Me: I’m leaving tomorrow. I didn’t agree to be held hostage here.
Bradley is quick to respond, and I can only assume it’s because he’s been waiting for this message.
Brad-Bro: Give it one more day, please.
Me: ?
Knowing the conversation ended before it truly began, I attempt to give Mom another call.
To my surprise, she answers the phone. “Ashley?”
“Mom!” I shout, thrilled to hear her voice. “I tried to call you yesterday, but the phone was disconnected or something.”
“Oh, yeah, honey, Dad thought it would be good to buy us new phones, but didn’t think to have them set up at the store. It was a mess.”
So I wasn’t being blocked from calling them.
“Mom, Bradley set me up to live in a development full of single, desperate men. They’re lunatics. Did you know what he was up to?”
She doesn’t respond to my question. I don’t even hear breathing on the other end of the phone.
“Mom?”
I pull the phone away from my ear and notice the call is now disconnected. The urge to throw my phone into the ocean is growing larger by the minute.
This situation reminds me of the time Bradley persuaded Mom and Dad to take technology away from me for a week, which would ultimately prove an increase in my grades. They couldn’t even see through the fact that Bradley was just a jerky older brother. He saw himself as a parental figure to me from the time I turned twelve. I don’t know what made him think he needed to have authority over me, but I’m not having it anymore.
It only takes me a few minutes to get home, and my sights are on my pink-polka-dotted suitcase and the two black cases that finally arrived yesterday. I haven’t exactly settled into this room, which means packing away my clothes won’t take long.
“What are you doing?” Kricket asks, poking her head into my room.
“Packing. I’m leaving.”
“Don’t leave,” Kricket says in a drone before walking in uninvited.
“Look, I don’t care if we’re going to be in-laws, you two have been flat-out rude to me, and the men around here are freaking me out. This is not what I thought it was going to be.”
Kricket plops down on the edge of my bed. “I know you didn’t read the fine print.”
I throw the pile of clothes from my hand up into the air. “NO, I did not read the fine print. I’m an idiot, okay? Happy?”
“They didn’t think you would,” she says.
“Who?”
“Bradley and Kat.”
“Your sister doesn’t know me,” I say, enunciating each word.
“Yeah, you’ve said that a couple of times. Look, I’m sorry you got duped into this.”
“It’s not a problem because I’m de-duping myself as we speak.”
Kricket takes my hand, which is mildly weird, but I feel a note slip inside my palm. I have the urge to ask her what it is, but after being told everything is a damn secret here, I know better.
“I don’t want you to leave. We are going to be family, and I know Krow and I aren’t the friendliest people in the world, but I’m asking you to give us a chance.” She couldn’t sound less sincere if she tried.
My right eye is squinting on its own. It’s a twitch. This place is making me twitchy.
