Chapter 14 #2
“It’s me.” I could barely speak over my sobs. “I need to see you. I’m leaving in the morning. My dad has cancer. My mom is in love with Mr. Jones, and they’re having a baby. My life is a shit show, Woody. I need you.”
I ended the call and finished packing.
I curled up on my bed, still in my clothes, and let sleep take me.
“You’re actually moving?” My mother’s voice woke me from a sound sleep, and I jumped up, looking down to see that I was still in yesterday’s clothing. When did she come home? It sounded like she was in the kitchen, and I peeked out of my bedroom to look down the hallway.
“Savvy wants to come with me. She doesn’t want to be here anymore either. It’s too much. I’m asking you to let us go and not make this about you, Delila.”
I didn’t wait to hear her reply before hurrying to clean myself up.
My mother met me in my bathroom as I washed my face.
“I know I’ve made a mess of things, and I’m sorry. I’m going to make this right, Savannah. I’ll talk to Ben. He can find a job in the city, too. We’ll all get a fresh start there, okay?” she asked.
I couldn’t look at her. Couldn’t speak to her. The affair had been brutal, and now she was having a baby with another man. But none of that mattered to me at the moment.
My father was sick, and she’d put him through hell. Some things were just not forgivable.
She followed me out as I wheeled my suitcase to the front entryway. My father was standing nearby, tossing a few things into a grocery bag.
“I need to run next door and tell Hayes that I’m leaving.”
He nodded, and my mother tried to move in front of me, but I sidestepped her.
“When I was leaving late last night, there was a squad car over there. They didn’t have their siren on, but something must have happened with Barry again.”
Hayes’s stepdad was the worst.
“And you didn’t think to tell me? What is wrong with you, Mom?” I whipped the door open and stormed outside.
“I have my own stuff going on, too, if you haven’t noticed!” she shouted, before I slammed the front door behind me.
I jogged next door and hurried up the steps, just as their front door opened, and Kate stepped outside with a backpack on her shoulder. She and Hayes were dating, and I couldn’t stand her. She’d made my life a living hell these past few weeks.
“Oh, wow. You look terrible,” she said, and the corners of her lips turned up.
“Thanks for that. Where’s Hayes?”
“He’s not here. Some shit went down last night, and he’s dealing with that.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Not my story to tell. And you have plenty going on in your own life, don’t you, Bad Abbott?”
Bad. Fucking. Abbott.
It was the best her pea-sized brain could come up with.
“You do know that your little nickname makes no sense.”
“Oh, you’re clearly slow to the game. It’s a play on words. Bad Apple. Bad Abbott,” she said as she pulled the door closed and stood in front of me.
“I didn’t say that I didn’t understand it.
I said it makes no sense. It’s stupid. And you’re just a sad, mean girl who has nothing better to do than kick someone when they’re down.
I was hoping it would blow over with you, but I think it’s time that I tell my best friend how horrible you’ve been to me.
” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at her.
Why the hell had I kept my mouth closed about it, anyway?
I just knew if I said something, he would freak out, and she would most likely take it out on me even more. I wanted it all to stop.
It was too much right now.
I turned around to leave, and she grabbed my arm.
“Don’t threaten me. You’re no different than your mother. The Abbott never falls far from the tree,” she said with a chuckle. She was really running with this whole apple analogy.
I shook her hand off my arm and glared at her. “It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.”
“Do you know that Hayes and I sit around laughing about you?”
“No one believes you, Kate. You can go home now. I’m leaving,” I hissed.
“Who do you think he called when he needed someone this morning? Not you. He called me. We’re together, and you can’t stand that, can you?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I don’t care. I don’t have time for this.”
“He’s mortified that everyone thinks you two are best friends, especially after what your mother did.
He doesn’t know how to get rid of you. His coach is pissed that he got sent home from school for defending you.
He’s over it, Savannah. He’s moved on, and you just keep on clinging to him.
It’s desperate and sad.” She smirked as she looked down at her phone.
“You’re pathetic and weak,” I said, raising a brow. “You’re threatened by my friendship with him. You’ve been trying to come between us since the day you started dating him. What are you so afraid of?”
A maniacal laugh left her mouth, and she started reading something on her phone.
“Sometimes I feel like my life would be easier without her in it. But I don’t know how to walk away.
” She paused and turned the phone so we could both see the screen before she continued reading.
“I know it’s hard, Hayes, but sometimes you outgrow people. ”
“You’re evil,” I said, feeling my breath hitch in my throat.
She shoved the phone toward me. “Read it. Read what your best friend thinks of you.”
Hayes
I feel like a dick saying this, but I’m disappointed in the person she’s become. I feel like all I do is take care of her. I just don’t want to do it anymore.
And you shouldn’t. Sometimes you have to walk away from people. It doesn’t mean that you don’t care about them. It just means that you’re putting yourself first.
I backed up. I didn’t want to see any more. I shook my head and tried hard to hold in the tears until I got home. I would not cry in front of this evil girl.
And she’d always been so good at putting on a show. She’d act sugary sweet in front of people, but I’d seen her true colors many times.
And she’d clearly poisoned Hayes against me. What else could it be?
His words stung. He was the one person that always had my back. But clearly, that had changed.
“He’s been trying to put distance there between you guys for quite a while.
We sit around laughing at how needy you are.
” And then she changed her voice, in her best attempt at mimicking me in the worst way.
“And now your dad has cancer, and your mom is knocked up by Mr. Jones. It’s mortifying.
He doesn’t want to deal with your whiney shit anymore.
Go find yourself your own boyfriend and grow the hell up. ”
I could feel the blood draining from my face.
He’d told her about my dad?
About my mom?
A heavy weight sat on my chest, and it was difficult to take a breath.
He’d laughed at me. He’d told his bitchy girlfriend my deepest secrets.
He wanted distance.
No problem. That’s exactly what he would get.