She turned back to face me, cupping her chin with her hand as she leaned on the center console. “Now, tell me everything,” she demanded.
“I will tell you everything once you start driving, or … at least pull the car out of traffic,” I countered.
For a long moment, I thought she was going to stay exactly where she was, playing a game of chicken with me. Luckily, she thought better of it and drove into a McDonalds drive thru.
“We need fried things for this conversation,” she explained before leaning out her window to order.
I couldn’t argue with that logic.
We waited for the fries—and milkshakes because it was criminal to have fries without milkshakes according to Sariah—then settled into the parking lot.
Sariah turned her body in her seat. “Now tell me everything, bitch. And if you leave anything out, I will shave your eyebrows in your sleep.”
I stared at her. “Wow, you’re vicious.”
“You have no idea,” she cackled.
So I did what anyone would do, I told her everything, without leaving anything out.
Even Elden’s admission about being in prison, though I second guessed myself when I said it. It was something very private to him, obviously, something he didn’t tell most people, and he hadn’t even told me everything. Part of me wanted to keep that to myself, respect his confidence, have it just be mine.
But I didn’t feel equipped to deal with all of it. With him.
Our fries and milkshakes were long gone by the time I was done.
Sariah had been rapt, listening to every word, not interrupting once. Or she did once, when she made me repeat how we had sex on Christmas at the club three different times.
“So now I have no idea what to do,” I sighed.
“Yes, you do,” she scrunched up her nose as though the answer was obvious.
I widened my eyes, waiting for clarification.
She sighed. “You finish the semester, partly because you’re pretty much done anyway and because I greedily want you close to me. You continue the relationship … long distance.” She tilted her head thoughtfully. “Now, normally I am not an advocate for long distance relationships or monogamous relationships in general, but I think this is a definite exception to the rule. So once you graduate, you go back to Garnett and get his name tattooed on your ass or whatever it is that bikers do to solidify their relationships.” She sucked the straw of her milkshake, though there wasn’t much left. “And you obviously take me with you so I can be the one to shoot the first gun into the air after you say, ‘I do.’”
I gaped at her. “First off, where do you think this wedding is taking place, the Wild West?”
She shrugged.
“And secondly, awedding?” My voice was much higher than normal. “I’m too young to get married. I never wanted to get married. My mother would be horrified. Just at the marriage thing. Then there’s the marriage to a man years older than me. Oh, and my stepfather would probably kill him.” I listed off the things that I’d tried my best to shove out of my mind the past few weeks.
Sariah didn’t look at all perturbed. “Babe, you are not too young for anything. You know your own mind. And although I am not one for insta-love or pretty much any conventional relationship created by patriarchal society to keep women enslaved in domestic tasks and childbearing, I don’t think this is that. I think this is fate.”
She reached over to squeeze my hand.
“I know you’re scared. Know your dad fucked you over big time in the trusting men department and gave you a terrible view on marriage and relationships,” she smiled sadly. “But this isn’t that. Elden isn’t that.” Her gaze hardened. “And I know you’re not one of those self-sabotaging bitches like in any dramatic sitcom where they fuck things up because they’re scared. You are a lot of things, Violet, but you’re no coward.”
I studied her face, digesting her words. As usual, when it came to fashion, food or any kind of general advice, Sariah was right. My father had fucked me up. And unfortunately, my mother had too. Not on purpose. She had only the best of intentions. She’d made the choice to protect me, and who the fuck was I to blame her for that?
I was scared. That everything had changed in such a short span of time.
“What about Swiss?” I sighed. “Even if all of the rest of our shit gets sorted, there’s still the overprotective stepfather.”
“There’s nothing you can do about that,” she shrugged again. “They’ll probably have some kind of fistfight because they’re men and can’t seem to solve problems any other way. You just have to trust that Swiss loves you enough not to kill or permanently maim him.”
My stomach churned. “Thanks, that makes me feelsomuch better.”
She patted my hand. “Babe, Elden sounds like he can more than take care of himself. Everything will be fine.”