Chapter 2 #2
Karla: Still beating.
Landon: I love you till forever.
Karla: I love you till forever, too.
“Karla!” Grandma Claire said, popping her head into the bathroom. “Breakfast. Now.”
It took me much longer to make it to the dining room than it took Lorelai. Then again, that girl was like a speed demon, shooting in and out of spaces, leaving everything in a tailspin. As I walked into the dining room, I kept my head down and headed straight for my seat without looking around.
I grumbled to myself as I sat down. “Grandma, I really wish you wouldn’t come stomping into my room like that. It’s so annoying. Plus, I know how to wake myself up for school. I’m not a child.”
“Good morning, Karla,” Grandma Claire replied, her voice dripping with the same sweetness that Mom’s used to drip with. She walked over to me and kissed my forehead.
I hated that I loved those forehead kisses.
Mom used to give me those, too, in the morning.
“Whatever,” I murmured, trying to shake off the comfort that the forehead kiss delivered me. I quickly began inhaling the food, because the sooner I ate, the sooner I could be excused from being at the table.
“Karla, this is Ellie, the new nanny,” Grandma Claire stated.
I looked up from my food, and my eyes met with Ellie’s as she stood beside the table.
She looked beautiful. Painfully beautiful. The kind of beautiful that seemed to only grace A-list Hollywood movie stars—and well, an everyday nanny, I supposed.
She had perfectly long hair with loose curls. Brown doe eyes, and a perfect smile with full lips. I swore there were even sparkles in her eyes. All of that instantly annoyed me. I hated beautiful people. They reminded me of how ugly I was.
The second Ellie’s perfectly shaped eyes landed on me, they widened with shock, and she gasped. She gasped at me. It wasn’t a foreign look or sound for me. Most people looked at me horrified when they took notice of my scars for the first time. Gasps were very normal.
She tried her best to shake off her stunned expression, but it was too late. I already felt lesser than. That probably had nothing to do with how she looked at me, because I’d spent the past few months feeling less than most people, but still, her surprised look didn’t make the feeling any better.
“Grrr!” I growled, taking on Lorelai’s new favorite sound.
Ellie’s eyes bugged out as if she was stunned by my growls.
Good. I wanted her to be as uncomfortable as I felt from her staring.
“Grrr! Grrrrr!” I continued in her direction.
The color of her skin drained to a pale white, as if she was certain she’d actually come across a real-life monster.
I kept growling until Grandma Claire ordered me to stop.
“Karla Marie, knock it off this instant,” Grandma ordered me.
“Grrr! Hisssss! Grrrrr!” I continued, keeping my eyes locked on Ellie.
She was weak. I could tell by the way she nervously shook.
Good. Hopefully that meant she’d be gone sooner rather than later.
There shouldn’t have been another woman in our house, anyway.
I was old enough to take care of my little sister on my own, too.
I still was pissed off at my father for thinking a fourteen-year-old needed a freaking nanny.
“Karla, that’s enough,” a deep, stern voice ordered, making my stare move over to the entryway of the dining room. Dad stood there in his overly expensive suit and tie, with a mug of coffee in his grip. His eyes that matched my own pierced my spirit. “Quit it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’ll quit when she stops staring at me like I’m a fucking freak of nature.”
Ellie tensed up. “No, I wasn’t . . . you aren’t . . .” Her voice was shakier than an erupting volcano.
“Watch your language,” Dad demanded. I hated when he tried to play the father role as if he had any right to that anymore. My dad stopped being my dad months ago. Now whenever he tried to, it felt forced.
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Sorry, Father,” I mocked as I stood from the table. I grabbed my bowl of cereal. “Since I used bad language, I should be banished to my room until it is time to be driven to prison by my servant.”
I left before Dad could try to parent me again, or before Grandma Claire could call out my bad behavior, or before Lorelai could make everyone laugh with some stupid joke.
I headed straight for my bedroom, walked into my closet, and had breakfast with Mom.
She never made me feel ugly.
If anything, my dead mother was the only one who made me feel somewhat alive.
* * *
Ellie drove Lorelai and me to school about twenty minutes after breakfast. Lorelai talked the whole ride until we reached her elementary school, which wasn’t surprising.
Lorelai was always talking. She and Ellie laughed together, and I hated that.
I hated how quick Lorelai was to like people.
She had no boundaries around allowing people into her life, no matter what.
She had this odd belief that all people were good people.
One day, that would bite her in the ass. It sure bit me when I realized that most people were jerks cosplaying as friends up until tragedy struck and no one stuck around.
Lorelai was dropped off first, which left Ellie and me alone in the car. Luckily, I kept my head down, headphones on, and Ellie didn’t dare try to communicate with me. She was probably scared I’d start growling at her again.
When we were about three or four blocks from school, though, I finally spoke up, slamming my hand against the back of the driver’s seat. “No! Stop here!” I hollered.
Ellie glanced back toward me. “What? Why?”
“No nanny has ever pulled up to the school and dropped me off in the past ten months,” I lied.
Ellie laughed, and I hated the sound of it. “What? That can’t be true.”