“Yes.”
“You can’t make me. Holden gets to go to community college, but I have to get shipped off to some shady finishing school because I had an original thought instead of one you fed to me? No fucking thanks.”
“Yeah, that’s not fair,” Holden says. “Why can’t she just pick?”
“Because I said so,” Mom says.
“Let’s not be hasty, Jackie. I don’t want to force that on her.”
Dad tries to reason with her, but I’ve never seen her like this. Ruthless, that’s what she looks like. She was playing nice before, but now the gloves are off.
“Shut up, Richard. This is necessary.”
I back up, inching toward the stairs. “You’re insane if you think I’ll let you send me anywhere I don’t want to go.”
“You will do as I say,” Mom says.
“I won’t! I’ll get a lawyer. I’m eighteen, you can’t do that to me!”
A vein pops out in her temple and a flush creeps up her neck. “If you won’t obey my rules, then you’ll be cut off.” She’s livid now, her threatening voice shaking. “I give you enough liberties as it is. If that’s what it takes to make you behave, then that’s what will happen.”
“Go ahead,” I challenge, putting a foot on the first step. “I’m leaving. You won’t listen, so I’m gone. I’ll cut myself off.” Swinging to Dad, I add, “If you track my phone, I’ll throw it away and get a new one because parents don’t invade their kids’ privacy and lives like that.”
“Maisy Grace!” Mom yells after me.
I’m so fucking done.
With my chest heaving and adrenaline from the fight rushing through my veins, I run up to my room and slam the door. I need to make this quick, or Mom will pull something crazier, like putting a security lock on my door or overruling Dad to send me to the disciplinary school against my will.
I grab the first bag I find in the closet and throw clothes inside with my laptop, then snag my purse with the flash drive. The medical journals from Devlin go in next, followed by my jar of rocks and my favorite crystals tucked carefully between my clothes. Glancing around the room, my throat goes dry. I can’t fit everything in my bag.
In one motion I strip the rumpled designer dress overhead and fling it onto the floor, standing nude in the middle of my room with the evidence of what I did with Fox two hours ago dried on my upper thighs. It feels good to stand there like that, like I’m shedding a skin that was too tight and I’ve finally burst free through the constricting seams.
For a minute, I consider going to stay with Thea, but I don’t want to intrude on her and Connor. They’re still enjoying their time together as newlyweds. As much as I love my best friend, there’s somewhere else that’s calling me.
As I pull out my favorite yoga pants with slits in the sides that cuff around my ankles, I call Fox, searching for a shirt with my breasts out and proud. Nothing will keep me down anymore.
He answers on the first ring. “Hey. You good?”
I don’t have a penny to my name. No savings, no car, no phone if my parents cut me off for this stunt.
And I’ve never felt more alive.
“Yup. So, is it too soon for me to move in?” I joke, grabbing a fitted crop top. “Come get me?”
There’s only a brief silence before his deep voice filters through the phone. “I’m coming.”
Nothing has ever made me smile wider or made my heart soar as hi
gh.
Twenty-Four
Fox
Two coffee mugs clink on the table when Maisy sets them down next to my laptop in the morning. “Walk me through what you know so far.”
For the second time yesterday, her arms were wrapped around me on my bike after I picked her up at the end of her block when she left her home. She told me Holden helped her out after a blowout fight with her parents.