“Elizabeth?”
“Got room on that couch for someone to spend the night?”
* * *
When Tara opened the door about half an hour later, she had already changed into her pajamas. But seeing me seemed to wake her up like a cup of coffee because she pulled me in tight for a hug and squeezed me as hard as she had since our graduation ceremonies.
“You really stood up to Dad,” she said.
“Yeah, but the whole thing sucks.”
“Still, you stood up to Dad,” she said. “I’m proud of you. I wasn’t sure if you would anytime soon.”
“I guess.”
I walked past Tara to the couch. I was so unprepared; I had no other clothes to change into, nothing to take my makeup off, and not even a phone charger for my phone. Granted, Tara could provide a lot of that for me, but I would have to return to the house at some point, likely tomorrow. My plans for a grand rebellion would not even last twenty-four hours.
“What’s wrong?” Tara said. “What happened with Steele? I know you’re not this upset about Dad.”
Damnit. She is my sister.
“I just don’t know, Tara,” I said. “I just don’t know. One minute we were out there, making out in front of his repair shop.”
“Oh.”
She didn’t look disappointed or upset. Mostly just shocked that that had actually happened.
“And the next, the cop came and arrested him. It’s all bullshit.”
“It is.”
“But Steele made it pretty clear I needed to stay away. I don’t know, Tara. I know—”
“Brock did the same to me at first, you know.”
I knew. I could easily recall the night after she’d hung out with Brock in Santa Maria, even before they’d hooked up. I’d tried to gently tease her, only to get scolded and glared at. That was the moment I knew she was really into him and not just seeing him as a rebound from…the very guy that I was using as, well, not a rebound, but as an opposite from how my life normally was.
A rebound from life, if you will.
“And how did you two get over it?”
She shrugged.
“Time, I guess,” she said. “Thought about it. Decided the vulnerability was worth it. Decided the fear of getting hurt was worth it.”
Perhaps so, but I felt pretty damn wounded right now. Getting hurt wasn’t very fun. Steele had pushed me away; I probably didn’t have a home now; I might not even have a job soon…
“Things were just so perfect even this afternoon,” I said. “And I know it’ll be better this way, to not be under Dad’s weight, but it just feels like by accepting less than perfection, I’ve set myself up for perfect failure. Like…how the fuck?”
Tara walked over to me on the couch and hugged me. I tried to act like the hug didn’t mean anything at first, but that was a battle I gave up quickly. I took a deep breath and let it out gently as I leaned into her.
We had our differences, that was for damn sure, but we were both Rogers girls at the end of the day. Even if we distanced ourselves from our parents, we would never distance ourselves from each other.
“Sometimes, I don’t think any of us know the question to how the fuck, but we don’t need to. We just move forward and figure it out.”
“Easy to say when you’ve got a bed and makeup remover.”
Tara chuckled, pet my hair, and stood up.
