The line of tension in my shoulders winds tighter. I stare at Lana’s prim white chef uniform and focus on the snaps and sizzles of the vegetables in her pan. “Yup. I forwarded it when the student portal updated this morning.”
“And you’re still on track for Valedictorian?”
“Yes.”
Not that I care. Finishing my senior year at the top of the class doesn’t really matter to me. What I really want is freedom to explore this world, to go on an adventure where I don’t know what awaits me next.
Mom turns another page. She looks the same as always. Her sleek light brown hair that Holden and I get ours from is cut in a fashionable bob, her lips painted red, and her pantsuit pressed to perfection. Even though she never changed her style, something about that summer ten years ago took away my loving parent and replaced her with this woman who hits me with one expectation after another.
I used to be free to run around untethered and untamed, discovering the world around me without a worry of the rules. Now my whims are silenced and if I don’t think first before acting, I get an earful while I’m stuck in this gilded cage of a house.
LIAR. The inescapable words from my locker are burned into my brain.
Reputation. Respect. That’s all that matters to her now, and Dad’s gone along with it ever since he became chief of police.
If they get wind of the rumors and everything else happening at school, Mom will blame me. I don’t want to know what else she can take away from me then, so I’m doing everything to make sure she doesn’t find out.
“How long until dinner?” I ask.
“Twenty minutes,” Lana answers.
“Great. I’m going to change out of my uniform.”
“Tell your brother to come down for dinner,” Mom says.
I can’t escape the room fast enough, hugging myself as I jog upstairs to the landing above the foyer that leads to the bedrooms. At the third door, I knock loud enough to be heard over the thudding base beat vibrating Holden’s door.
“What?” he shouts over the music.
“Dinner in twenty. You’re cordially invited.”
More like our presence is required or else.
“Whatever.”
Holden’s been in a pissy mood ever since his football scholarship was rescinded over the summer. He was all ready to fly the nest as fast as he could—something I don’t blame him for—but his dream was crushed.
Part of me is relieved he’s still here so I don’t have to face Mom and Dad alone, but then guilt swarms in my stomach. Playing football at Ohio State was a big deal to him. I’m no stranger to desires being so close, and yet just out of reach when they’re yanked away.
Now he’s at Ridgeview Community College, the only school he could enroll at on such short notice. It’s not a bad school, but for most graduates of Silver Lake High School it’s a different world than a prep school that educates future politicians and lawyers. Power, that’s what comes out of Silver Lake High.
I open my mouth to ask if he wants to do something this week after school, but his music turns up, drowning out the world. Leaving my brother alone to brood, I continue down the hall to my bedroom.
Once I’m inside, I lean against the door. This is the only spot in the whole house that feels like me. It’s bright and airy, with a macrame wall hanging on a piece of driftwood over my bed. Above it on the ceiling, there’s an old roadmap I tacked up there. I light the incense on my desk and breathe in the floral-infused scent. On a shelf above it, my crystal collection is lined up. A jar sits at the end of the shelf full of rocks, agates, and small geodes. They’re all ones I found with Holden and Fox years ago. I’ve kept them all, including the ones I made into a bracelet.
I touch the old braided leather on my wrist, running my fingertips over the stones in the jewelry.
Heaving a big sigh, I peel out of my school uniform, dropping the blazer in a heap on the floor, followed by my skirt and blouse. I run my fingers through my hair, gathering it up into a messy bun.
Swapping out the lacy bralette and panty set I wore to school for a simple green strappy sports bra, I skip underwear and slip on a pair of gray flowy yoga pants with a slit in the legs that cinches with a cuff at the ankles. This is how I’m most comfortable and it’s already working to relax me. I put on a meditation playlist, roll out my mat, and lose myself to a quick flow of stretches that ease the tension in my body from this afternoon.
As I breathe deeply and arch into a low lunge, my mind drifts where I don’t want it to when I look at the old bracelet on my wrist.
Fox.
What is it about him that I can’t ignore?
Ex-friends really do make the best—or the worst—enemies.