Page 39 of I Would Stay Forever (Parkhurst Prep #2)

twenty-five

With how long it took us to get back, I was sure all my siblings would be gone, so I was surprised to find Ainsley and Imogen sitting on the porch step when I walked up. They both jumped to their feet.

“Took you long enough,” Imogen sighed. She adjusted her bag on her shoulder and walked down the steps.

I took a moment to look her over, noting that she’d skillfully covered up all the bruises on her face with makeup and the jacket she was wearing almost completely covered her cast. If I hadn’t known the accident happened last night, I never would have guessed.

Momentarily, I wished there was some magic form of makeup that could cover up the emotional wounds that had come from the visit to Urgent Care, but then I reminded myself that I was trying not to think about Dad or anything related to him today.

“Were you guys waiting for me?” I asked.

I tried to subtly look over and see if Dean was close enough behind me for them to realize we were walking down the street together, but he’d hung back for a full minute before walking up just in case.

Neither of my sisters seemed worried about it anyway as they walked toward my car.

“I thought you’d catch a ride with Sebastian. ”

Ainsley scoffed. “And ride with the she-devil? No, thank you.”

“She-devil?” I muttered under my breath as I circled around the driver’s seat.

I guess they had figured out I couldn’t have gone to school for my supposed group project meeting because my car was still here.

But still, there was no reason for them to feel that strongly about not riding with Sebastian, unless…

No.

No way.

“He got back with Tiffany?” I exclaimed, whirling around to look at Ainsley in the backseat.

When she nodded her head grimly in response, I spun back around to face forward, staring blankly at my steering wheel.

It had only been a week and a half since he promised me he wouldn’t get back together with her.

Since he said that he understood why I didn’t want to see him getting hurt again and again. Why would he do that?

“I know this is horrifying and all,” Imogen said, “but we are very late for school, so…”

She gestured at my keys. Somehow, even in my dazed state, I managed to turn the car on and drive us to school without incident.

Ainsley and Imogen spent the whole ride loudly complaining about Tiffany and listing off everything they hated about her.

Any other time, I would have happily joined in and laughed along with the limerick that Ainsley tried to make up, but as it was, I was too shocked—and disappointed—to be much help of anything at all.

When I pulled into the parking lot, Ainsley and Imogen both happily jumped out of the car, still chattering away.

Neither of them seemed to notice that I hadn’t moved, which was just as well because it meant I didn’t have to come up with an excuse for why I was going to stay in the car.

I sat there for a few minutes, trying to practice my deep breathing and lowering my stress, before ultimately deciding it wasn’t going to happen.

I ripped my phone out of my bag and opened my messages with my brother.

Lavender

You and Tiffany are back together?

His reply was almost instantaneous.

Sebastian

Who told you that?

Lavender

Oh I don’t know, maybe your sisters you bothered to inform before me

He didn’t respond for over a minute and my blood only began to boil the longer I waited. What the heck was he thinking? In what universe could he ever think returning to Tiffany—especially after everything we’d talked about—could be a good idea? She was horrible to him.

Sebastian

It’s a complicated situation

Let me explain it to you in person

Lavender

I’m not interested

You admitted her cheating was just like Dad’s. If you can excuse hers, can you excuse his too?

I swallowed thickly as I read the message back.

For a moment, I debated unsending it and praying that he hadn’t seen it in time.

My heart was thudding in my chest as I read it over and over again.

But then I remembered Imogen in Urgent Care last night and Dad’s face as we looked at each other.

My family was splintering off, turning into two camps—the ones who could forgive and forget, and the ones who couldn’t.

How ironic that Sebastian was the one who had been giving me the cold shoulder after he assumed I was the one to discover the infidelity, only to turn around and forgive Tiffany like it was nothing.

He didn’t respond to my text, which I supposed was probably for the best because any excuse he tried to give me would only make me angrier.

I wondered if he’d even read the message or if he was too busy sucking Tiffany’s face off to notice it.

If I knew my brother, it was probably the latter.

I stewed about it all the way inside, practically breathing fire by the time I reached my locker.

The petty side of me wanted to block him so he couldn’t try to explain anyway but I held off.

Doing that would only make me more like Dad in a way I never wanted to be.

“Lavender?”

I glanced up at the sound of my name, quickly shoving my phone back into pocket. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Emma coming toward me with purposeful steps.

“Oh, hi,” I said, faltering because I wasn’t sure what to call her. She asked me to call her Emma, but it seemed weird to call her that to her face when she was a teacher. Calling her Ms without a last name felt equally weird, so eventually I settled on not addressing her at all. “How are you?”

“I’m just fine, thank you,” she said. She clasped her hands in front of her and beamed at me—what else was new?

“I know I told you that I’d make an appointment time for you to come see me this week, but as it so happens, my meeting was cancelled this morning.

Would you mind terribly if you missed some of your first period class? I’ll write you a note, of course.”

Two weeks ago, I would have jumped at the chance to get out of the class, mainly because of the boy I had to sit next to during it.

Today, even though I’d just seen him half an hour ago, I was desperate to talk to him and hated the thought of being pulled away.

I wanted to know if he knew anything about Sebastian and Tiffany getting back together, and strangely, I thought he might be the only person in the world who might be able to make me feel better about it.

But Emma was looking at me with such enthusiastic eyes and I knew I wasn’t in much of a learning mood right now anyway, so I nodded.

She clapped, like this was the most exciting news she’d gotten all day, and started leading me down the hall, gushing about the brochures she’d gotten in.

My phone buzzed again as we reached her office but I didn’t look at, not caring whether it was Sebastian or one of my other friends.

Right now, all I could think about was that despite the promise I’d just made to Dean, I wanted to get out of this stupid town as soon as I was able—and these university brochures would be my ticket to that freedom.