Midge calls after me, throwing her hands up in the air. “I had tacos planned for dinner!”
“I’m sure they’ll get eaten.” Ire coursing through my blood, I push through the door.
The moment fresh air hits my face, tears well in my eyes, and the sidewalk blurs behind the watery shield. It isn’t the first time my mother has come looking for a handout. A few months back, she managed to scam fifty bucks from Aunt Midge, leaving us short for the electricity bill, and the time before that, it was the wedding ring Uncle Hal gave her. Granted, it didn’t mean much to my aunt, but we certainly could’ve used the cash my mother undoubtedly hocked for it. Maybe it’s because I’ve never had a sibling that I can’t seem to understand my aunt’s sympathy toward her. I can’t imagine loving something so much after being fucked over that many times. Just seems like, at some point, it’s not worth the trouble.
The walk to Kelsey’s is about fifteen minutes, and I can already feel the calm returning. In high school, I didn’t have many friends, except Kelsey Donovan. Like me, she always had a sincere love for music, which is how we first met. I had earbuds in, with Arctic Monkeys blasting at full volume, when she first strolled up to ask what I was listening to. From then on, a friendship blossomed. Only, unlike me, she was a hell of a lot more popular with the other kids at school. Even after the whole incident with Aeden and Brady. In fact, as odd as it was, when the rest of the school shunned me, Kelsey and I grew closer.
Which probably saved me in the end.
It’s something I hate thinking about, but sometimes, when I look in the mirror, it sneaks up on me. Especially when I see the cuts, the evidence of how much that night messed with my head.
Always reminding me that I will never be like them. I’ll never belong.
Which is exactly why I took the job at the Blackthornes. The minute I have enough to ditch this island, I’m out of here.
The obnoxious blare of a horn interrupts my thoughts, and I jump back as a car speeds past. I recognize the Jeep as belonging to some of Brady’s old football buddies. Likely home on summer break from college.
It’s been months since I’ve had to deal with their torment, and I dreaded the thought of running into them--him--over the summer.
“Fucking psycho!” one of the boys shouts, and something knocks me in the head, spilling liquid down onto my new shirt.
Exhaling a gasp, I stare down at myself, where dark splashes of Coke dot my white shirt, the red can lying on the ground in a dark pool of bubbly soda.
“Touchdown!” they shout over the squeal of tires as they take off down the road.
A sob tugs at my chest, but I swallow it back. I prod the throbbing ache at my temple where the can hit, and more tears sting the rims of my eyes. “Fuck you,” I whisper, and keep on to Kelsey’s.
“That’s not coming out.”
Mrs. Donovan holds up my stained shirt, as I sit on Kelsey’s bed in one of her T-shirts. My best friend lies cuddled up to me, her arm stretched across my stomach. For the last hour, she’s tried to comfort me, after I showed up to her house distraught and teary-eyed.
“Such a shame, too,” she continues. “This is an Ulla Johnson.”
“I don’t know what that means.” I slide my gaze to Kelsey, who shakes her head, rolling her eyes.
“My mom’s planning a trip to New York next weekend,” she says, pushing up to sit beside me. “She’s trying to up her fashion game by memorizing all the designers.”
“One doesn’t venture to the fashion capital of the country looking like she came from a fishing town.”
Shaking her head, Kelsey sighs. “But you did mom.”
“Anyway, how the hell did you afford this, Isa? This shirt probably cost about three-hundred. Easy.”
Nausea twists in my stomach, and I cup my face in my palms. “Three hundred? Are you serious?” Bending forward, I clutch my gut, while the threat of puke tickles the back of my throat. “Shit.”
“Izzy is working for the Blackthornes.” Kelsey strokes my back, while I sit with my head between my knees, trying to calm my breathing. “They bought her an entire wardrobe.”
“You’re kidding me.” Wearing a frown, her mother sets the shirt down on the bed. “Aunt Midge let you