Page 8 of My Weakness

“What is it, darling?” My stepdad answers his cell phone just as the movie we’re watching nears the end. “Calm down, Ava. It’s okay, I’m on my way.”

“What’s wrong?” Mom and I ask at the same time.

“Ava’s not well and she needs to come home. She’s asked me to get her.”

“Oh no.” My mom gasps. “Not at her Prom. She must be so upset.”

“Yeah, she didn’t sound good.” He runs his hand down his face in agitation.

“Let me go, you’ve had too much to drink to be able to drive, anyway, Richard.”

He and my mom have had a bottle between them throughout the night, not to mention the cocktail I mixed at the beginning of the night. The cocktail I didn’t drink for this sole reason.

“Shit, you’re right. You sure?”

“Of course. We’re family.”

Do I feel like shit? You’re damn right I do. Would I do it again given the chance? Yes. Anything to stop where the night was going.

***

I call her cell phone when I’m outside the school — another reason we can never be: she’s eighteen and still in school, and I’m twenty-fucking-five.

“River…” She sobs down the line and my heart fucking cracks in my chest. I did this to her.

“I’m outside, pipsqueak. Can you make it out to me?”

“Yes,” she whispers just before she hangs up.

I press my head back into the headrest and squeeze my eyes shut. I can’t be nice to her and it’s going to kill me, it does every time I make her hate me that little bit more.

I see her a few minutes later, her fragile frame hunched over as she clasps her stomach. I want to run to her, scoop her up in my arms and hold her, but I can’t. I wait until she’s in the car and belted in before pulling away.

“Pretty shit evening, huh?” Her eyes snap to mine and narrow.

Yeah, I’m an evil fucker.

Ava

I’ve finally managed to leave my bathroom and hearing River’s voice downstairs, I know this is my only opportunity to find out if my suspicions are true. After his comment in the car, I can’t help but think he did this to me. That my stepbrother has committed another cruel joke at my expense.

Sneaking into his bedroom and quietly making my way into his bathroom, I open the cabinet and find it straight away.

EXLAX.

I knew it! I will never forgive him for this.

Chapter Six

River

We break ground on my project today. It’s been in the making for pretty much five years, and I’ve had the land for about a year, but today is the day that it finally starts. Something for her, something she would love.

Something she will never see.

I stop by on my way to work and have a chat with the foreman; I’ve worked with him before and I trust him to make this dream come true.

Her dream.