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YOU’RE RELENTLESS
GO TO BED, MENACE
She sent him a middle-finger emoji, then turned her phone over and placed it on her nightstand. She stayed leaning against her wall for another moment, watching the window across from hers, the gleam of his phone bright in his dark room. He was still up on his phone. Probably texting someone.
And she really, really wished he wasn’t.
* * *
Rory was used to being alone. Some of her first memories were of her time in daycare, surrounded by other kids her age also ditched by their parents, spending time with a curly, gray-haired woman who smelt like the lemon cough drops she was constantly sucking on. But it was the dread that she remembered the most, that feeling of abandonment that simmered deep in her stomach as she watched her mother leave for the day. She would cry and cry until the lemon-cough-drop lady gave her animal crackers to shut her up. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes she just threw her crackers to the floor.
So she got used to that feeling. The dread that clamored to the surface each time she woke up to an empty house or ate dinner alone in front of the television. Gabi insisted it was all worth it, that she was doing this for her. But how could something be for her if she didn’t even want it in the first place? Didn’t she get a say in what she wanted…which, she always hated admitting to herself, was to simply spend time with her mother?
It was middle school when she stopped calling her Mom. Gabi had been an hour late for picking her up, but that didn’t stop Rory from sitting on the curb outside in the snow, watching for her red Prius in the sea of white. The after school–care teacher tried coaxing Rory back inside with hot cocoa, but she refused to listen. She just sat there, eyes at the school’s gates, hoping the car would round the corner.
When it finally did, the sky was almost dark, the sun set and gone. Rory watched the headlights flash as the car spun around the circle to the entrance, coming to an abrupt stop in front of her.
She whipped the back door open and threw her backpack into the footwell, then sunk into the seat and yanked on the belt buckle to fasten herself in, flurries of snow dampening the cloth interior.
“Sweetie, I’m so sorry, I was—”
“Just go,” Rory snipped.
“Do you want to get pizza for dinner tonight?”
Rory shook her head. “I just want to go home, Gabi.”
She remembered the look on her mother’s face when she said it—anguish, hurt, a hint of realization that things might never be the same again. But she didn’t correct Rory, just switched gears as they left the school. It made her feel powerful.
She’d been calling her Gabi ever since.
Rory’s distaste for after-school care was what led her to soccer, and eventually, to Scoops. She joined the soccer team in seventh grade and quickly became one of the best players, making Tyler run drills with her in the backyard or taking shots at the net before practice after school. But soccer was a fall sport, and by the time spring came around, the loneliness in her life felt like a gaping hole that needed to be filled. Tyler told her he got a job at Scoops By The Sea. She applied the next day.
Having her job at Scoops and finally getting her driver’s license felt like her ticket to freedom. She could work and do as she pleased, filling her days with work, parties, and boys. Her lonely upbringing made her bold. She was loud and obnoxious, wore bright colors, kissed boys without a second thought. She painted each of her nails a different color just to stand out from the rest. She wanted to be noticed. She wanted people to know that she existed.
There were glimmers of good times, of course. Small moments and sweet memories she could cling to when she missed her mom. Disney movie marathons, big stacks of fluffy pancakes at the diner before school, laughing so hard orange juice flew out of her nose.
But because she was seventeen and needed more than just glimmers, she pushed away every attempt Gabi made to have a real relationship, keeping her at arm’s length, not ever filling her in on what was going on in her life. Not wanting to deal with the sting of that disappointment any more than she had to. She was done with it. And thankfully, she had others she could rely on instead.
Even though one of her others was now the most popular guy in school.
Rory avoided all social media that weekend and prayed that this would all blow over by Monday. But as she walked through the halls that morning, it seemed the entire school was far from over it. Everyone was still buzzing about the game…and “the big catch.” Rory was sick of hearing about it—especially after having to watch a recap on the school’s morning show.
Rory was grabbing textbooks from her locker before homeroom when she spotted Tyler heading her way from down the hall. She stood taller and opened her mouth to greet him, only he turned and stopped to lean against another locker. One that belonged to a girl with perfectly blow-dried blonde hair.
The air left her lungs as she watched Zoe smile at Tyler, her teeth somehow sparkling brightly underneath the ugly fluorescent lights of the hallway. He smiled back, saying something to her that made her laugh.
Then he reached for her hand, lacing his fingers through hers.
Rory stopped breathing altogether, the entire world swirling around her in slow motion. She couldn’t stop staring at them, at their interlaced hands. People were buzzing again around her, the news already spreading like wildfire. That the Homecoming King and Queen were officially a couple.
She turned toward her locker, forcing short inhalations through her nose. She looked down at her phone and realized the bell was going to ring in two minutes. Where was Melanie? She usually always met her at their lockers in the morning. And right now, Rory needed her. She flicked open her phone and typed out a text.
Hey, you coming in today?
She waited for a beat, then two. No response. She sighed, shoving her phone in her backpack and slamming her locker shut. She passed the happy couple with her head turned down and raced to class, feeling her heart pound in her chest the entire time.
Chapter Six
