“We’re going on that trip.”
“No.” I shake my head. “You and Mom can go. I’m not.”
“I already paid for your ticket.”
“Well, ask for a refund. I don’t want to go. You can’t make me. I’m going to be eighteen in a few days. An adult.” I lift my chin, hoping he doesn’t see how this confrontation is making me shake.
He looks furious. I don’t do this—defy him. Ever. “You still live under my roof.”
“I’ll go live with someone else then, until I have to go back to school. I don’t really live here anyway.” I try to push past him, but he stops me, his fingers circling around my upper arm, keeping me from escaping.
“Who would you go live with, hmm? That supposed boyfriend of yours?”
I try to jerk out of his hold. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“You two are just fucking then? Is that what he tells you? He’s only using you. And you’re letting him.”
My father’s eyes lock with mine and I physically recoil, desperate to get away from him. Why is he acting like this? Saying such awful things?
“You changed your iCloud password because you’ve got something to hide,” he continues. “I thought I raised you better than this.”
“It’s not that I have anything to hide, it’s that you don’t trust me so you think it’s okay to invade my privacy! That’s not right.”
“I am your father. I can do whatever the hell I want. I made you.”
I jerk out of his hold, right as my mother appears in the hallway.
“What in the world is going on?” She is so calm. Like ice. Impenetrable.
“I’m leaving.”
“Going to the Lancaster residence?” When I nod, she smiles. “Have fun, darling. Don’t stay out too late.”
Daddy is gaping at her like a dying fish, his mouth opening and closing as if he can’t find the right words. “You’re just going to let her—leave?”
I march past him, stopping to give Mom a brief hug before I keep walking.
“You need to stop treating her like a little girl, Harvey. I’ve already told you this. The tighter you hold onto her, the more you’ll make her run,” I hear her say.
She’s so right. He keeps holding me too tight.
And I keep wanting to run away.