“Well, it never stopped them before.”
Alex might not have been here to see the breakdown of my relationship with my parents, but I know he knows what happened. He could tell we were all distant with each other and never fully healed that crack in our relationship.
My parents were good at pretending I didn’t exist that year. Good at making sure I knew that they were disappointed in me and that I had to learn my lesson. It might’ve helped me produce some of my best work, but being disconnected from the people that raised me for that long caused irrevocable damage. I’m still trying to get that time back. But with the list, things have started looking up. I might finally get them to see me again.
“Come on,” Alex urges, “let me see the list.”
“You know that’s against the rules,” I seethe.
“Since when has that been a problem for you?” I open my mouth, ready to argue with him, try to tell him that I’ve changed, but the truth is, I haven’t. I’m always going to be a rule breaker at heart. He grins. “Quickly, so they don’t see.”
I pull out the sheet of paper I’ve had folded in the back of my phone case and hand it to Alex. I wait anxiously as I watch him scan over it, flipping it around to find it empty on the back. Hereads the six bullet points for a solid three minutes and I start to get impatient. All he manages to muster is: “Huh.”
I look at the list and then back up at his puzzled expression. “What is it?”
“Nothing. I . . . It’s just different to what I expected. It’s been so long since I did mine.”
He looks at the list again intently. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just that you were right. Thisisridiculous.”
I let out a short laugh. “I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.” Alex stands abruptly, shoving the list into his pocket with an annoyed breath and I stand too. “Wait. Where are you going?”
“To talk to Mom and Dad,” he says, taking the stairs two at a time.
My heart thrashes loudly in my chest as I follow after him. “A-About the list?”
“Yes. They’ve been making you run around and do all of this and—”
“What are you talking about?”
He stops at the bottom of the stairs, and I almost collide right into his back. I hold myself up against the railing while I take in his furious expression. The tips of his ears have gone red now, his eyebrows knitted together with fury as he shakes the list in his hand.
“Scarlett, the boys and I had to do some pretty annoying shit, but it wasn’t anything like this.” He points at the paper. “Get married? That’s fucking insane. You’re twenty!”
“That’s what I said. They did that one as a joke,” I whisper-shout, exasperated. He turns and I chase after him. I’ve never seen him so angry before, and something about him being this upset on my behalf unsettles me a little. I grip his arm, pulling him back. “Alex, it’s fine. You said it yourself, it’s tradition.Everything else on there is manageable. I’m going to complete it and then I’ll get the job.”
“Like hell you are,” he mutters, tugging himself out of my grip.
And then he’s gone, pushing open the large doors that lead into the grand living room. I stand there, momentarily frozen, watching from a distance as the surprise dawns on my parents’ faces at Alex’s outburst.
What the hell is going on?
I knew the list was a little absurd, but this . . . this feels like it’s so much more than that.
I make my way into the living room just as Alex shoves the paper into my dad’s chest, causing him to stumble a little. “What the hell is this?” he demands. Leo, Arthur and Junior stare at me from where they’re sitting on the couch, and I wish I could give them an answer. Tell them that everything’s fine. But something is telling me that it isn’t.
My dad grips the list in his fist, glancing over at me. “You weren’t supposed to see this. This is only meant for Scarlett.”
Alex lets out an incredulous laugh as my mom stands by my dad’s side, a reassuring hand on his arm. “Do you want to tell her or should I?”
“Tell me what?” I ask, but my voice sounds weak.
Alex doesn’t wait for our parents to answer, and he spins to me. “They were never going to give you the job, Scarlett. They just wanted to prove a point to me.”
“Prove a point?” I ask, blinking back the confused, angry tears that are threatening to fall. “Respectfully, Alex, what does this have to do with you?”
Alex opens his mouth, but he doesn’t say anything. He sinks onto the edge of the couch, his head in his hands. I can see his chest heaving from here, matching my own as I try to put the pieces together.
