Kiss and Break Up - Ella Fields Page 0,93

different kind of distraction.

“Hey, what’s up?” Mom asked.

Laughter rang sharp in the background. Familiar laughter.

“Where are you?”

She scoffed. “At a friend’s. Why?”

I shook my head, jumping up off the bed to check my purse. I only had a twenty, which wouldn’t be enough. “Daphne wants to go to the movies.”

Mom laughed at something someone said. “Sure, just be home by nine.”

I frowned, pulling the phone away from my ear and checking I’d indeed called my mom and not someone else. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, I’m kind of busy, ’kay? I’ll see you later.”

“Wait,” I rushed out. “I need some money.”

She sighed. “I won’t be home for a while, so you’ll have to come and get the card.”

Dad gave us a credit card to use, but Mom tried to avoid using it, not wanting to take too much from him when they weren’t even married anymore. She knew giving it to me would be a bad idea, but she did let me borrow it when I needed something and she was strapped for cash.

I grabbed my keys and purse, quickly giving myself a once-over in the mirror before nodding. “Okay. Where are you? Phil’s?”

“No, I’m at May’s.” She hung up, and once again, I stared at my phone.

“May’s.” I mouthed the word over and over, unable to make sense of it as I drove to Dash’s.

And damn it, he’d been online, which meant he was probably home. Which meant I’d need to sneak in, grab the card, and bail.

I called Daphne on the way over, and we went over the movie times, deciding on one in an hour.

“And tacos,” she said before hanging up. “I need some freaking tacos.”

I agreed, then hit end call on the steering wheel before driving through the looming opened gates.

Mom’s secondhand car looked like an alien perched between two super models as its faded blue paint glimmered in the afternoon sun between Dash’s Rover and May’s Mercedes.

I moved up the curved stairway to the heavy oak doors and pushed one open. I didn’t want to ring the doorbell and alert everyone to my presence. It was better if I just grabbed the card and made a run for it. Not to mention, I was supposed to be grounded. Whatever Mom was doing here had her forgetting about that.

I slipped off my boots. The house was huge, but I wouldn’t put it past Dash to hear their thud on the expensive wooden floors. Tiptoeing down the hall, I stopped and caught myself. I was acting insane. Completely stupid. Who cares if he saw me? I’d just leave anyway, like I’d planned to. I did have plans.

Squaring my shoulders, I wound down the ever-winding hall until I heard the sound of laughter in the family room closest to the kitchen.

I halted in the arched entry, trying to make sense of what I saw before me.

Mom and May were sitting together, side by side, a champagne bottle open on the glass coffee table and a bunch of photographs between them on the maroon chaise.

“He looks dashing,” Mom said, holding a picture up to better survey it.

May laughed. “Oh, you used to always say that, thinking you were so damn funny.”

“I am funny,” Mom retorted, taking a sip of her champagne.

“Keep telling yourself that.” May pursed her lips, flicking through a stack of what looked to be pictures of me and Dash from homecoming, judging by the flashes of bubblegum I glimpsed that matched my dress. My ruined dress.

I swallowed, then made my presence known by clearing my throat. “Uh, hi.”

They glanced over, and May smiled. A real smile. Teeth and everything.

God. What was happening?

“Darling, come in. Look at these,” she cooed, gesturing for me to join them by patting the empty space next to her.

I shifted closer but remained standing. “Oh wow,” I forced out, staring at the photo of Dash and me. He was smiling against my head, and I was ducking mine, smiling at the ground. Before I knew what I was doing, I’d taken the photo, holding it close as my heart beat faltered.

We looked happy. Even when we were anything but. As if it were natural for us to find comfort among one another while the world continued to shift beneath our feet.

My eyes welled. A tremor flitted through my hand as I gave the photo back.

May waved me off, taking a sip from her flute. “Keep it. I’ve printed dozens.”

Of course, she had.

I smiled in thanks, then cleared my throat again, trying to rid it of emotion