All four of us know Shane blames me and my mom for wrecking his relationship with Ethan. My mom claims the reason Shane’s unwilling to forgive her and Ethan for the misperception and the secret video cameras is because Shane’s jealous of her place in Ethan’s life. I partly believed that because he heldsucha grudge. Now though, I don’t think that’s his reason at all.
From what Shane said yesterday, from the time we moved in, they basically told him they didn’t trust him with me. I, on the other hand, was told to leave Shane alone in the basement so he could have his privacy. That was obviously a huge lie since cameras were pointed around the basement, including right at Shane’s bedroom. There were no second-floor cameras except one that was directed at the stairs, presumably watching to make sure he didn’t come up to my room?
That’s crazy, and it’s creepy that they put all those cameras in place. Why would they go to such extreme lengths? Especially Ethan.
I kind of understand it where my mom’s concerned. She’s always been insanely paranoid that something will happen to me. And when we moved into Ethan’s, I was fifteen and only five-three and a hundred pounds. At seventeen, Shane was a full foot taller than me, ninety pounds heavier, and solid muscle. Of course, if you put us side-by-side, one of us was a physical threat and the other was not.
But Shane was never a bully back then. In fact, before things went sideways in that house, if anything, he was protective of me and used his size and strength to cater to me.
Ultimately it was my wandering downstairs, which I often did despite the rules, that caused the trouble. If my mom and Ethan hadn’t overreacted to what they saw that morning, things could have turned out so differently.
After Ethan’s call goes to voicemail, I send another text.
Avery:What’s up?
Ethan:[Frown-face emoji]I’d appreciate a call back. Now, Ave.
I purse my lips nervously.Ethan never gets sharp with me. He’s a better dad than my bio dad by a factor of ten thousand. And lately, I’ve been a lousy daughter to him, leaving his calls and texts hanging while Casanova prowls around the campus. It’s unkind.
I hop up, grab my bag, and leave Café Ramen. As soon as I’m outside, I call him.
Ethan picks up immediately of course.
“Hi, Dad. How are you?”
“Hi, honey. Good here.” He clears his throat. “We got a Granthorpe email saying that any female student who’s feeling anxiety about being on campus right now can petition to finish the semester online from home.”
My lunch suddenly feels like rocks in my stomach.
“Why don’t you do that?” Ethan’s voice is light but cajoling. “You said your chances of getting the internship are slim anyway. I can arrange for movers to empty your dorm room tomorrow.”
“No, no.” I take a fortifying breath. “Things have changed. I have a chance of getting a great letter of recommendation from Professor Smith-Hall.”
“Oh? How did that happen?”
“Nothing’s certain yet.” Stepping off the walking path causes my shoes to sink a bit into the soft grass. “I’m going to present our group project. If I do well, I’m sure he’ll recommend me. I’ve done well on all the other metrics.”
“That’s great, honey. Congratulations! See, I told you if you continued to do stellar work it would pay off.”
“Mmm hmm.”
“Listen, about Shane. I don’t think your trying to contact him is a good idea. He’s been hard to reach lately. I think he’s really busy with school himself. I don’t want you getting your feelings hurt if he doesn’t answer your texts.”
My heartbeat kicks up a notch at that.
Obviously, I can’t tell Ethan everything, but I wonder if I should at least tell him that I’ve already been talking to Shane. It feels like the right thing to do, since I don’t usually lie to Ethan. But if I tell him, it could start a whole conversation I don’t want to get into.
“About that…” I murmur.
“Yes?”
“I actually spoke to Shane in person.”
“At the party?”
I blink, confused. “What party?”
“He said he saw you at a party.”
