BRAYDEN
Gwen, I think you owe me another apology. Ghosting me won’t change what you did!
Brayden had always liked talking to himself more than to me, but apparently, I didn’t even need to be in the room, city, or text thread for him to argue with me.
BRAYDEN
Is this some sort of banishment? Ignore me and I won’t tell everyone what you are?
Well, that’s not going to happen. Everyone is going to know that you’re a witchy freak!
I knew that thing you wanted to do in bed was weird. No other girls have ever asked to do that.
I wasn’t into it! You didn’t have to manipulate my anatomy!
I snickered and scrolled several times to newer messages. And boy, was that a mistake because I missed several chapters of whatever Brayden was going through.
BRAYDEN
No one’s childhood was perfect, Gwen, but you have no idea what this isolation has done to me!
Don’t you ever tell anyone about that skateboard commercial. I did it for the money.
Well, I knew exactly what I would be reading tonight. I put my phone on silent while all of the notifications flooded in, then tucked it away in my pocket, surprisingly not quite ready to jump back into the world outside of SCUW.
When I looked up, I saw Mom’s beat-up Toyota rolling across the makeshift parking lot. I’d told her not to come.
That was what I wanted, right?
I was sure she wouldn’t have driven all the way here to stop me. But could she have come to see with her own eyes that I really wasn’t going home? Or maybe she was happy for me and just wanted to tell me she was proud?
Yeah, right.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I muttered.
“What?” Faith asked, but I’d already shouldered my duffel bag and started walking at a clipped pace over to Mom’s car.
“I told you not to come,” I said by way of greeting. I crossed my arms as Mom cut the engine and stepped out of the car. “You’ve just wasted a bunch of gas for nothing.”
“Honey, I?—”
“You must be Mrs. Morales!” Faith called, interrupting our exchange with her friendly chaos. “Hi, I’m Faith. I’m from up north and . . .” She went off, regaling Mom with her story, and Mom oscillated between dutifully listening with a tight-lipped smile and shooting me concerned, apologetic glances.
Eventually, Faith did a vibe check and realized that her chatter wasn’t helping the situation. “Well, I’m going to go grab my backpack.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder and looked at me. “My dad’s truck will be at the gates any minute now.”
I nodded. Mom and I watched her go, waiting until she was halfway across the kickball field before speaking.
“So, they are letting dads in now?” Mom asked in that passive-aggressive way that I hadn’t minded until now.
“He has to wait at the ward line like everyone else,” I said. “Besides, he’s a vampire. Not a human.”
I didn’t know why I said it other than to hurt her. Apparently, my arrows weren’t the only things hitting bull’s-eyes as of late. I instantly regretted the look in her eyes. Maybe I just wanted her to feel a little of what I was feeling, share the pain I’d been carrying on my own.
Mom’s eyebrows lifted. “I see they’ve done an excellent job indoctrinating you,” she said. “I worried that sending you here was a mistake. But I couldn’t have you turning every bratty emo boy into a toad.”
“I won’t be dating more boys anytime soon.”
“Because you hate humans?” she asked sarcastically, misreading my statement as meaning human boys and not cute witches with red hair and freckles on their nose who liked to stomp on my heart for no good reason. “You hate your father now, hmm? You hate half of yourself?”
