Charlotte writes something on a piece of paper.
“I wasn’t thinking. I want her to know I love her and I was trying to look out for her.”
She holds up the paper that she was writing on for me to see and shakes it to make her point. He called me a slut!!!
“You were trying to control her,” I tell him, then add, “and you called her a slut.”
Charlotte overexaggerates her nod to let me know she likes that I worked that in for her.
“Well, she was upstairs with a guy she just met . . .”
Charlotte and I are both wide eyed. Oh, I am so ready to fight.
“But,” he continues, “I know I had no right to say that, especially not with how I act. I realize it makes me a hypocrite, but man, did seeing that piss me off.”
Charlotte’s furiously scribbling on the paper and I read her main points as she writes.
“Marcus wasn’t random, he’s friends with Jake and she’s known him for years. And even if he wasn’t, that’s none of your business. Plus, whatever she did or didn’t do with him isn’t any of our business. And you’re right. You were literally with a girl you barely knew that same night and no one called you a slut.”
Charlotte all but throws the pen down. This would be so much easier if she would just talk to him instead of pretending I’m not with her right now.
“I know, I know. I just wish I could talk to her and tell her—”
“Hey, Char! Your brother let me in.” Annalisa’s voice is loud and crystal clear as she walks into the room. “What the hell happened with Chase last night?!”
“Gottagobye!” I yell into the phone in a single breath and end the call as quickly as possible.
Charlotte and I shoot Annalisa a pointed look and she pauses. “What?”
For some reason I feel like laughing. This is what normal teenage girls do, right? Worry about boy drama and help their friends through it? Out of all my problems—Luke, Andrew Kessler, my mom’s affair, Tony—this one’s the one that doesn’t even affect me directly, but it’s the one I’m most glad to help out with. If only mediating phone calls between fighting friends was my biggest problem. But then I stare at Annalisa, really stare at her, and it all comes back to me. She’s Tony’s daughter. She doesn’t look like him, does she?
Charlotte fills Annalisa in on the events of last night, but the whole time I’m just struck by the thought that this is the first time I’m seeing Annalisa since the revelation of who her father is. It was just yesterday that Luke spun my whole world around with this information, and I haven’t really had time to process how I feel about it. Annalisa is my friend; she’s nothing like the man who has kidnapped me, stabbed me, thrown me down the stairs, and killed the people around me.
But she is his daughter. Could she really be like him?
I look at Annalisa like I’ve been given a new pair of glasses and now have a different view of the world. Sure, she’s more aggressive than me or Charlotte, but she’s not violent, and she’s definitely not a psychopath.
“Earth to Amelia?” Annalisa waves her hand back and forth in front of my face to get my attention.
I shake my head to clear my thoughts.
This is Annalisa we’re talking about.
Annalisa.
She’s been my friend practically since day one. She’s always had my back and she’s never done anything to hurt me. Aiden is right; he’s nothing like his crazy dad and he actually grew up with him for some time. And after that, he was left with Greg as his guardian, and he’s nothing like him either.
Annalisa has never even met her psychopathic father, Tony, so not only is she free from his corruption, but he was basically just her sperm donor. Annalisa is her own person and just because she might be biologically related to the man ruining my life, it doesn’t mean she’s anything like him. Annalisa has a good soul and she is a good person, and I know that no matter what, she’ll have my back.
“Sorry, what were you saying?” I turn my attention back to Annalisa and try not to picture any resemblances she may have to Tony. As far as I can tell, she looks nothing like him, thank goodness.
“I was just saying how I talked to Luke yesterday.”
That really gets my attention. Aiden and I were just with Luke yesterday. Did she see us? Did Luke tell her about our visit? Did he already tell her about Tony?
I try to school my expression to one of interest and not absolute panic. “Oh really? When did you go see him?”
“No, he called yesterday. We were trying to figure out a different angle of where he could have been that night. He suggested we try checking all the bars that he used to go to before he got sober. He thought that would be a good lead.”
She’s not looking at me with suspicion or asking why I went to see her brother without her. Either Luke didn’t mention our visit, which I hope is what happened since he didn’t want her to know about her father yet, or she’s just a very good liar. I remember what Aiden said, about us trying to find information on our own to protect me, and feel guilty.
“Do you want us to come with you to check them out?”
She waves me off. “No, I already went to some last night and didn’t find anything.”
Charlotte wraps her arms around Annalisa reassuringly. “We’ll find something, Anna. You’ll get him back in your life.”
And if she does, she might get another man in her life as well. One that she’s completely better off without.