Chapter Twenty-Five Second Level of Grounding #2
Still holding on to Rosie, I rush down the stairs and go straight to the kitchen. Mom’s at the stove, cooking something. Sadie is sitting at the breakfast bar, and she looks upset. Worried.
“Hey, Sadie. Want to go up—”
“You can only talk to her with me in the room,” my mother says. “Since I know how much you love hiding things from me.”
I exhale. I guess talking to her with my mother here is better than not talking to her at all. I put Rosie down and sit on a stool.
“Meera, I’m so sorry,” Sadie says first. “I had no idea she was doing this.”
I frown. Who the heck is she talking about? “What do you mean? Who did what?”
She gasps, her eyes widening with realization. “You haven’t seen it.” She glances at my mother. “It’s Kaitlyn. She and her father wrote an op-ed in The Cherrybridge Daily. About… you. And Uncle Jason. It was posted this afternoon.” She holds out her phone.
“What?” I say as my mother drops her dishcloth and rushes to my side so she can see the article too. I take the phone from Sadie and read the article, while Mom reads over my shoulder.
“Trusting the Un-Trustable” is the headline, and it’s written by Stuart Chambers and his daughter Kaitlyn.
The whole article is about how ridiculous it is that the town is rallying behind Jason LeClair as a mayoral candidate.
After a few paragraphs about Jason LeClair having no idea how to run a city because he doesn’t work full-time at LeClair Industries (what does that have to do with anything?) and how the family is too liberal to look out for the town’s interests, it starts talking about Mom and me.
Basically it implies that Jason married my mother only for virtue signaling, and that my mother and I are as duplicitous as Jason is.
It states that I have a criminal record and have been spending my days in Cherrybridge with other juvenile delinquents completing court-ordered community service.
And it goes on to say that I’ve been pretending to date a troubled local boy to upset my family.
It gives Noah’s full name, says he also has a criminal record, and says he comes from a family of drug addicts.
They then say they’ve heard that Noah is following in his father’s and older brother’s footsteps when it comes to substance use.
Then it goes on to ask how anyone can trust a LeClair to guide this town, and essentially calls us exploitative grifters who will turn Cherrybridge over to criminals and drug addicts.
“Stuart Chambers has a lot of nerve,” Mom says. Her voice is shaking. “He’s made it clear many times that he doesn’t think I belong here.”
Suddenly I remember the name. Stuart was the old white man who wanted to stop me and Noah from going to that first party at the club. The one who was racist about Mom’s name. That was Kaitlyn’s father? Bile rises from my stomach.
“I’m sorry, Meera and Aunt Neelam,” Sadie says. She sounds like she’s about to cry. “I had no idea Kaitlyn would do this.”
“But… why?” I ask, voice shaking. “Kaitlyn’s dad is racist, but why does Kaitlyn hate me so much?”
“I think it’s because of Noah,” Sadie says. “That song your friend remixed went viral on TikTok. One of the commenters said they knew him, and knew that a concert promoter had gotten Noah a gig on the emerging-artist stage at the Summer Glow Festival in Montreal. Kaitlyn is jealous.”
My eyes widen. “Noah was the one scouted at Donut Den?” It makes sense, but… why didn’t he tell me? I remember him saying that he was supposed to go to that festival too—but he couldn’t because of community service. “How viral did the video go?”
“It’s huge,” Sadie says. “It’s been all over social media this weekend. If Kaitlyn and her father hadn’t written this piece, I guarantee there would have been an article about Noah here instead. Cherrybridge loves their local heroes. Unless they’re…”
“Criminals and drug addicts,” I say.
She winces. “Kaitlyn’s dad probably pulled some strings to get this piece in before anything about Noah. I told Kaitlyn our friendship is over, but…”
“But this is already in print,” Mom says softly. “Or at least on this website.”
“Has Noah seen this?” My voice cracks. This is going to wreck him.
Mom puts her hand on my back and rubs, like she’s forgotten that we’re not talking. I shake her hand away from me. I don’t need her empty gesture of comfort right now.
Mom exhales. “How much of this is true?” she asks me.
“None of it. Noah’s not a drug addict. I told you, he doesn’t even drink.
He’s a straight A student, and the only time he was in trouble with the police was when he was charged with trespassing because he cut through the LeClair grounds on his way home one day and they wanted to make an example of him. ”
Mom looks shocked. I guess Jason didn’t tell her?
I decide to go for broke and tell her everything, since she refuses to trust me anyway.
“And yeah, at first Noah and I were only pretending to date to make you mad. I thought you’d send me away from him, because that’s what people in this family do to bad girls.
And Noah agreed to it to get back at Jason for what he did to Noah’s father. ”
“What are you talking about? What did Jason—”
“Ask your husband. There’s a lot you don’t know about the man you married.
So yeah, you once accused me of bringing Noah to that club party just to make you mad, and that’s exactly why I did it.
But then we became friends, and started really dating on the day of the LeClair picnic.
I lied to you about us being together, and then about us not being together.
” I lift my chin. If she’s determined to think I’m a disgrace, then I might as well confirm it.
For the first time since we started fighting this summer, I see tears in Mom’s eyes. I finally managed to crack through her anger to get at a different emotion. She looks… heartbroken. Defeated.
And to be honest, it doesn’t feel nearly as good as I thought it would. I feel like complete crap. I really did ruin her life. And she ruined mine.
Mom wipes her eyes, not saying a word, then takes her apron off. After turning off the stove, she opens a kitchen drawer and takes out my phone. She places it on the counter.
“I can’t do this anymore,” she says quietly.
“You win, Meera. I’m… I’m not fighting you any longer.
If you would go to those lengths just to get away from me, then…
” She exhales. “I’m sorry I failed you.” There are tears on her cheeks.
She puts her shoes on and leaves the house without saying another word.
I close my eyes as my heartbeat fills my ears. I want to sob, let out a wail about how unfair all of this is. But there’s no point.
“Is she…,” Sadie starts. “Is she okay?”
I open my eyes and shrug. “I don’t know. She hasn’t spoken to me in two days. I assume she’s running to Jason to tell him about this article. Do you know if he saw it?”
“Probably. My mother’s the one who showed it to me, and she probably told my dad.”
I take my phone from the counter. I open my texts and see a bunch from Noah, Keeley, and Adanna from Friday night—before they knew Mom took my phone. I even see the texts and calls from Mom that I missed because Noah and I were making out on the couch that night.
I’m suddenly so nauseous. I can call Noah now. I have my phone.
But should I? He didn’t respond to any of Sadie’s texts. And I have no idea if he saw this article.
I take a deep breath and call him. He picks up on the first ring.
“Noah, it’s me. I got my phone back. Did you—”
“Meera, I can’t really talk to you right now.” He sounds wooden. Mad. Not like my Noah at all.
“I wanted to say sorry. And to warn you. There’s this op-ed—”
“I read it. And so did my father.”
I cringe. “I had no idea that was happening. Kaitlyn hates you because—”
“Meera, stop. My dad’s furious. As if we don’t already have the worst reputation in town.
Dad could lose his job over this. He’s definitely going to lose respect from his team.
And Aaron, too. Dad was going to get him a job at the plant, but now who’s going to hire him?
” He sounds so… bitter. Dejected, hurt, and angry.
And it’s because of me. Because I appeared in his life and insisted he help me with my petty revenge against my mother.
“Noah, I’m sorry. I understand why you’re upset, but let me talk to Jason. Sadie and I can write our own op-ed—”
“Meera, you and I are from different sides of the river. You’ll never understand us.”
He’s wrong. I do understand him. But something tells me I won’t get through to him saying that. “Okay, but what about your college admissions? We should at least finish the spreadsheet.”
“As soon as I apply for any of those programs, they’re going to look me up and read that I’m a delinquent drug addict. Why did you even send that song to your friend? You wanted to rescue the poor alcoholic’s son?”
He knows why I did it. He said he was glad that I did. “No. It was because I wanted people to see how amazing you are! Everything I said to you on Friday is true. My feelings for you are true.”
He’s quiet for so long that I wonder if he hung up, but when he speaks up again, his voice is soft and full of regret. “I should have listened to my father from the beginning. Mixing with the LeClairs has always been a disaster for my family.”
No, no, no. I feel my heart beating loudly in my ears and my stomach is clenched so tight, I feel like I’m going to be sick. “Noah, we’re not a disaster. We can fight back! We can’t let them win!”
“No. Can’t you see? I’m not looking for a savior, Meera. We’re done.”
He disconnects the call before I can say anything else. It’s over.
The curse won.