Chapter 8

8

18 years old - Lily

Thanksgiving

I f there is one thing that my mother cares about with all her heart, it is her perfectly curated image of herself. When she married my dad and became Astrid Lee, I bet she thought she had won the lottery. My dad wasn't rich by any means, but compared to her humble beginnings, he was living like a king. Now that she's Astrid Simmons, the wife of uber smart, uber wealthy, uber talented Arthur Simmons, she is too far gone to remember where she came from. With every name change, she upgraded her life and tweaked her identity. Now if you see her walking the streets, you wouldn't even know that she wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

I don't know when I started becoming the villain in her story. She was never the loving type, but I have memories when I was small of us singing and dancing together, eating ice cream in the car, and brushing my hair after a bath. Now, she just scoffs at everything I do.

"How could you be so reckless?" Mom yells at me. "It's not enough that you chose to embarrass me and have sex in public for everyone to see. There is a picture of it as well! Every one of my friends is talking about it, Lillian!" She looks at the ceiling as she paces back and forth, her heels clicking every time she takes a step. "I raised you better than this! What are people going to think of us?"

"Mom, I d?—"

"Do you know how humiliating it was when I got the call from your school? A few months ago it was Kevin and now it's Nick. Are you just giving your body up to everybody these days? Don't be so easy, Lily. And for me to only hear this a month later. Not from you and ONE month after it happened! People must have thought I was a clueless fool. Unbelievable."

She stops in front of me and slaps me. I expected this. Tears pool on my bottom lashes and I storm out of the living room, silently counting the days until I am out of here.

Sienna Livingston might be suspended for posting the photo, but she doesn't know the damage that she has actually caused. My mom doesn't forgive people who dare smudge her polished, Stepford wife image. Her daughter slutting it up is a big fucking stain, I'd reckon.

I walk up the stairs to my room when I see Bryce sitting on the staircase, clearly eavesdropping. He's back home for Thanksgiving break, and for once, I would rather not have him here. Having an audience for what just happened is embarrassing. I ignore his presence and quickly rush toward my room.

He grabs my arm before I can evade him. "Don't listen to her," he tells me in a gentle voice. "Just ignore whatever she just said. It's going to be ok, Lil." Sobs start coming out of me. How can it be that my stepfamily is nicer to me than my own mother? Bryce gives me a long hug before he lets me go back to my room.

I don't remember a lot after leaving Bryce on the staircase, but judging by the mascara stains on my pillowcase, I must have cried myself to sleep. I wake up and the clock on my nightstand says it's almost midnight. Remembering Arthur and my mom are spending the last night of Thanksgiving weekend with Arthur's uncle in Radinger, I breathe a sigh of relief. At least I get tonight to myself before the shitshow starts again. I feel tears forming in my eyes, remembering what my mother said to me after dinner. Would Dad have reacted this way?

I turn on the lamp next to my bed and check my phone. I have two messages: one from Bryce giving me a heads-up that some of his friends are here and the other from Nick asking what time my mom would be leaving so he can come over. Before I get a chance to reply to either of the texts, someone is knocking on my door.

I tell whoever it is to come in and Bryce pops his head inside. "Your boyfriend is here," he says, his voice still as gentle as it was when he comforted me.

From behind the door, I hear Nick's voice. "And he comes bearing gifts!"

Nick appears from behind Bryce with a box of chocolates in one hand and walks straight past him. He puts it down on the edge of my bed before taking out his wallet and car keys, putting them on my nightstand.

Bryce looks at us and then says his goodbyes. "Let's try to keep it PG-13 tonight, okay guys? And let's try not to steal my stash."

My shoulder tenses when I realize that Bryce has left, and we are alone again. This is the first time Nick and I will spend the night together since Tabitha's party. With all the drama that ensued after I saw Nick at Sienna's house that day, the chaos when our parents got informed by Nick's aunt, who works at school, that there was a picture of us circulating, the stress when my mom demanded to the principal that Sienna gets punished, which resulted in her hating me even more—we didn't really have a lot of time to spend with each other.

"Hey, you," he says to me as he kisses me softly on the cheek. He takes his sneakers off and lies next to me on the bed, positioning himself close to me, but not touching me. "So Bryce told me you had a rough day with your mom." Bryce, you rat .

I motion him to give me the glass of water on the nightstand beside him. I take a gulp and flinch the moment I feel the cooling sensation on my parched throat. Nick takes the water from me and drinks from it as well.

"It's not a big deal," I tell him. "She was just being her usual, bitchy self."

I stand up and open the balcony door. This conversation is suffocating me. Everything about my mother suffocates me. I grab a joint and an ashtray that I've hidden behind a plant pot.

"You wanna talk about it?" Nick asks, not letting the topic go. He takes the joint and it crackles as he lights it up. He pulls me in closer to him, enveloping my back with his warm body. I lean my back into him and put his free arm around my waist, enjoying the view of the stars lighting up Elsham Cove tonight.

"Nope, I'm just happy you're here," I answer him honestly. "How did you manage to leave the house anyway? I know the Johnsons are big on holiday festivities."

"I told them the truth." I feel him shrug behind me. "I already spent a lot of time with them, so I want to spend the last night of Thanksgiving break with you. You know my parents, they're chill." God, what I'd give to have chill parents who understand you and root for you.