It was times like this that Grace wished she had grown up with a sibling, someone to balance the scales a bit. It seemed a lot easier to be in trouble when you could point to someone else and say, “Wait till you hear what they did, though.” Grace thought it would be nice to not always be the only person in the house who kept screwing up.
She went downstairs, poking her head into the kitchen. “Yeah?”
“We need to talk,” her mom said. “Elaine from down the street called and said that she saw you with a boy at the shopping center?”
Grace frowned. “I didn’t realize that Elaine from down the street was running a police state.”
Grace’s dad raised an eyebrow at her. (Grace couldn’t help but think that Rafe was a much better eyebrow raiser, but she decided it wise to keep that information to herself.)
“It was Rafe,” she said instead. “He works at Whisked Away.”
Grace’s mom crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you dating him?”
“No,” Grace said. “We’re friends, that’s all.”
Grace’s parents exchanged a glance, and she once again wished for a partner in crime. Even a dog would have sufficed at that point.
“We really don’t think you should be dating right now,” her dad said. “You need some time to focus on yourself.”
“Well, good, because I’m not dating anyone,” she said. “Like I said, Rafe’s my friend.”
“Grace,” her dad said, “you have to understand. We just want to protect you. You’ve had a rough couple of months and—”
Grace could feel her temper starting to rise along the back of her spine, forcing her stand up straighter. “No, wait. Let me guess. Elaine from down the street called you because she’s worried that I’m slutting it up all over town again!” Grace’s face felt too hot, her pulse too fast. “Right?”
“Language,” her mother said.
“Oh, let’s just say what Elaine and everyone else is thinking!” Grace exploded. “I got pregnant, I had a baby, and now I can’t even look at a guy without everyone thinking I’m about to pop out three more rug rats!”
“Grace,” her dad said again. “We’re worried about you, that’s all. We—”
“Because if memory serves,” Grace continued, ignoring her dad, “the whole point of me giving up P— Milly was so that I could live my life, right? ‘Oh, Grace, you have your whole life ahead of you!’ How many times did I hear that come out of your mouths? And now everyone reminds me that I had a baby, I can’t go to school, I can’t make friends with a boy—”
“You can make friends—” her mom started to say, but Grace kept going. She felt like someone had released a steam trigger on the top of her head.
“Okay, let’s say he’s not a friend, then,” Grace said. “Let’s say that Rafe is a boy that I do like. Do I not get to date? Do I not get to kiss a boy ever again? Did I blow my big chance at falling in love and starting a family because I made one mistake?”
“Grace,” her mom said, and Grace could hear the wobble in her voice. “You did not—”
“Well, good!” Grace shouted. “Because if I can’t move forward and like someone and make friends and, God forbid, fall in love again, then I don’t understand why I gave up my baby in the first place! Unless it was only to make everything okay for you!”
She didn’t even realize she was crying until she went to move her hair off her face and realized that her cheeks were wet. Her parents looked shell-shocked, stricken. Grace suspected they would have looked less horrified if she had slapped them.
“I think we need to meet with a counselor,” Grace’s dad said after almost fifteen seconds of near silence, Grace’s breath the only sound in the room. She felt wild, feral, like she had when Peach had forced her way out of her. She felt, Grace suddenly realized, alive.
“Fine,” she said. “Make an appointment. Because I have a lot to say and I’m tired of not saying it. And,” she added, “you can tell Elaine from down the street that what I do is none of her damn business. I mean, that’s what you would have told her last year, right?”
Grace didn’t bother to wait for a response. Instead, she turned and ran back upstairs, locking herself in the bathroom and turning on the faucet as hard as it would go. She waited until she was sure no one