Page 99 of Vicious Little Snakes

He’s staring back at me, locked and loaded, ready for battle, but my mother snaps her fingers at the both of us, holding us at bay.

“No. Absolutely not. Must I remind you two it’s Thanksgiving?”

My father tosses his napkin on the table, looking away, as I shake my head because this bullshit is ridiculous. How is it that the man I held above all others has become the villain in my story? Regardless, I won’t deconstruct my spine to fold myself back into the box I was born into. Not for him, not for anyone. Never again.

The silence stretches out, blanketing the room in discomfort. Nobody’s eating or even looking in the same direction. We’re just sitting uncomfortably at the table, counting the minutes until the end of dinner.

Fuck this. I’m out.

I scoot my chair back to stand. “Dinner was delicious, Mom, but I have plans downtown.”

She frowns. “Liam. Sit down.” Her face twists to my father’s. “Tucker. Say something. End this nonsense.”

He says nothing, not even looking at my mother as she presses, “Are you really going to dig your heels in, Tucker? This is our son.”

My eyes drop to the table as I button my jacket because a part of me can’t believe it’s actually come to this, but it has.

My father stands, looking me in the eye. For the first time in my life, he’s just another man standing across from me. His shoulders somehow seem a little less broad, and the set of his jaw is less intimidating. But I suppose this is what adulthood brings, the diminishment of heroes.

“Have you accepted at Columbia?”

“Yes.”

“Then we have nothing more to discuss.”

He turns and walks out of the dining room as my mother sits stunned. I walk around the table and kiss her cheek.

“Hey, he’s stubborn. It’s where I get it from. Everything will be okay. I’ll see you later. Thank Simon for the food.”

She pats my hand before I walk out the room and directly out of the front door.

Caroline

Music pulses, vibrating my chest, and the crowd sways. My eyes lift to Kai from the table we’re all seated at, watching him look like a fucking god as he spins record after record. He’s so wholly in his element.

Donovan leans over. “Can you believe he booked a festival this summer? It’s amazing, right?”

I nod, not looking at her. I’m not trying to be rude, but the idea makes me a little sad. The more popular Kai gets, the more deejaying will take him away from me. But I wouldn’t want anything less than adoration for him, so I’ll suck it up. Which is why I’m here in this godforsaken Brooklyn hotspot on a Sunday night, hoping I don’t catch anything poor.

Plus, I wouldn’t want queen D jumping on another opportunity to coax me into liking her. My birthday party was enough.

Donovan lifts her arms, encased by Grey as she sits on his lap. Now that he’s officially signed the papers for the company, they’re even more annoyingly attached to one another. He’s basically her shadow.

I grimace over the jealousy I hear in my thoughts as my eyes wander down to my phone—again, for the thousandth time since I texted Liam.

Me:I really liked hearing Carebear out of your mouth today. xx

He never acknowledged it all last week, keeping his distance.

I shouldn’t have sent it. It was a momentary slip of the finger—but we’d felt like us again. Whatever the fuck that even means. Friends, with an asterisk, I guess? The asterisk being heavy sexual tension.

I know we did the right thing by walking away, but I never thought about the after-effects. Clearly, there’s no magic pill I can take to compel this Liam-high to stop feeling so fucking good. Truthfully, it’d be the only pill I’d give a pass because I’m just a strung-out bitch, picking the scabs on her heart.For fuck’s sake, I’m problematic.

Strumming my red nails against the table, I’m fixated on the dark drink circles stained on the wood, letting that thought sink in.

“Liam,” I hear Grey bellow over the crowd, and my head snaps up.

Speak of the devil. My eyes search the crowd, past baseball caps and slicked back hairstyles until Liam comes into view.Fuck me.