“Everything, Poppy. You showed up today. You took her side. You let me walk back there and didn’t try to stop me.”
“I did try to stop you!” I challenge, jumping to my feet. “You wouldn’t listen to me.”
“And now he hates me. Like really hates me.” She grasps at her throat, clutching the faint red marks marred into her skin. “He’ll never choose me now.”
“He was never going to choose you in the first place!”
Her slap comes out of nowhere, sending me back to the concrete. “He would’ve if she hadn’t rushed in and stole him from me. Now I have nothing!”
“You have me.”
She smirks. “Oh, excuse me for not being overjoyed.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
She looks me up and down before her lips lift into a snarl. “You’re a drug addict, Poppy. A shitty one at that. The only thing you had going for you was your grades, and you let those slip too. Fuck, our father had to buy your way into Stanford because Yale wouldn’t even look at you anymore. Face it, Sister, you’re nothing anymore. Without your education, you’re just a waste of useless space.”
Tears spill down my cheeks. “You don’t mean that.”
“Trust me, I do.”
She starts to walk toward her car, and I stop her. “Pippa, you can’t drive drunk.”
“Watch me.”
“Pippa, please. Don’t do this!” I clutch her dress, hoping to sway her.
She yanks out of my grasp, raising her hand to hit me again. This time I flinch.
“So pathetic,” she seethes, recoiling her hand. “You’re not even worth the energy.” Then she’s gone, stomping off toward the parking lot, as my world starts to spin.
“Poppy, are you okay?” Mallory asks, but I can barely hear her.
I’m not okay. Not in the slightest.
I’m spiraling, and this time I don’t have the drugs in my system to make it go away.
Chapter Fourteen
Poppy
A depraved pit of depression overwhelms me the second I get home the next day and see Amber packing her things.
“What are you doing?”
She shoves her clothes angrily into her suitcase, refusing to look up at me. “I need to get out of here,” she mumbles under her breath.
“But where will you go?”
Her head shoots up, mascara track marks line her cheeks, the emptiness in her eyes sucking away my soul. “Anywhere that’s not near them.”
“You can’t leave me, Amber.”
Her silence makes this moment even worse. Does she blame me too? The weight of Rich’s words, my sister’s, and the shame in everyone else’s eyes from that day, makes me want to disappear.
“I’m going to leave my car here. You can have it. The title’s already signed over to you.”
“Amber…”
