I am so screwed.
Cosette likes to pretend I don’t exist unless I get in trouble. Whenever that happens, then she’s front and center, ready to dole out any kind of fucked-up punishment she deems fit. I wonder what it will be this time.
I glance her way and see that’s wearing a fancy dress with her shoulder-length, bleach blonde hair pulled back in a fancy updo. Her face looks overly pinched and stretched today, so I’m sure she probably just finished one of her weekly Botox appointments before rushing over here to make sure she could be a part of this whole mess. Her overlined brown eyes rake over me in contempt, so I steal my gaze away and look back towards the school. I want to run, but the driver quickly closes the door, sealing my fate. Grimacing, I press my back into the leather seat and await the inevitable lecture that’s going to happen. I decide to hold my ground, though, because technically I didn’t do anything. It’s not likeIpunched someone. I was just an innocent bystander in all of this.
My father narrows his eyes on me as the car pulls away from the school. “I talked to the principal. He explained what happened.”
“I d-d-didn’t do anything w-wrong,” I begin to protest, but he raises a hand to silence me.
“When were you going to tell us about dating Corbin McCall?” my father asks. “You know there’s a no dating clause in the contract.”
Oh, sothat’swhat this is all about. It isn’t about what happened at the school at all. This is about keeping my virtue for the sake of the family’s archaic contract and my promised union with Dimitri.It always comes back to that damn contract.
“Is this where you’ve been sneaking off to when you told us you were with friends?” my stepmother chimes in. And thenshe adds snidely to my father, “I knew her making new friends was too good to be true.”
I inwardly cringe at her snide remark. Leave it to my stepmother to kick me when I’m already down. “C-Corbin and I d-d-didn’t…do anything,” I say uncomfortably.
My stepmother rolls her eyes. “I was your age once, Savina. I don’t believe you.”
It takes everything in me not to tell her off, so I bite my tongue, hard, until I taste blood. I know it will only make it worse if I say what I really think, and I can’t imagine what kind of punishment she’s already concocted in her alcohol-laced brain.
“We’ll discuss this when we’re home,” my father says, saving me the trouble of having to bite through my tongue.
The rest of the ride back to the house is quiet and filled with tension. I curl into a ball and tuck myself in the corner of the seat, worrying myself to death about what’s going to happen and wondering if Corbin is okay.
The engine and the whirring sound of the tires on the road almost lull me into a trance by the time we come to a stop in the driveway. The three of us climb out of the car, and I’m wondering when this big talk is supposed to happen.
“Go to your room. I’ll call for you later,” my father tells me, and I do just that, thankful to be able to escape to my sanctuary for at least a little while.
When I finally pull my cell phone out of my pocket, I have no less than thirty missed calls and texts from Darby. I send her a quick text telling her about what happened and that I’m worried about what my father is going to do. She shares the same trepidation as me and lets me know she’ll be waiting for any news. Over the next three hours, she keeps me updated on Corbin based on what she’s heard from other students. Corbin is in critical but stable condition, and the doctors think he’s going to be okay. She doesn’t share any news about Dimitri, but I can’t say that I mind. I’m so mad at him for what he didthat I really don’t care if he’s suffering right now or not. Clearly, he deserves to suffer.
It's hours later before I’m summoned to my father’s office downstairs. The moment I step foot into the room; I can feel the shift in the air. My father is sitting behind his desk, and my stepmother stands behind him with a reassuring hand on his shoulder. She gives him a gentle squeeze before her eyes meet mine. They are about to tell me some news, something perhaps lifechanging. And I already know I’m not going to like it.
My father speaks first. “Your stepmother and I have been discussing this for a while now. We think it’s best that you go to that all-girls’ school in Montana.”
They have been threatening me with the idea of this school ever since my stepmother came into the picture. It was always a way to keep me in line and to treat her nicer, but I never thought they were serious about it…until now.
“You’re s-s-sending me away?” I ask in a rush. This is what my stepmother always wanted. She was just waiting for me to screw up like this so she wouldn’t have to deal with me being in her presence. “But what about s-s-school? What about my f-f-friends?” Angry tears sting my eyes. Darby will never forgive me. She tells me all the time that I’m the only one keeping her sane in that school. I’m her refuge from her weird stepbrother. Who will protect her if I leave?
“You can make new friends, dear. Better friends,” my stepmother pipes up. I glare at her, and she scoffs. “See? This is the attitude she gives me after I try to help her. Do you see this, Donato?”
“Papà, p-p-please don’t d-do this!” I beg.
“It’s already been decided. You leave tomorrow. Pack your things, Savina.”
Silent tears track down my cheeks as I turn and run out the door. I bump into a man standing nearby, and it takes me a moment to realize it’s Dimitri’s father.
He towers above me with a grim look on his face. “We heard everything. And we are very sorry, Savina, for all of it,” hesays, clearly speaking for Dimitri, who is standing next to him, no longer in handcuffs.
My father must have gotten him the good, old “get out of jail free” card that he always pulls when someone is in trouble. That’s a shame, because I would have loved to have known that Dimitri was arrested and charged for what he did to Corbin. Lord knows he deserved it.
When I turn to Dimitri, I see a smirk present on his face, and it sends me over the edge. Walking over to him, I poke him in the chest and meet his eyes as I say lowly, “I hate you.” I watch as the smirk on his lips quickly fades, and I take great pleasure in knowing that my words affected him. I hope they cut him deep.
Before I say something else I may or may not regret, I take off running, not stopping until I’m safe in my room. Slamming the door, I throw myself onto my bed and collapse into a mountain of blankets and pillows, sobbing as my father’s words echo inside my mind.
I’m being sent away, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
This is all Dimitri’s fault. If he wouldn’t have started the fight, I wouldn’t have gotten involved, and they never would have found out about Corbin and me. Now, I’m being forced to leave my home and move across the country, away from everyone and everything I know and love.
