“We’repastrational.”
“I didn’tdrinkanything.” Liv protested, biting down on her trembling lower lip. She would know what this meant to Bryce; it wasn’t just about her being underage, but about their mother and all the ways they’d watched her be reckless with drink and drugs. After her own troubled adolescence with much the same problem, Thea knew that Bryce’s greatest fear was Liv turning out the same way.
And Liv had done the one thing that would upset Bryce,breakher, more than anything else.
“And I’m supposed to believe that?” Bryce questioned, upper lip curling in disgust.
“Yes!”Liv’s voice strained as though she was on the brink of tears.
“It’s true, Bryce,” said the blonde-haired girl still cowering in Liv’s double bed.“Weall had some, but Liv wouldn’t.”
“Who bought them?”
They all glanced at one another then as if cursing themselves for not getting their story straight beforehand.
“Who. Bought. Them?” Bryce repeated, voice low and deadly as she glared at each of them in turn.
“Finn brought them.” Liv scraped a hand across her tired face, resigned to her grim fate. “He said he’d snuck them out of his dad’s fridge.”
“Who the fuck is Finn?”
“Just a friend. He came by for a little while.”
“Did he?” Bryce cocked her head, jaw clenching. “And how many otherfriendscame around tonight to trash my living room?”
Thea had no idea what to do, how to make this better. She could only stand, helpless, while Liv submitted to the onslaught.
“We weregoingto clean it up,” Liv said. “But we… we fell asleep.”
“Answer the question.”
“Bryce,” Thea pleaded again, softly. “Let’s talk about this properly. She won’t answer if you’re barking at her.”
She regretted her words immediately. Bryce whirled around, and the daggers that had been flying toward Liv now embedded themselves in Thea’s flesh. “This hasnothingto do with you.”
“I just think —”
“I don’tcarewhat you think. You’re not a parent.”
“Neither are you!”accused Liv, stealing Bryce’s attention again. “You’re mysister.”
Bryce recoiled, and Thea with her. “A sister who’s raised you when your own parents couldn’t be bothered to! And this is what I get for it, is it? Parties and alcohol and a trashed house?”
“You’ve been drinking, too!”
“I’m twenty-six years old!” Bryce’s face turned beetroot red, her scream loud enough to wake the neighbors. “I asked you if I could trust you forone night,Olivia!One nightwhere I didn’t have to worry.One nightwhere I could have fun for myself. And you couldn’t even let me have that.”
Thea heard shuffling behind her, and turned to find the others who had been sleeping on the couch craning their necks to watch the show.
She flashed them a warning look. “Go clean up the living room.”
They did, scurrying off as though their lives depended on it.
“Well, maybeIwanted that, too,” Liv countered, crossing her arms over her chest. “MaybeIwanted to be a normal teenager for one night, without my overbearing sister to boss me around.”
Bryce pursed her lips, nostrils flaring and fists clenching, and Thea knew the words had cut deeply. All of the effort she made, day in, day out; all of the things she’d sacrificed… she no longer got to be the fun, loving sister any teenage girl would have dreamed of. That privilege had been stripped from her long ago. She had to be a parent, the one who bossed Liv around until she wound up resenting her. Bryce didn’t deserve it, and Thea felt the wound as though it was her own.
“Well, I hope you had fun.” There was no anger in Bryce’s voice now. There was nothing at all, and somehow, that was worse. Her words left an icy draft wafting through the room. “It’ll be the only night you get.”