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“Yeah, I do. But we aren’t as close as we used to be. Not after …” she lets that trail off.
“After what?”
“I … I can’t talk about that right now,” she says as she sits up on the bed and looks over at me. I see the sadness, the hurt in her eyes and I wonder who did it to her. Someone hurt her.
“Fair enough,” I tell her as I drop down onto the couch and kick my feet up on the small table in front of me. Olson smiles, and it’s breathtaking.
“Make yourself comfortable,” she teases.
“Don’t mind if I do. What’s the plans anyway? This whole family shit you have goin’ on.”
“Thanksgiving, obviously, and then Christmas. Everyone will come here for Christmas like every year.”
“That don’t get tirin’?”
“Having them here?” she asks as I nod my head.
“It can be. It’s a lot of people who you haven’t really talked to in a year.”
“You’re not close with your family?”
“A lot happened that slowly ripped us apart. We don’t talk every day. Hell, we barely talk while they’re here.”
“Then why do it?”
“Why have them here?” she asks.
“Yeah. Why bother?”
“I don’t know. I suppose it’s what’s expected of me. They know I do this every year, and they expect me to keep on doing it.”
“What if you didn’t do it?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how they’d all react.”
“You know it’s not worth your sanity, yeah?” I ask her. She shifts on the bed before shrugging her shoulders.
“I don’t know anymore. Some days I feel like giving up and just saying fuck it. Other days, I know my mom would never speak to me again if I did it.”
“They use you,” I state.
“It feels like that sometimes,” she agrees softly. Damn. What kind of fucked up family does she have? I guess I’m going to find out.
“You shouldn’t let them, Princess. It’s not worth it,” I tell her.
“It is when they’re all you have,” she informs me. I cock my head to the side and study her.
“Hollywood not all that it appears to be?” I ask her. I couldn’t imagine her not having friends. I just can’t see it.
“No.” That’s all she says before shoving off the bed and walking into what I assume is the bathroom. I listen as the water turns on before I lean back and rest my head against the back of the couch.
Maybe I pegged this girl all wrong.
4
Olson
Thanksgiving isn’t the worst time. It’s Christmas I hate. I hate having them all under my roof. I hate that I sleep in fear. But maybe not this year. Not with Ridge here. Maybe he will be enough to deter my uncle. I don’t know. I can hope.
