“And now, your friend is involved… I don’t know. I don’t think you stand a chance, really.”
There it is: the final blow.
“Thanks for being honest.”
“Anytime.”
I scurry towards the door to go and lick my wounds somewhere else, but Skylar speaks again.
“Women behave pretty crazily when it comes to men.”
I turn to face her.
“They never go for the right ones.”
“I’m not following.”
She sighs, her expression growing serious. “That guy, the one they caught me with.”
I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths to try and push away the image of my daughter having sex in the school music room with a boy from the year above.
Maybe I do need to start going to Rian’s classes.
“He was an arsehole.”
“W-why?”
“He wasn’t interested in me.”
I try to remain calm, appear totally comfortable with what she’s telling me.
“He only wanted to… Well, you know.”
I nod.
“And I knew that,” she says, bitterly. “But I went there to meet him anyway.”
I think I know what she’s getting at.
“Women lose their minds. They always choose the wrong guy.”
I don’t know whether she’s telling me all this to show me that she feels bad for me, or to tell me that everything’s not lost. I decide to believe both.
“So, maybe…” She shrugs. “That’s what she’s doing, too.”
I inhale deeply and try to do the right thing, instead of asking her for stupid reassurances about myself.
“You didn’t deserve it.”
The corners of her mouth turn slightly upward.
“And you know that you don’t have to…well… You don’t have to do anything just to please boys.”
She lowers her gaze. “I learnt my lesson,” she says, her voice hard.
I move back over to her and place my hands on her shoulders. Skylar looks up, her eyes locked onto mine.
“You’re beautiful,” I smile. “And you’re intelligent, funny – even though you tell me to fuck off a little too often.”
