“It’s a nice video,” Cindy shrugs.
“Mom. Really?” Lance groans.
“What?” she asks. “You’re young and in love, even if you don’t want to admit it. Anyone with common sense can see that the four of you obviously have a connection, and no one forced anyone to do anything.”
“I don’t know what to expect from Mom and Dad,” I say.
“Well,” Lance says. “You can always turn your phone on and find out.”
“Todd said I shouldn’t,” I say.
“Todd is trying to keep you from seeing what people are saying,” Dean says.
“I’m a computer engineer. I literally cannot escape the Internet,” I say.
“I know. He’s just trying to protect you,” Lance says. “Better to face it head-on with us than for you to try and ignore it.” I nod, and Mason hands me my phone from my bag. I turn it on and lay it on my leg while it powers up.
It dings once, and I look up, and then it keeps dinging. It doesn’t stop for a while. When it does, I see I have thirty-six missed calls from Mom and Dad and dozens upon dozens of notifications from my email and social media. My phone starts to ring, and it’s Mom. I sigh and answer the phone on speaker.
“Hello?” I answer with a sigh.
“Sadie Graves. What on earth is wrong with you? Do you realize what you have done?”
“Good morning to you, too, Mom,” I deadpan.
“Good morning? It isnota good morning. Do you know that I woke up to a video from Pastor Paul of you and your so-called friends doing depraved things?”
“Good to see Paul is still a fucking creep,” I say. “You do realize I’m an adult, correct? What I do is none of your concern.”
“It is my concern when it directly impacts me,” Mom snaps.
“Your life?” I laugh. “I’m getting death threats, Mom. Have you read the awful comments? We couldn’t even drive straight home because we were afraid someone would follow us. Oh, poor pitiful you, people gossip. Millions of people saw something that was not meant to be seen by anybody. Have you thought to stop for a second and ask who it is that is targeting me? Or do you not even give a shit?”
“Maybe you should’ve thought about that before you went around acting like a whore,” she says with venom in her tone. “Everything you get out of this, you deserve. What were you thinking, letting them take advantage of you like that?”
“No one took advantage of anyone. I’ve known them for twenty-three fucking years, Mom. We own a business together. We live together. What the fuck did you expect?” I ask.
“For them to take care of you. Not turn you into a mockery.”
“Well, they do take care of me,” I say, and Mason smirks. “You’ve literally never had an issue with them until this very moment.”
“It is a sin to have premarital sex. Sex is meant for reproducing, not pleasure,” Mom says.
“I won’t ever bereproducing,so you can just get that out of your head right now.”
“At this rate, one of those boys is going to knock you up, and then there you’ll be a single parent.”
“First of all, I wouldn’t be a single parent because I would have them, but that doesn’t even matter because no one’s having any kids. They had a vasectomy, and I have a ten-year birth-control implant that was just replaced last year. No one’s getting pregnant.”
“Well, we are still coming into town next weekend,” Mom says.
“Don’t think I’m letting you stay here after you just called me a whore. You’ll be lucky if I even see you when you come into town,” I say.
“Your father and I are very disappointed in you. Pastor Paul is disappointed in you,” she says, with a disapproving tone.
“I swear to God if you mention Paul one more time, I’m hanging up on you,” I say.
“Why?”
