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“You’re so bad.” I grab my phone and check the time. “Darryl will be out back in two minutes. Are you guys staying or coming with me?”
Mason snorts. “As if you even have to ask. Of course we’re coming with you.”
“Evie.” Ruby’s sudden soft voice draws my attention from the screen.
She stares at me with her eyebrows pulled together. “You good?”
We both know I’m not, but I nod anyway.
“Sure. I mean, it’ll be fine, right? I just didn’t expect to see Phoenix tonight, and it’s brought up a crap ton of memories, that’s all.”
The look she gives me says it all. She doesn’t believe asingle piece of the crap that just came out of my mouth, but thankfully, she doesn’t press any further.
The next morning,I wake up to a text message from my father.
Dad
Be at the office at 10 a.m.
Yeah, sure. I don’t think so. Whatever he wants can wait.
Me
Sorry, I’m busy today.
Dad
I wasn’t asking, Evangeline. Be there at 10, or I’ll cut off your money.
I’m still staring at the screen when another message comes through.
Dad
All of the money.
I want to strangle him.
Me
I’ll be there.
I’m sure he figured out I don’t use all of my allowance with how comparatively modest we live here, so now he goes straight for the jugular by threatening to take awayall of my money, which includes a nice sum I donate in his name every month to the local women’s shelter I volunteer at. It’s a nicetax write-off for him but has also become his new favorite tool to force my hand at the first sign of noncompliance.
And he knows I’d never let him cut off their money. They’ve been working so hard on expanding their housing to offer more women and their children a safe place. They need every cent they can get, and I will not be the reason they lose it.
So until I graduate and get the heck out of here, I have to keep up the false friendliness and obey my parents.
Two hours later, I walk down the hallway that leads to my father’s home office, and it feels like I’m on the way to my own execution. Like my life will end here today. For good.
Don’t be so dramatic. That’s the lack of sleep talking.
Yes, I barely got any sleep. And the little I got was total crap, considering recent events. Add a healthy dose of anxiety over what my dad wants from me, and voilà, here I am, ready to jump out of my skin.
My stomach churns more with each step I take across the polished marble floor, reminding me I have more than just sleep deprivation to deal with. The overwhelming nausea that started yesterday still hasn’t fully subsided, and the lack of food in my system has only added to the misery, making me slightly lightheaded too.
The electrolyte drink Ruby pressed into my hand when she and Mason dropped me off at the waiting car by the curb has been fighting to come back up ever since I gulped it down on the way to my parents’ estate.
I can’t wait to go home after this meeting and hide under the covers for the rest of the day. To be back in my own four walls that feel safer and more me than any other place has ever felt in my life. Sure, the comparably modest house Iacquired near campus is almost a disgrace in my parents’ eyes, and nothing they’d ever set foot in willingly, but it’s all mine. That fact, plus sharing it with my best friends, is what makes it a home.