My mother became my sister’s “momager” from the moment she realized Ashley could carry a tune. Ash couldn’t have been older than four the first time Mom looked at her with dollar signs in her eyes. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, watching Ashley exhaust herself trying to build a career since kindergarten, it’s that being special comes at a price very few are brave enough to pay.
“Are you going to tell Mom?” Ashley stresses her bottom lip.
I pretend to think about it, when, in fact, my answer is already set in stone.
“No,” I say, and her shoulders drop with relief.
“Thanks, Vee. You’re the best.”
“But you’re getting your ass home by cab from now on. I don’t care where you go during the day, as long as we’re both home at the same time, Mom doesn’t have to know.”
Without a word, she traps me into a hug, which I return halfheartedly. I want to hate her. I did for a long time, but it didn’t last. Because no matter how talented she is, no matter how many hits her original songs get on YouTube, my little sister is a genuinely nice person.
I might not agree with my mom on many things, but she was right to insist Ashley graduate high school in Silver Springs before moving to LA and giving this superstar thing a shot. It kept her grounded…
For the most part.
Fine, Ash can have a bit of an inflated ego at times, thinks the world revolves around her, and doesn’t realize how blessed she is to have all this at seventeen, but she’s a good soul at her core… Which is more than I can say for the piece of trash in her bed.
“Oh, and this—” I point to her ex-boyfriend, “—has to stop. Mom will kill you.”
Ashley’s bad decision gives me a slow body scan.
“Long time, Vee.” His smirk sends shivers of disgust oozing through my entire body.
“Logan.” I don’t so much as glance his way, focusing on Ashley. “Since when are you two back together?”
“Just happened, actually,” my sister says, a big, dopey smile on her face, and my chest aches.
“I thought you left town,” I tell Logan, directing every ounce of my energy into hiding my disdain for him.
Bastard, you promised.
You promised you’d never come back after what we did.
“I know, but I changed my mind. What can I say? I missed my girl.” He looks me dead in the eyes as he says it, the innuendo so painfully clear I want to dig myself into a hole and hide from my demons.
Hide from my shame.
Ashley’s phone rings seconds before it gets awkward.
“Shit, it’s Rob.” She flips the screen and shows me hermanager’s name. Mom likes to think she’s in control, but we all know Ash gets heropportunities elsewhere. “I have to take it.”
She exits the room, leaving me alone with the person I like least on this earth. Her footsteps rumbling down the stairs are Logan’s cue to make his move.
“Missed me?” he has the audacity to ask.
“Not for a fucking second.”
Unfazed, he stalks toward me.
“Well, that’s too bad. Because I missed you, Vee-card.”
Disgust coils in my throat.
Is that what he’s been calling me?
My nickname when he talks to his friends?