“I hate you,” I say, wanting to punch her in the face. She is a waste of air. All she does is take and take from me. And she does it just because. I’ve never done anything to her.
“And I hate you too.” She shrugs. “Mom called me. Asked if you’ve been good.” She looks down at her nails and smiles. “I told her that I’ve seen you with a boy.” Her eyes meet mine. “An older one …”
“You fucking bitch!” I scream and shove her into her room. She trips over a jacket lying on her messy floor, and I go down with her.
“He never wanted you!” she shouts, yanking on my hair.
“You took him from me!” I fist my shaking hands and hit her in the face. She killed him!
“I’ll take them all from you.” She growls.
I go to hit her in the jaw, but I’m yanked back by my shirt. “What the hell are you two doing?” our father shouts.
“She attacked me.” Becky begins to sob, placing her hands over her face.
Fucking fake bitch!
I try to kick her, but my father shoves me out of her room. “She …” He slams the door in my face, closing himself in there with her to hear her side of the story and calm her down.
My world just got ripped out from underneath me. I have to move right before my senior year. I’ve got less than a month left of my junior year, and in just a few months, I’ll be packed up and moved to Texas to live with my mother. The only thing I can hope for at this point is that Becky moves in with Deke because that’s the only reason she plans on going there. For him and for her best friend, Austin. I overheard her saying that Austin is following Cole and his little sister, Lilly, to Texas. And I plan on making my sister’s life a living hell just as she has done to mine.
“How was your weekend?” my friend Lauren asks as she enters the classroom and sits down next to me. We’re not close like I was with my friends back in Collins. But I don’t have to have friends. I’m just fine being alone.
I groan. “Shitty. Yours?” I ask.
She gives me a big smile. “Perfect. I got to see Billy.”
“And how did that go?”
“Amazing.” She sighs heavily. I want to puke. “He’s having a bonfire party this weekend out on his parents’ property. Wanna go with me?”
I stiffen. The last time I went to a bonfire was my sophomore year while I was still living in Collins. Back when things were somewhat normal.
I sit on my bed, flipping through the channels and looking for something to watch on TV. As usual, there’s nothing. A knock on my door has me shutting it off. “What?” I ask.
My sister pops her head in. “Wanna go out tonight?”
I eye her skeptically. She wears a crimson long-sleeve shirt with black lips on it and matching black skinny jeans with a pair of black boots, and her blond hair hangs straight down her back. “No.” She never asks me to hang out with her, so for her to do it now is sketchy as fuck.
“Come on.” She pushes my door all the way open and steps into my room. “I just spoke to Deke, and the GWS are gonna be there.”
My heart skips a beat at the mention of the sharks. I don’t know why. He doesn’t know I exist. And if he did, he would never like me the way I like him. “Pass.” I turn my TV back on. Might as well save myself the embarrassment.
“This is your chance, Demi. Dad is out of town. And Mom keeps threatening to make you move to Texas.”
I bite my bottom lip as I think that over. My mother doesn’t mind that Becky lives here with our dad, but she’s been telling me for four years now that she’s going to make me move to Texas to live with her. The only reason she hasn’t forced that on me yet is because she’s gone more than my dad and she doesn’t want me left home alone. I’ll hate her if she makes me move. I’ve only got a couple of years left in high school, and then I’m off to college. And I’m going to choose the first place that accepts me that is far from my family. “Fine,” I growl.
She gives me a big smile, and it throws up all kinds of red flags, but I ignore them because I do want to seehim. No matter how much I tell myself I shouldn’t. “Get dressed. David will be here in fifteen to pick us up.” Then she leaves, shutting my door.
I jump out of bed. Fifteen minutes? I run to my closet and yank a T-shirt off a hanger and then snap another one from pulling on my jeans too hard.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I have to hurry! I don’t have time to shower.
I pull my jeans up, kicking them in the process to help slide the tight-fitting denim up my legs. I fasten the button and pull up the zipper. I don’t even remove my sports bra. I just throw my black T-shirt on over it. Sliding my feet into a pair of black Converse, I pick up the lip gloss and quickly apply it, looking at myself in my vanity mirror. Then I grab the jacket hanging over the chair and run down the stairs.
“Demi, he’s here early …” Her voice trails off when she sees me. She gives me a smile that tells me the fucker was already here when she asked if I wanted to go.
God, I hate her.
