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“You’re right, maybe I don’t, but you are my daughter, Tess.” She grabs my hand, but I quickly pull it away. “You can hate me all you want, but one day you’ll see that I’m doing this to protect you. You are my world. You are all I have left of your father.” The emotion that takes over her voice has my gaze finally drifting to hers. She swipes at a stray tear before continuing, “If something happened to you…” She trails off.
“Nothing happened to me, Mom. I’m right here,” I reassure her.
“But something could’ve happened. Things could’ve ended much differently tonight than they did.”
“But they didn’t,” I continue to argue.
“Tess, I love you. It’s my job to protect you. Whether intentionally or not, that boy put you in horrible danger tonight, and I simply can’t take the risk that he’ll do it again.”
“Mom, please.” My tears resurface in an instant. “I love him.”
“I know you do. But, sweetie, he’s leaving in a few weeks anyway. I think this is best all around.”
“Best for you maybe. You’re determining my entire life based on one bad choice. Sebastian is everything to me, Mom.” My voice gets a little carried away as I struggle to reel in my emotion.
“Your entire life? I think that’s a bit dramatic. You’re only seventeen. Your life hasn’t even really started yet. Trust me, one day this will all just be a distant memory. You don’t see it now, but you will. One day when you have children of your own, you’ll know I did this out of love.”
“You can’t keep me from him.” The words seep out before I can stop them.
“I can. And I will. Even if that means I have to monitor you every waking minute,” she warns.
“Good luck with that,” I bite, directing all my anger at her.
“Phone.” She holds out her hand. “Give me your phone, Tess,” she continues when I just stare at her upturned palm.
“What?” I look at her like she has five heads. “I’m not giving you my phone.”
“Yes, you are. Because I pay for that phone. So either you give it to me or I’ll call and cancel your line. The choice is yours.”
“Mom, please don’t do this. Please,” I sob, my hands shaking and my stomach so knotted I feel like I might vomit at any moment.
“You wanna threaten me, Tess, I will hand it right back to you. Now give me your phone.”
I sit there for several seconds before finally digging my phone out of my back pocket, but instead of putting it in her outreached hand I throw it into her lap.
“Congratulations. I officially hate you,” I spit, throwing open the car door and stomping toward the house.
I spend the rest of the night locked in my room pacing. My mom doesn’t bother me. I think she knows right now is not the time. I still can’t wrap my head around how quickly everything fell apart tonight.
Sebastian.
God, just the thought of how broken he looked at the police station makes my knees tremble beneath my weight. My strong, confident, carefree Sebastian was gone, replaced by a hollow shell that couldn’t even look at me.
I know it only takes one night—one moment, one choice—to change the entire direction of your life. To take everything you thought you wanted or knew and jumble it into something almost unrecognizable. I experienced this first-hand the night I met Sebastian.
And now I’m terrified that this night—this moment, this choice—will change everything all over again. And not in a way that either of us ever saw coming.
***
I attempted to call Sebastian from the house phone the next afternoon while my mom was in the shower, but it kept going straight to voicemail. All I wanted was to hear his voice, to reassure him that no matter what my mom said nothing was going to rip us apart.
By Monday morning the knot in my stomach had grown substantially in size. I hadn’t slept in nearly two days and couldn’t stomach the thought of eating. I felt like my world was crumbling around me and had no idea how to fix any of it.
Sebastian never showed up for school, and his cell continued to go to voicemail. It was the same story on Tuesday. Again, a no-show. By Wednesday I’m running on fumes and just getting dressed for school feels nearly impossible.
When I walk into the building just after seven fifteen, I’ve all but given up hope of seeing Sebastian. So when I catch sight of him making his way down the hall, a rush of adrenaline runs through me and my body reacts as if on autopilot. I run to catch up to him, reaching him just as he stops in front of his locker.
“Sebastian.” My voice is winded, my chest rising and falling at a rapid pace as I work to steady my raging heart.
