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“Yep, that’s me.” She motions for me to join her, and I make my way to the couch opposite her and flop down, the cushions feel like I’m sitting on clouds.
“It’s like heaven on your butt.” She says, and we both laugh. “I’m Lainey, I read in your file that our sessions are mandatory. Do you know why?” She slips on a pair of thick, black-rimmed glasses that are way too big for her face, but she somehow pulls them off.
I shrug my shoulders. “I guess my father is still worried that I’m bat shit crazy and might want to neck myself.”
“How about we talk about why he would be worried? I’ve read everything, but it’s nothing but a bunch of shrink talk. I would prefer to hear your side, we can do the cliff notes version if it makes it easier for you.”
“My mum died a few years ago, my father moved on, and I spiralled and turned to drinking and drugs when my soulmate died last year.” I try to hold back the tears, and I pull a fluffy pillow into my lap for comfort. “I think after his death, my life no longer had any meaning. I tried to kill myself, I figured I couldn’t live my life without him. I think Zeke dying was the last straw for my father. He sent me to a rehabilitation centre and then straight here.” I leave out that part about me being blackmailed to be here.
“Grief is hard to process, I can’t imagine what you went through. Are you still having nightmares?”
“Sometimes, they did give me pills that have been helping. They were reluctant to give them to me, but in all honesty, I don’t know if my father really cares anymore. Out of sight out of mind.”
“Maybe he just doesn’t know how to help you. Fathers and teenage girls; it can be tricky. When your medication is running low, let me know and I will get you more. I have to legally monitor them.” I nod. I get it, they can’t risk me trying to take the whole packet again, but I wouldn’t ever try. Having my stomach pumped was not a nice experience, and after that, I decided I deserved the pain I have to live with. His accident was my fault. If I hadn’t called him to come get me because I was wasted, he would still be here.
“Let's move on, we can cover your past when you’re ready. Today, I wanted to see how you are getting on here, if you’re making any friends.”
“I made one, maybe two friends. Luna seems nice enough, and Cuyler has made it a point to befriend me.” Her eyes go wide at Cuy’s name.
“Luna is an amazing girl, she could use a friend. I was informed that you are in the Alpha dorm.”
“Yep, it’s been interesting, but Diesel barely talks to me. At school he’s an ass, but I think I have gotten under his skin and the others don’t tend to talk or acknowledge me.”
“Just be careful, I hate to talk bad about students, but those boys are trouble. I see girls in here all the time because of it. They reel you in and then cut you off just as fast. It’s a cruel game.”
“I’m not naïve, I won’t fall for their games. I hope to eventually be on friendly terms with them, so my living conditions are not unbearable, but it’s one school year, and then I’m gone. How bad can it be?”
Her face looks grim, she knows more than she is saying. I don’t care either way if they bully me or try to be my best friends. I’m just doing what I have been told to do so that damn tape doesn’t get leaked. It’s the least I can do for the Mickleson family. Zeke’s family doesn’t deserve their son’s face all over gossip magazines for making a sex tape just before his death.
Chapter Ten
Diesel
My father summoned me to have dinner with him and Mum tonight. Tomorrow everyone starts to fly in, and all bids will need to be in by midnight, so the board of people in charge can tally bids and set schedules for fights and make sure everything runs smoothly. As a senior this year, I get to welcome everyone and go over the rules, even though I could think of a million better things to be doing with my time.
Once we have finished eating, my mum gets a call from my aunt–my father’s sister–and she excuses herself.
My father and I go into his office, he doesn’t like to involve my mum in any of this, and it’s actually one thing we agree on.
“Have you narrowed down your bids?” he asks, and I nod.
I slide the files across his desk. They’re all girls that I have never met before and one’s I have zero intention of fighting for. This is just to compile a master list of families and girls for this year’s fights. The board will go over and pick a final list anyway. So this part all seems so pointless.
“Wilder is bidding on Cyrus, just like you expected,” I tell him, and his lip pulls up into what is supposed to be a smile.
“That kid is way too predictable. If it wasn’t for that girl's family heritage, Wilder wouldn’t even be here.”
Fun fact, Luna’s real father, that she has no idea about, was an extremely wealthy man, he had an affair with her mother and knocked her up. He paid Wilder’s family to raise her after her mother’s death. I have been sworn to secrecy, and I have zero intention of getting involved in that drama. Wilder’s parents are wealthy, just not Alpha wealthy, and I think Wilder suspects that–it’s why he has a damn chip on his shoulder. Luna is here on a scholarship so she doesn’t get suspicious. Apparently, it was even in a letter her mother wrote to Wilder's mother that was left in her will. That she didn’t want her to even know who her father was.
“You want me to fight for her, right?” I ask him.
“I do, it’s good business. You don’t have to like her, but could you at least be nice to her until I smooth it over with her father? He will not be happy when he knows the bid came in, but I can show him who did the bid. He won’t allow him to fight for his daughter, and I think I can talk you up.”
“What’s in it for me?”
He eyes me across his desk, and he thinks for a while. “I’m sure you can think of something, when you know, we can talk about it.”
That’s good enough for me. One thing you can at least count on with my father is he is a man of his word. Whatever I come up with, within reason because I also know my father, he will give me. I can’t ask for freedom because I am a Briar, after all, and he has plans for my future.
