Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
He deserves more than me. Some rich girl with a mess of problems who can’t even get a modicum of control in her life.
Maybe it's best if I delete his number from my phone and should never talk to him again.
The thought terrifies me. I want him. I need him.
He doesn’t need me.
Tears stream down my face.
What the hell do I do with my life?
SEVEN
hawk
I drive down to the road, shifting in my seat. I don’t know how to feel. I have never been kicked out by a girl and felt this way.
Usually, I take it in stride. If she doesn't want me around, okay; there’s no real reason to excessively push the issue.
Lavender ain’t just any other girl, though.
She’s special, and that’s the problem.
Any other girl lying to me like she does, and I’ll just check out. Her lies have a fearfulness to them. How she turns a pale white whenever I stumble on to something.
But the nice car, the fancy chalet, the general naïveté to how the world works?
The girl is rich as hell, and she’s ashamed of it.
She doesn't have that aura of superiority that you’d expect. Maybe she has good parents?
No. Not with how she’s freaking out over their presence.
It must have been some friends. Or someone else in her life. Someone to instill basic decency and values, and as such, she’s ended up as a beautiful person in both mind and body.
She wants to not be some rich guy’s daughter; she wants to be so much more.
Yet the terror that she has in her eyes...
I pull into a gas station. I don’t need gas, but I also don’t want to keep going down the road I’m on.
She wanted me to leave. She wanted to protect me from them.
When, in fact, she needs me to protect her from them.
Out of the gas station, I turn around and start driving back to that chalet. I’m going to show Lavender that I will stand up for her and defend her. That she is a goddamn adult and doesn’t need such toxic parents in her life.
I knew I was spoiled with such a good family. And to have such good friends too. You just never realize how good you have it until you see someone who isn’t as blessed as you are.
Rolling up the mountain, I see another car next to Lavender’s Lamborghini. A BMW, the most basic of rich people's cars.
I hear shouting from within. There’s already an argument in full force.
I hop out, ready to inject myself into a volatile situation.
It’s a terrible idea, really.
But for Lavender? I’d probably wade through the lava of hell for her.
EIGHT
lavender
I’m dressed as best as I can be before they walk in: white blouse, black skirt, dress shoes.
It’s like I’m dressed for a job interview.
For a meeting with my parents.
I see their BMW roll up, and I’m panicking. I tried to clean up the chalet as best I could. I never made a mess of it, anyway, but nothing is ever good enough for them.
My mother strolls in, my father at her heels. She’d married into my father’s wealth, but she always carried herself like she’s the haughtiest queen in the world. I swear she would make actual monarchs feel like peasants..
Her nose wrinkles. “You need some air freshener in here, Lavender. It smells like sweat and dirt.”
“Hello to you, too, Mom.”
“This place is a beacon of civilization. We saw nothing but the poorest neighborhoods, driving here, didn’t we, Brad?”
My father perks up, hearing his name. “Oh yes. More mobile homes than I have ever seen in my life.”
“I have no idea why you could call this place a vacation destination, Lavender. It’s atrocious. I’m already second-guessing our decision to join you up here.”
Slow, deep breaths. I want to defend Evergreen Valley. To tell her about all its wonderful people. All the sights I’ve seen. How I’ve felt more at home here than in the high-rises of Smithport.
“You shouldn’t be up here, either, Lavender. We need to get you out of here before I start to hear banjos and someone rushes us with a chainsaw.”
I snap at her. “That isn’t going to happen, Mom. You do know that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is fiction, and not a documentary, right?”
She glowers at me. “Well, it’s far more likely to happen for real out here than it is back in our penthouse.”
“Yeah, instead, a plane is going to crash into our home with how high we are..”
Her brow furrows. “Are you making fun of me, Lavender?”
“I’m just trying to tell you not to treat everything like it’s how you see it in a movie, Mom.”
“Listen here, young lady, I am just looking out for you. It’s my job to protect you, and to make sure you are the proper and right heir to the Van Schneider empire. If you’re out here dying of dysentery, you’re obviously not doing that.”