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“Oh my, how unfortunate.” Then she looks at her daughter. “I guess Cara won’t be taking the reins from you after all, dear. You better get that other one...what's her name? Eleanor...no that’s not right.” She trails off in thought, and I close my eyes for a quick blink to hide my eye roll.
“Ella,” I offer and she claps.
“Yes, dreadful girl, but she is the only other legacy that's worthy I suppose.”
Penny goes to respond, but we're saved by Mandy and the dessert cart. Finally, something I can eat. My mother seems to be on a health kick again.I fucking hate tofu.
We finish our keto-friendly chocolate cake, which wasn’t half bad when paired with thirty-year-old scotch, and then said goodnight to our parents. It seems Penny is staying the night with me tonight and catching a ride back to campus in the morning. I enter my room and immediately take off my tie. I hate formal dinners. I would much rather be kicking back in Kansas around a wooden table full of southern home cooking and laughter. Rocking a pair of jeans and band tee. I slide over to the bathroom and grab my sweats from earlier. I don’t bother with a shirt since I’m going to bed and shut the bathroom door before Penny gets any ideas. I lock it, then turn and sit on the counter. I pull out my phone and scroll through my photos. Cara’s baby blues shine back at me. She was always so oblivious when she got into writing lyrics. She’d tune the whole world out and softly hum whatever melody was playing in her head.
Now I can picture her sitting in a rocking chair and humming to her baby. Fuck! A baby. I still can’t wrap my head around it. I know I need to tell the guys, but my dad said it would just make Jase and Lay spiral more, and I kinda agree with that. I shut my phone down and place it on the counter. I really don’t want to go back out there. Maybe we can just get a head start back to school tonight. It’s only a two hour drive.
I leave the bathroom and Penny is standing there with a scowl on her face and hands on her hips.
“Well, I’m waiting. Aren’t you going to ask? Bring up what my mother said?”
I blink slowly for a moment and give her my shark smile.
“Yeah, what was that all about? If you knew Cara and vise-versa how come she didn’t say anything?”
She rolls her eyes and looks at her nails, avoiding my eyes.
“We were five and seven. Like she would remember that. Not like I could ever forget though. It was always Cara this, and Cara that or Cara never would have thrown a fit in Bloomingdale's just for a pair of sunglasses, really Penelope you should be ashamed of yourself. I wish Cara was my daughter. Ya know she would have been if her bitch of a mother didn’t steal my man.”
What the fuck!?My mind is racing and things are finally starting to make sense. Why Penny immediately had it out for a sweet, innocent girl. Why she didn’t want her around.
“Are you seriously telling me that I ruined what could have been the best thing in my brother’s life,”and mine,“just because you were jealous?” I ask in exasperation and she scoffs.
“I’m not jealous!” she screams at me, and I laugh. Though I feel like crying. She ruined the best thing in our lives in a long time, because her mother compared them. She’s not just evil, she's insane. And my poor ass is stuck with her.
Maybe Lay had the right idea. The only way we will be free of Penelope Smith is if we’re dead and buried.
Thirteen
Jase
“Jase I love you brother, but I can’t do this right now. There is bigger shit going on than you having a breakdown. Nut up and get over it. Lay will be okay. Listen to what he said. He wants to go there for help. Yes, I talked to him as well. He knew you would freak out. Just let him get better, brother. Then you can work things out okay. I love you but I have to go. I’ll be home in a few days.”Tears roll down my cheeks as my twin destroys what little hope I have left. The phone disconnects before I can beg for him to come back and help me. Being alone in this big empty house, sleeping in Lay’s bed without him there is not helping things. I can’t believe he chose to leave too. I know in the back of my mind this will be good for him. But I have always been the one to hold his hand through everything. I don’t know what to do with myself while he is becoming independent. We've been through so much shit over the years and I need him to still need me.
The front door slams open and footsteps pound up the stairs. I sit up and wipe my eyes, but I know one look at me and they'll see how much of a mess I am. I’m still in the clothes I left the hospital in three days ago, and I haven't showered. Plus all the empty liquor bottles on the bed won’t help matters.
I hold my breath as I wait for whoever is home to crash into my pity party. The door swings open and the last person I expected to see is standing before me. He has a scowl on his face and he looks almost as bad as me.
“What are you doing here, Xavier?” I ask, my voice sounding like gravel. He scoffs, then kicks an empty pizza box out of the way before taking a seat on the corner of the bed.
“I’m here to help you, but fuck Jase, you reek. Go take a shower. Then you and I are going to talk about the manipulative bitch who has all your balls in a vice.” My eyes widen at that and my pulse races. How does he know about Penny and the blackmail? Bile rises in my throat and I stumble from the bed to the bathroom, emptying the contents of three days worth of fast food and alcohol.
Xavier shoves in behind me and turns the shower on. He grabs my shoulder and tugs me from the ground, before tossing me under the ice cold stream.
“Fuck!” I shout, because that shit is freezing. He leaves me there shivering, dripping in my wet sweatpants and white shirt, which is now a second skin.
“We’re all a little fucked up man, but you need to snap out of it. You’re supposed to be a king. So start fucking acting like it. I’ve lost too much because of you, and if you didn’t look so pathetic I would kick your ass until you were in the hospital breathing from a tube. Wake the fuck up and let’s take a bitch down.”
I wince at that image. It wasn’t long ago that I saw Lay in the same position.
I turn the water to warm and nod. “Sounds like a fantasy to me, Xavier. You can’t take Penny down. She's like a tapeworm. Buries herself so far into your body that you don’t know she’s there until she’s draining the life out of you slowly. She’s a parasite, and one day she will control the world.”
He rolls his eyes and turns to leave. “Hurry the fuck up!” he shouts before slamming the door. I lean back against the cool tile and let the water warm me up. I have a bitch of a headache and now that Xavier is here and wants to chat, I know it’s not going to go away.
I was just wishing for someone to be here so I didn’t feel so alone, but now I regret it. I guess that saying is true… be careful what you wish for.
