The Rivals - Dylan Allen Page 0,184

thing that saved me. You were born at sunrise. And I swear, Kal, a beam came right in the window and kissed your lips. You opened your little mouth like you were trying to swallow it. Remember, that you are nobody’s victim. You’ve already survived a lot. Including having a shitty mother.”

“You’re not.”

“I was. I’ve been scared straight. But if I had been smart, I would have looked at you and seen a future. Instead, I was looking over my shoulder at a past I couldn’t change and making a mess of both our lives in the process.”

Her eyes well with tears and her lips press together.

“It wasn’t that bad… But I don’t miss the way we lived. I like having a stable place that’s ours.”

She gives me a sad smile. “I’ll make sure we never live that way again. I didn’t grow up with someone who loved me more than they loved anything else. But, I hope, that no matter how misguided my decisions were, you know that I love you more than anything else.”

“I know,” I whisper.

“You’re going to make it.” Her brows knit together in a fierce scowl that makes me smile.

“Keep telling me that with that look on your face, I’ll believe it. Thank you for bringing me here. It feels like a real second chance. And I know it’s only been a month. But… Remi’s special. He gets me. He never judges me and I’m falling for him.” I sigh dreamily at the ceiling.

“He’s a good kid. And tonight, you’ll get to dazzle his family the way you’ve dazzled him.” She taps my nose with our still joined fist and smiles brightly.

“Come on. We’ve got to do something with that hair. Let’s get you ready for your coming out, sweetie. Tonight, we make our triumphant return to Wilde House as guests.”

My stomach gives an odd turn. I grab her arm and pull her back to the bed. “I don’t want that. Let’s just go and do whatever most people do at a ball and leave out of the same door we came in. That would make it feel like a success.”

“Oh, baby. It’s going to be incredible. Maybe you’ll meet some of the young people you’ll be going to school with in the fall. Just in time for senior year.” She shimmies her shoulders excitedly.

I smile and don’t tell her I’ve met plenty of them at Sweet & Lo’s and that I wouldn’t mind if I never saw half of them again.

“Okay, so show me those dresses.” I point at the bags at the foot of my bed and her smile gets about one hundred watts brighter.

“Thought you’d never ask.”

“Have you ever seen anything more enchanting?” My mother grabs my elbow and leans into me to whisper in my ear. “I’d forgotten how beautiful this house is.”

“It is.” I realize I haven’t seen the inside of Remi’s house since that night, either. And then, I barely saw any of it.

I guess I’m not really seeing it now either, though. It’s decorated with in an inch of its life. It’s an enchanted garden come to life.

Walls of flowers divide the room into sections. Each one color themed, with its own bar and seating area. The huge room is lit by thousands of white fairy lights that are woven into the huge swaths of fabric that form a canopy over the dance floor.

The party’s in full swing, a live band complete with three dancers belts out Prince’s “Kiss” and the revelers are dancing and blowing kisses in time with the music. It has the feel of something out of a fairy tale, but I can’t shake the feeling that something sinister is lurking in the darkened corners.

Maybe it’s just PTSD from the last time I was in this house. Whatever it is, it makes my stomach feel like it’s home to a flock of agitated birds.

“Come on, let’s go find the food,” she whispers and starts to lead us around the edge of the dance floor. I try to shake the feeling of foreboding and I tug us to the left, so we cut right through the mass of revelers. I feel safer lost in the crowd somehow.

“Why didn’t we just go around?” she asks when we come out on the other side.

I shake my hips and wink. “Because I love that song. Seemed like a waste of a dance, to walk around,” I lie.

“Ah, to be young. My feet are killing me now.”

“Oh, mine too. These