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“I’ll say. I still stand by therapy helping your family. You and Kurtis may have had a heart-to-heart back at the house, but it was only scratching the surface.”
“That’s where we got interrupted earlier. Have you been in therapy?”
“Not me,” I reply. “But my sister. I joined a few of her sessions, and her therapist was really nice.”
“What’s the deal with your sister?” Parker asks. “Why do you ignore her calls?”
I chew on my fingernail, averting my gaze.
“Oh, come on, Green. I told you a bunch of messed up stuff about my family. You gotta give me something.”
“Okay.” I sigh. “She made me promise not to date or spend any time around anyone with popularity.”
“Does she not know about your crush on Lewis?”
“She knows, but she doesn’t want me to take it any further than my daydreams.”
“Why?”
“Because of how much she got bullied when she was at Ashworth Academy.”
Parker frowns. “What happened?”
“She had a huge crush on this guy named Hugh Smith,” I explain. “He was super popular, on the football team, and Tess thought he was a total hunk.”
“Why do I feel like this story has a nightmare ending?”
I inhale deeply before continuing. “Somehow, Hugh found out about Tess’s crush. There was a school formal coming up, and he asked Tess to be his date. She thought it was a joke and shied away from him. To her surprise, he kept asking. She said he was really sweet about the whole thing.”
Parker grunts, pinching the bridge of his nose as his eyes scrunch closed. “This was a prank?”
I swallow hard and nod. “She was ridiculed and humiliated. She thought her dream guy was asking her out, and that he might be in love with her. Instead, he picked her up in a limousine but didn’t take her to the dance. They went to the old quarry on the southside of town. Hugh met up with his cheerleader girlfriend, and his friends said the most horrible things to my sister. After they were all in a fit of laughter, they left her there and went to the formal.”
“What the actual heck?” Parker asks, floored. Outrage lights in his eyes and his mouth hangs open.
“It completely broke her. She sat there for almost two hours before calling Dad to pick her up.”
“Oh man. I see why she’s so scared about anything happening to you.”
I press a hand into my stomach. “I never want to upset Tess. But I don’t want to be scared all the time. I want a boyfriend, and I want to be happy.”
“That will happen for you. You’re smart and you’re caring. Any guy would be lucky to be with you.”
“I still can’t shake how turned off Lewis was yesterday,” I admit. “There was nothing appealing to him about me or my life.”
“Don’t put yourself down just because Lewis is too uptight to dance in your hallway.”
“No, I’m a loser. He’ll never want to be with a loser.”
“Kylie, don’t say that. It’s not true.”
I hug my middle, looking down at the ground. “If only I was beautiful like Yvette, then a boy would want me.”
Parker lifts my chin. “Kylie, you are beautiful.”
I retch, pulling my face away. “You don’t have to pretend with me.”
He grasps my shoulder, turning me back. “I’m not lying. You are beautiful.”
