not good enough.”
“Because I couldn’t give a flying monkey’s dick what people think of me.”
“Yeah,” she said, following up with a nod. “Well, not everyone is like you. I do care.” She stopped, tapping a finger at her heaving chest. “I care. I wanted to date. I wanted to experience what most other girls my age already have. But you had to be your typical controlling, selfish asshole self, leaving me to think that I’m not good enough …” She shook her head, swiping at a tear that’d raced down her cheek. “Just go home.”
A thousand cutting insults sat on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them, felt them slice deep, and stalked back through the house.
For untold minutes, I sat in my car and stared at a patch of their yard illuminated by their back porch light.
Once home, I parked behind Dad’s BMW and stayed there a moment, staring at it as I tried to shake off the bullshit that’d transpired. She’d be fine and hopefully back to her usual self by tomorrow.
A tapping on my window startled me, and I jerked out of my daze to find Dad’s face there. He gestured for me to put down the window. “You getting out of that thing? Because if you are, move it over first. I have a late dinner meeting.”
I turned the car on, shifted into reverse, and moved it behind Mom’s car.
“What’s eating you, boy?” Dad asked, leaning against his car and swinging his keys around his finger.
The familiar act made me cringe. Did I really take after him that much? As one of the best attorneys in the state, he was a dick, but every now and then, he’d make time to check on me if he was home.
“Nothing. Maybe that’s the problem.”
He chuckled, then smoothed a hand over the blond and gray hair atop his head. He’d recently turned fifty, though he looked at least ten years younger. “Your mother’s in a state, so I’d steer clear.”
“What’d you do this time?”
“Whatever the hell I want, as usual.” He opened the car door, winking at me as he slid inside the sleek interior. “Don’t buy yourself a wife, kid. Most are non-refundable.”
It was something he’d said to me countless times, and my response was always the same. “Noted.”
I walked inside to the sound of crashing and followed it down the hall to the kitchen.
In a sparkling golden gown, Mom sat on the floor, cutlery and broken plates decorating the tiles around her. Mascara blackened her cheeks, and even though I stood there for a solid minute, not once did she take notice of my presence.
Her problems were always too big.
And as I had enough of my own, I had no room to care about hers. Not that I ever did.
Peggy
I spread my sheets out before me on the dining table, but none of them were calling to me.
“Try the purple birds,” Willa said, opening her small traveling kit. “Paired with some white and the picture from the party, and the effect will be stunning.”
She was right. I pulled the purple sheet close to me and plucked up one of the pictures Willa had printed.
I hadn’t told them about my fight with Dash. I wasn’t sure why, but every time I tried, it felt like a betrayal. He was my best friend but so were Willa and Daphne. And though I’d easily talked about Dash with them before, this felt different. Big and far too scarily personal.
“Back to the important matter here,” Daphne said, squirting a dollop of glitter glue onto her page and grabbing a small brush. “He kissed you, and you clearly survived. So what was it like?”
“You’re so funny.” I rolled my eyes. “And it was, I don’t know, pretty nice?”
Willa snorted. “Butterflies? Toe curling? We need more than just nice.”
“There were flutters, yes.” I spread some glue onto the page, then fixed the photo onto it. “He’s a good kisser.” I wasn’t lying. I’d replayed the kiss over and over. It was a decent first kiss, if not a little too much. I couldn’t exactly be the judge of that, though.
“How did you know what to do?” Willa asked, not unkindly.
“It’s not exactly rocket science. You let them take the lead until you’re comfortable.”
I looked at Daphne, wishing I’d had some of her confidence. Maybe then I wouldn’t have felt inclined to kiss my best friend for practice. “You’ve done it, right?”
“It?” Willa asked.
I tried not to blush. “You know …”
Daphne narrowed