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Mom: I’ve done nothing but provide for you, and this is how you repay me?
Mom: I’ll make sure that boy’s parents throw you out on the street! They deserve to know their son’s screwing around with a whore.
Mom: If you’re so independent, you can pay your own bills. I won’t continue to support a selfish, ungrateful cunt! And good luck doing that without a bank account!
Mom: I’ve just removed you from my health insurance. Good luck when you end up pregnant or with an STI from whoring yourself around and can’t afford your medical care!
Mom: I did NOT give you permission to take that car. You have 24 hours before I report it as stolen! Maybe a few nights in jail will teach you a lesson.
I didn’t even realize my hand was shaking until Ian pulled the phone out of it, and it still stayed suspended in midair, trembling violently. He read the texts, then slid the phone into his pocket and pulled me into his arms.
“Dad and Maya love you, Ky,” he whispered. “And especially after what happened yesterday, they won’t believe a damn word your mom has to say to them.”
“She’s on my bank account because I was sixteen when I set it up,” I choked out. “That wasn’t an empty threat.”
“Okay, so as soon as we get ready, you’re going to call the bank and explain the situation. You’re eighteen now, so you can get her name off your account,” he reassured me. “We can go to your branch this morning if we need to.”
I nodded. That made sense. I could focus on that. But there was still so much other stuff to consider.
“She…she took me off her insurance. What if I get sick? Or what if something happens and—”
“She wouldn’t have been able to get you off her insurance that fast, baby,” he cut me off, kissing my hair. “She’s just trying to scare you into coming home.”
“But she will,” I said in a small voice. “You don’t know her, Ian. You have no idea how awful she can be when she doesn’t get her way. Maybe this was a terrible idea.”
But even as I said it, I knew that wasn’t true. Because the thought of setting foot back in that house scared me even more than the thought of how I was going to make it on my own if she really did cut off all support. If I was really about to move forward with reporting my assault, I needed to be where I felt safe. And I didn’t feel safe in my mom’s house. Not really.
“I really, really don’t like what I’m about to suggest because I’m going to come off sounding like a controlling and abusive asshole,” he sighed.
I pulled back to look at him. “You think I should block her number.”
“Yeah, I do. She’s angry and lashing out right now, and as long as she still has this connection to you through your cellphone, she’s going to keep doing what she’s doing. If you cut off that connection, if her texts start bouncing back, it’ll force her to stop and think about what happened. And if she really wants to talk to you that badly, I gave her our address. She can come here and say what she has to say to your face, and she can do it in front of me and my dad, who are going to make sure that you’re safe and comfortable and make sure she doesn’t hurt you again.”
“What if she shuts off my phone? She could. I’m on her plan,” I pointed out.
“She won’t. Because she’ll keep hoping you’ll unblock her so she can dish out more of this bullshit to you.”
“How do you know that?”
“I took Psych as an elective last year,” he chuckled. “And Maya’s dad is a lot like your mom. She tries to keep the worst of it from me and Iz, but we’re not blind. We see her deal with crap like this all the time. But if your mom does shut off your phone, we’ll figure something out.”
“But what about her reporting the car stolen?” I worried. “I mean, it’s not in my name. She could do that.”
“One thing at a time, baby,” he soothed me. “Right now, we’re going to go get coffee and breakfast and go to the pet store. Then we’re going to come back here and just chill out until my dad gets home, and then we’ll talk to him and figure out what our next step is in this mess. Okay?”
“Okay,” I sighed.
* * *
By the time we got back to the house after our morning outing, it was almost noon, and there was a car in the driveway that I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t his dad’s or Maya’s or Izzie’s.
“Whose car is that?” I asked.
“No clue,” Ian said. “Only one way to find out, I guess.”
I sighed and got out of the car. I went to grab our haul from PetSmart, but he beat me to it, so I just followed him to the door. Ian unlocked it, and we were immediately attacked by Sergio, as usual. And Izzie and Hillary were sitting there on the couch waiting for us.
“We wondered where you two went,” Izzie chuckled. “PetSmart? Really? You have the entire house to yourselves this morning and you run off to the pet store? You’re the most boring high school couple on the planet!”
