Page 67 of Outlier

I should have expected this. I should have expected women to be all over him.

I tore my eyes away from the three of them.

Fiona was very beautiful and very charming. If she wanted to take Mike from me, she could. It was naïve of me not to think of this before.

Mike and I had only just started dating, and I was already proving to be hard work. I knew that. Everyonealwayssaid what hard work I was. So it stood to reason that eventually, he would be taken from me by someone like Fiona.

The hurt and jealousy I felt at that thought was almost enough to trigger another meltdown.

I had to get it together.

“If you know today’s important,” Rebecca continued, her voice still dripping with disdain. “Could you try and be a little less of a freak? I mean, how bloody difficult is it to smile?”

“Right, yes, I’ll try,” I told Rebecca automatically, taking a small step back.

I was really hoping this exchange would be over soon. Usually, once she’d called me a freak or a weirdo and made it clear how much I annoyed her, she would leave me alone.

When we were very young, things had been different. We would even play together as children, all of course directed by Rebecca, as playing wasn’t really one of my areas of strength.

Even after I stopped speaking, it was years before Rebecca started being openly unpleasant. But then, as we grew into our teens, Rebecca began taking her lead from our mother more, and our interactions became far more adversarial. Things would escalate if Rebecca didn’t get the reaction from me she wanted. I didn’t cry easily, which often led to protracted name-calling and nastiness from Rebecca, who would go on to enlist her friends, Fiona being the main offender.

“Where are you going?” Rebecca was furious now as I took another step back.

I shrugged. “I assumed this interaction was complete.”

“I’ll say when I’m done with you, freak,” Rebecca said. “Don’t you dare?—”

“Come on, Becs,” Darrell put in as he slid his arm around her shoulders. “Chill out. She’s here, isn’t she?” He turned to me, and I felt my body tense with the perceived threat. “Hey there, sis. Let’s hug it out. We’re family now.”

He took a step forward, and I panicked.

Running backwards in heels in a graveyard is not a good idea. One of my stilettos stuck into the soft grass, the back of my knee hit a gravestone, and before I knew it, I was sprawled on the grass in between two graves, with Darrell smirking down at me, and the sound of the bridesmaids’ laughter all around me.

When he took another step towards me, I scrambled back further, uncaring about the stains I knew would now be all over my dress.

I held my hand up to ward him off, but then suddenly, my vision was filled with a frowning Mike.

Relief swept through me as I breathed in his now familiar, woodsy scent.

“Hey, love,” he said softly. “You okay if I lift you up?”

And there it was.

The consideration my family never showed me.

Always checking before he put his hands on me. The irony was that Mike didn’t even have to check now. His touch was so familiar, that I didn’t need the warning anymore.

I nodded, and he put his strong hands under my arms, lifting me up and setting me on my feet as if I weighed nothing at all.

When I was upright again, he stood in front of me, blocking my view of Rebecca and Darrell. “You alright? Wanna get out of here?”

“I can’t leave,” I whispered at his feet.

“Hello?” Rebecca snapped from behind Mike, and his shoulders stiffened. “Who are you?”

“I’m Mike. Vicky’s boyfriend,” he said, turning towards Rebecca, keeping me slightly behind him, just like he’d done with my mother. He offered his hand to her. “Congratulations. You must be Rebecca.”

Rebecca stared at Mike with her mouth hanging open for a long moment, not taking his hand, which was annoying as you weresupposedto shake hands—even I knew that, not that I could often bring myself to do it.