“Actually, I enjoyed it.”
“Claudia is a snake, Celeste. I don’t want you anywhere near that woman.”
“Well, maybe you should have thought about that before you volunteered my time there.”
“You know, darling, I haven’t wanted to say anything because quite frankly, this family is fractured enough, but I’m worried about you, Celeste. Ever since Harleigh—”
“Save it, Mom.” I bolted off the stool. “Harleigh is my sister. She will always be my sister. Nothing you do or say will change that.”
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about,” she said sharply.
“Mom!” I gasped.
“Well, she’s not a good influence. Her and those… those boys she insists on hanging around with.” Her face screwed up in blatant disgust.
“And what about Chloe? She’s my friend.” Frustration coursed through me. Mom was so narrow-minded, unwilling to look past her position of money and privilege to recognize that just because someone didn’t have the kind of life we had, didn’t make them a bad person.
“Yes, well. I would prefer it if you didn’t.”
“I can’t believe you just said that.” I winced, trying to disguise the hurt I felt. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to make friends at school? How lonely it can be?”
“You have Miles.”
I had Miles. I swallowed the words. She didn’t get it. Friendship wasn’t important to Mom, success was. Station in society was. Friends—true friends, people you could trust—were few and far between in our world.
No, not my world, her world.
I hadn’t asked for this life. And although I was grateful for it, for the opportunities it gave me, happiness was more important. A sense of self-worth and acceptance was more important. To know that the people around you cared because they wanted to, not because they thought they could use you to their own ends.
When I’d started Darling Academy in seventh grade, I’d made my first real girlfriend. At least, I’d thought she was. Turned out Jolie Radley’s parents had pushed her to befriend me in hopes of getting close to my parents. For five months, they welcomed me into their family, treated me like their own, only to drop me like a sack of bricks when my mom publicly embarrassed Mrs. Radley at a school event.
I gave up trying to make friends after that. If my intelligence didn’t intimidate them, my parents did.
Emotion swelled inside me, and I blinked away the tears building.
“Celeste, really,” Mom scolded. So hard faced and cold hearted. Max had been made in her image, but me… sometimes, I wondered where the hell I’d come from.
“I’m going to brush my teeth.” I hurried out of there, steeling my spine.
But when I reached my room and slipped inside, the door clicking shut behind me, the dreadful weight of loneliness felt insurmountable.
I was Celeste Rowe. The perfect student, the perfect daughter, the perfect college applicant.
I had the perfect life.
But perfection had a price.
One that was costing me my own happiness.
* * *
By the time Friday afternoon rolled around, I was miserable. Miles was ignoring me, in favor of hanging out with Marcy and her friends. Harleigh was still avoiding me. And things at home were more strained than ever.
So when Nate Miller stopped me dead in the hall, I snapped, “What do you want?”
“Geez,” he said. “Is that any way to greet a friend?”
“And where have you been all week,friend?” My brow lifted.