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That had been a huge motivator for my decision to give him a chance. It’d been proof.
He wasn’t just out for a quick fling. He’d gone out of his way to ask me—and that meant something.
Hawk was right—I couldn’t deny it anymore. I liked him, and even as I admitted that thought to myself, my excitement about the ball grew.
It was just too bad Pris had been the one to overhear.
She was the queen of wearing a chip on her shoulder. She already resented me for what had happened with Derek.
I just hoped she wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize my date with Hawk.
Stina sat at her desk as she always did, barely greeting us as we trundled in. Pris had made it in before I did.
She was bent toward her mother, and my stomach sank. She couldn’t really be telling her about what she’d overheard, could she?
Ridiculous. I got asked on a date by a handsome guy. So what?
So this was Pris. She was in constant competition with everyone around her.
Second best was never good enough, and for whatever reason, someone else’s success took her down a peg in her eyes, so of course, she had to lash out.
If she was getting Stina in on this, that didn’t bode well, either.
If I thought Pris was spoiled and conniving, she had nothing on her mother.
Stina liked to be the boss, to make others clean up messes, to give orders, to have someone else do the work and then reap the benefits herself.
Knowing Stina’s stuffy, controlling personality—and seeing the way she kept her own house so completely pristine where dust didn’t dare to descend—a custodial company seemed below her.
But she wore her position like some kind of brand, like something that was owed to her.
She’d treat Hawk that way, too, I had no doubt. Once she caught wind of the fact that he was interested in me and not Pris?
It didn’t matter. This was why I was leaving. I’d go to the ball with Hawk, and that would be that.
I was leaving before she could manipulate things and get me fired or something just to keep me away from him. It was what she’d done by kicking me out of my own house once I graduated from high school.
She’d offered me a job at the same time. It’d been an incentive, to soothe the impact of being uninvited from my home. With the prospect of paying rent, Stina had presented a position with her.
And I’d taken it to save myself the hassle of being interviewed anywhere else.
I’d intended on going to college at the time. Custodial had been the best job because it enabled meto juggle both school and work since my hours were so much earlier than my classes would have been.
But reality had hit with the force of a sledgehammer. Working such early, long hours left me too exhausted for classes.
Survival mode had kicked in, and I’d had to drop out.
I had to eat. School wasn’t going to feed me.
Postponing school was for the best. It had given me time to build my portfolio before applying for Garson’s School of Fashion Design in New York. I felt confident in the designs I’d been able to create, and the promise of Stina’s stipend had kept me going.
Sure, custodial meant having zero social life because of how early I had to go to bed, but it left my afternoons open for Stitches for Sierra,too.
There had been a lot of perks about the job, which was the only reason I’d stayed as long as I had.
The prospect of working during daylight hours absorbed me as I opened my locker and retrieved my gray jumpsuit. If I worked during the day, my evenings would be open for more dates…
And if I worked somewhere else, I could get off of Pris and Stina’s radar.
