Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 130673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 523(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 523(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
Row stuck his head through the gap between my bedroom door and the doorframe, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his lips. “Dyl?”
Whirling around on my squeaky desk chair, I kicked the trash can under my desk. “What’s up?”
“Are you going to the graduation party in the moorlands tonight?” he murmured around the cigarette. “Rhy and I wanna crack open a few beers, but I figured I’d ask you first in case you need a ride.”
Something melted in my chest like butter on a hot pan. “Sitting this one out.”
There was no reason for me to go to the graduation party, really. Everyone was going to get drunk and celebrate moving away to college, while I was staying here.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have the grades to go to college. My GPA was 4.3, my extracurriculars were stellar, and I had letters of recommendation from everyone who’d ever met me. I loved studying. It wasn’t that. It was just…I needed to stay. For Row.
Row had been the one to take care of our mother all these years, and now that he was off to study abroad, someone had to hold the fort. It was time for me to pay my dues. To make sure Dad wasn’t hurting her.
“You sure?” Row’s dark eyebrows knit into a scowl. “I don’t mind not drinking. It’s no skin off my back.”
“Positive.” I picked up a book from my desk, leafing through it. My eyeballs stung with unshed tears, but I didn’t let them loose. I was going to be brave, just like Row had been.
Brave when my dad beat him whenever he was drunk, which was every day.
Brave when, after nights of taking abuse from Dad, he smiled at me across the breakfast table in the mornings, passed me the cereal box, gave me lunch money, and pretended he wasn’t dead inside.
Row didn’t know I was aware of the abuse Dad inflicted on him and Mama. I didn’t know why I was lucky enough to escape his wrath. But it didn’t matter.
It was my turn to watch over our parents, make sure Dad didn’t kill Mama, and I was ready.
My brother drummed his fingers over the back of my door, stalling. “I invited some friends over. Rhy, Piper, and Chrissie. That okay?”
“Sure,” I said brightly. “Of course.”
It wasn’t out of the ordinary for my brother to hang out with pretty, interested girls from home when he vacationed here from Le Cordon Bleu, but I knew he’d never have any of them. He was hopelessly in love with my best friend, Cal.
“Dyl…” Row halted.
“Hmm?”
“Why aren’t you going to college?”
The question impaled my stomach like a rusty knife. I inhaled through my nose. My shoulders tensed. “Honestly? I don’t want to accumulate student debt to get a BA in bullshit. I’ll figure things out at my own pace. Decide what I want to do.”
“It’s not because of me, right?” Row asked after a beat.
It is, and I won’t ever let you drop out of culinary school. You’ve already sacrificed too much.
I snorted. “No, Row. The world doesn’t revolve around you.”
The next few hours slogged by. My parents weren’t home: Dad was at work, and Mama was visiting Uncle Antonio in New Jersey. I retired from my desk to my bed, texting with Cal and skimming a book. I wasn’t even sure what I was reading. There was a murder, a cabin, and a good amount of cheating between two couples. Downstairs, I could hear girlish giggles and screeching and beer bottles popping open. Row and Rhyland were talking in their deep, authoritative voices. My ears tuned out everything other than Rhy’s voice, though. The husky, deep burr of the last guy I should be attracted to.
My stomach rumbled, announcing it was empty.
I sighed and put the book on my chest, glancing at the clock on my nightstand.
Just grab something quick. You can’t avoid him forever.
Checking my phone to procrastinate, I noticed a few text messages.
Cal: We should go to the graduation hangout. I’m leaving tomorrow for New York.
As much as I was happy for her, I was depressed for myself. Cal was my only ray of light in the otherwise gloomy Staindrop.
Tucker: Want me 2 pick u up 4 the party?
Tucker: I rlly like u.
Tucker: You’re eyes look like 2 graceful beetles. Shiny and black.
Tucker: Your so beautiful dylan. Idk how I never noticed it before.
Flinging my legs over the bed, I padded downstairs. The lights were turned off in the kitchen, the house mostly dark in the dusky evening. I glanced past the backyard doors and caught Row and his two lady friends sitting around a bonfire, drinking beer. I noticed Row had stuck to water. Probably didn’t trust me not to change my mind about the party.
This is why you’re doing this for him.