“Kendall,” he said again. “I just want you to know I–”
Amanda barged in the room, her eyes watery and urgent.
“Levi,” she said breathlessly. “She’s at the door. Mom is at the door.”
Levi looked into my eyes, and his own spoke of things that couldn’t be said in the moment. He smiled at me gently before getting up and helping me get off the bed too. I locked eyes with Amanda, and I saw her gaze fill with jealousy when she saw the necklace around my neck. I felt smug, proud that Levi had chosen me. I reveled in her jealousy, and I didn’t even feel guilty. It was about time I got something she couldn’t have.
We walked out into the living room and that was when I heard the banging. Someone was tearing the place down, slamming their fist on the front door.
I looked at Levi, his expression darkening as he sighed and rubbed his eyes.
“I’ll deal with this,” he said, but Amanda stood in front of him and gave him a rough look.
I’d seen her look like that before, but now was the first time I wondered what my sister had gone through with Mom when I wasn’t looking.
It was true they’d always been closer than I had with our mother, but at what cost? I still didn’t know what their relationship really entailed, just that Mom seemed to prefer my sister. But now I was worried, not just that she would take us away from Levi, but that she would take it out on Mandy too. My sister didn’t look scared, though. She looked determined.
She walked up to the door with Levi and me following closely behind. Levi helped her unlock the door, and just as she was about to open it, he stood in front of her.
“Mandy,” he said simply. “Let me deal with this. You shouldn’t have to.”
“I want to,” she said, her mouth set in a thin line. “It’s time.”
He stepped aside reluctantly as she opened up the door.
Mom stormed inside the apartment in a fury, her eyes blazing and her mouth shouting obscenities that were so slurred I could barely understand her.
“You fucking bitch,” she snarled at Amanda. “How could you do this to me? How fucking could you? Our plan, our fucking plan!”
She tried to attack Amanda, and Levi stepped between them, with my sister glaring at our mother. She didn’t even seem to notice me, and I shrank back, pretending I was a wallflower and not wanting to have anything to do with the mess playing out in front of me.
“Mom, it’s over,” Mandy said simply. “I’m done, done with you fucking using me.”
“Using you?” Mom cried out. “Shut the fuck up, Amanda, you were perfectly willing.”
I glanced at my sister, seeing her eyes fill with tears.
“Fuck you,” she said, and I gasped softly.
Levi stood between them awkwardly, glancing from one to the other, unsure of what to do. But I knew this face-off had to happen. It was time to end our relationship with Mom. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but over the past few years it had deteriorated into a mess of feeling guilty and dependent on her, and her using us any way she possibly could. I was the lucky one – she barely noticed me, but with Amanda, it was different.
“I’m done,” my sister said. “Done playing your sick fucking games.”
“Oh no, you’re not,” Mom snarled. “You’re coming back with me right now.”
It hurt that she didn’t even notice me, and I felt tears pricking at my eyes. She didn’t even give a shit about me, did she? All she cared about was Amanda.
“She’s eighteen,” Levi cut in. “She can do what she wants, and I’m prepared to take care of them both.”
“Yeah, you have enough money, don’t you Levi?” Mom snarled at him. “What about me? Who’s going to take care of me, Levi?”
He stared at her stoically and she returned her attention to Amanda, glaring at her with all the pent-up anger she’d worked up over the years.
“You need to get the fuck out,” Levi told her, but she ignored him.
“All I did for you,” she told my sister. “All those clothes, the hairdresser, all the fucking things I bought you. For what?”
“For what?” Amanda asked quietly. “Do I have to answer that, Mom?”
Mom glared at her.
“Was it so you could offer me up as a prize?” Amanda asked softly. “So you could offer your fucking conquests your daughter and profit off of me? Oh yes, you were taken, but had they met your daughter? Amanda, beautiful, young Amanda, so innocent, or at least that’s what you toldthem, didn’t you, Mom? Couldn’t exactly tell them you’d been whoring me off since I was sixteen.”
My hand flew up and I covered my mouth, feeling like I was watching a play.