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She stepped closer to her parents.You can be the exception.
“Look who it is,” her dad grumbled when he glanced her way. “You rushed out this morning. I bet you were embarrassed by last night’s tantrum.”
“No, I—”
“I hope it wasn’t to see that boy you were talking to in the bowling alley,” he said, with the ranting tone he’d been using on her mum.
“So what if it was?” Lucie squealed, surprised at her words. She fought the temptation to turn and find Chris through thewindow of the pancake house. He didn’t need to be dragged into her family dramas.
“Excuse me? I don’t like your attitude. He’s rubbing off on you, although I bet he’s finding it very entertaining,” her dad replied with a sneer. Her mum tried to interject, but he waved her away.
“What do you mean?” She yanked at her ponytail.
“There are two reasons why boys like that talk to girls like you.” He rolled his shoulders as if he was already bored with the conversation. “He’s either trying to use you, or he wants to humiliate you. Either way, you need to stay away from him for your future.”
Was he right? She didn’t have any experience to compare it to. And what did he mean by use her? She hid her gasp. Did he mean..? Surely not that.
“He’s just being a friend,” she mumbled.
Her mum finally interjected. “Of course he is. You’re our good girl. He probably sees you like a little sister or like a holiday buddy. And I’m sure he isn’t trying to humiliate you. He’s probably bored because his girlfriend dumped him, and there wasn’t anything else for him to do. That’s what Emma said this morning.”
Her father laughed loudly. Somehow he’d won points off the conversation without giving the final blow. “What?” he asked as her mum nudged him. “She knows she’s not the sort of girl that guys like to spend time with. Her lack of boyfriends and friends proves that.”
Tears welled in her eyes. Chris was chatting to her because she was one step up from boredom, and all her family knew it. Emma didn’t say cruel things. She was the best sister there was, so she had to be correct.
Suddenly her dad’s smile transformed as he glanced over her shoulder. He usually smiled like that when he was with clients.Lucie turned to find Jess’s parents walking towards them. “Guys, where have you been? You’ve missed all the fun. Obviously, I beat Kathleen at golf. She tried but was no match for me. Steve, let me tell you how I got a hole in one.”
Jess’s parents joined them, and Lucie was quickly forgotten as they walked off in the direction of the activity centre.
She couldn’t go back to the pancake house and face Chris now, but she couldn’t leave him to face the bill either. She dropped her head but refused to sob in front of the Stepford wives huffing as they stepped awkwardly around her. She dug the heels of her hands into her closed eyes and held back tears.
A hand brushed her shoulder, and she flinched away.
“Lucie, are you okay?” Chris asked, his voice gentle. “Whatever he said to you can’t be true.”
“What did you hear?” she asked brusquely. She didn’t need anyone else laughing at her.
“I didn’t hear anything, but I saw you. You practically folded up when your parents spoke to you. Why? What did they say?” Chris’s green eyes fixed on hers. If she hadn’t known better, she would have said Chris cared, but that was impossible based on what her parents and Emma said, and everyone knew it.
“Nothing,” she replied sullenly, but he continued to inspect her face. “I’d best go and pay. Don’t worry. I was still going to pay. I know you don’t have much money.” Jess had mentioned something about that.
His face changed at her comment. “I wasn’t worried. I have money. I’ve paid for our pancakes, and I got the rest of yours to go.” He pushed the wrapped-up pancake in her direction. “I put the smiley face on for you but it didn’t really work because you’d already cut it up so I tried doing lots of tiny smiley faces.”
“Oh, right.” She snatched the pancake. “Thanks.”
“I had a plan for what we could do next, but I’m not sure you want to be around me, and that’s okay. I’m not sure I want to bearound you at the moment when you’re lying and judging me. Maybe you will be good at law after all, Lucie, as you seem to be like your dad in some ways,” Chris snapped before walking away.
“I don’t lie! How dare you say I lie,” she shouted, running after him. Her heart beat rapidly as she grabbed his arm and yanked him back to face her. “And I am nothing like him. Don’t ever say that.”
“Then stop judging me and stop judging yourself. You stood up to your dad, which was really impressive, and then he got in your head, and you’re letting it ruin your day.”
“Fine,” she barked. “Let’s not let him ruin it. Let’s get out into the forest and do something crazy.”
“Are you sure?” he asked cautiously, although one corner of his mouth kept bobbing as if he wanted to risk a smile.
“Yeah. I’m fed up with all these people who look the same and act the same, and yet I bet they have their own sordid secrets that they hide in their postcard-perfect lives.” She unwrapped the leftovers of her pancake and snatched bites in anger. Chocolatey gooeyness filled her mouth as she thought of the things she’d believed about her own family in the past.
“Tell me about it. Right, come with me,” Chris replied, encouraging her to walk beside him.
