to be free. “The absolute shocking truth?”
“Babe,” she says in a tight voice, “my naked body is out on the door of my mother’s bookshop for all of Beauty to see. Nothing you can say to me will shock me right now.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“Okay …” I warn her one last time.
She puts her glasses back on angrily. “Just say it, Josie.”
“Fine! I don’t want to move to Florida with you. I’ve been planning to go live with Henry in Los Angeles when I graduate.”
Mom stills. Then she inhales sharply through her nostrils. Like I’ve slugged her in the gut.
“Look,” I tell her, “I think it’s clear that something is broken between us, because you don’t talk to me about anything. The last few years have been hard, and I can’t handle moving around the country with you anymore. I don’t even know if you’ll end up in Florida at this point, and I need stability. On top of that, it’s not fair that you kept me away from an entire side of my family. That’s so selfish, Mom. He’s an award-winning photographer. I could be learning things from him. I could have grandparents who aren’t running around Nepal. I could have a normal life in Los Angeles! And … and