Chapter 13 #2
Bailey snatched the shirt back from me and shoved into her drawer, which was all the answer I needed.
“What’s your problem? Why are you in here yelling at me?
” Bailey’s lower lip trembled, and I struggled to hold onto my anger.
Yes, my kid sister had sticky fingers, but my rage wasn’t focused on her. She was simply an easy target.
I gripped the pilfered hair clips in my hand and pointed at her. “Stay out of my room, and stay away from my things.”
“I’m sorry, Lucy,” she blubbered, tears dripping down her cheeks. “I don’t know why I do it. I can’t help it!”
The anxious frustration I had aimed squarely at my little sister dissipated. I sat down heavily on her bed, the hair clips gripped in my hand, digging into my flesh. I let out a sigh heavy with a burden I couldn’t share.
Bailey tentatively sat down next to me, careful to keep some distance.
“You seem upset. Both you and Rhett do. He never messages me anymore. I haven’t seen him in weeks.
I hate it.” Her voice quivered. “And Mom and Dad keep arguing—I can hear them at night. I wish there was something I could do.” She sounded so small.
More like a ten-year-old than the almost sixteen years old she was.
Guilt blossomed in my chest. Sometimes it was easy to forget she was still a kid.
My parents and I tended to treat her as if she were already grown up.
Maybe it was because she often strutted around like she knew everything already.
She engaged in behavior way beyond her years: smoking and drinking with friends out at Perry Dunlop’s field every weekend and hooking up with football players after the games.
She was doing stuff I never even thought of doing at her age.
Mom and Dad spent so much time cleaning up her messes, we often overlooked the fact that she was still, in many ways, a little girl.
And seeing her like this, I realized she had no idea how precarious things were right now.
The tension in our house was thick, and I knew she felt it too. It must be terrifying to have her stability on such shaky ground.
Plus, I wasn’t the only one Rhett had flaked on. Bailey adored him, and he had discarded her as easily as he tried to discard me.
“How did it all go so wrong?” I moaned, closing my eyes.
I sighed again and looked down at the hair clips. I didn’t even care about them. I hadn’t worn them in years, yet seeing them in Bailey’s possession made me see red.
Was it the same with Jenn and Rhett?
I had never felt jealousy before. Never had a reason to; Rhett had always been loyal to a fault. Yet now, I knew how stupid I had been. The idea of him smiling at someone else, laughing with someone else, had unleashed a violent frenzy inside me that desperately needed an outlet.
And now, afterward, it still swirled around, looking to strike out.
Rhett was mine.
Just like these stupid hair clips.
One thing was for certain. I wouldn’t go through all this again.
I’d make sure of it.
I knew where he went. And I knew who he was with.
Our fight had been horrible. The worst we’d ever had. My body thrummed with the violence of it.
My hands shook as I picked up my keys.
I knew what I needed to do.
I wouldn’t let her get away with this.
I knew where he was.
I knew where she was.
At Jagged Point.
“Where are you going?” My mother’s voice trembled as she called out to me. I turned to find her watching me from the shadows.
I didn’t answer her. I didn’t have time. Instead, I went to leave.
Mom reached out and roughly grabbed my arm, holding me in place. “Don’t go after him. Have some pride, Lucinda,” she hissed.
I couldn’t think clearly. I was acting on instinct.
Like a cornered animal, I struck out indiscriminately and shoved my mother.
The viciousness of the action horrified us both.
Mom stumbled backward, catching herself on a table so she wouldn’t fall.
I wanted to apologize immediately, but I was too far gone—lost in a haze of agony and heartache.
“How dare you—” she started to say, but I interrupted her.
“I won’t let them treat me like a piece of trash. She has to pay for trying to take what belongs to me!” Tears dripped down my face, and I didn’t bother wiping them away.
“Lucinda, he’s not worth it,” my mother said, her voice now a ragged whisper. But she didn’t comfort me. I couldn’t remember a time she had ever told me things would be okay. That I was enough. That I was worthy. Her words were always a toxic mix of condemnation and displeasure.
“How can you say he’s not worth it?” I asked, my voice hoarse. “You’ve been planning my future for me since I was old enough to walk.”
My mother reared back as if I had slapped her and honestly, I felt like doing just that. “Because he wasn’t supposed to be part of that future. And honestly, how can you plan to be with a man that sleeps with another woman?”
I shoved her again. Hard. What was wrong with me? If I wasn’t so angry, I’d be horrified by my actions.
She pressed a hand to her chest, her eyes wide in saddened shock. I knew she was seeing something in me that scared her and she didn’t know what to do about it.
“Don’t you dare say that. Don’t. You. Dare.” I picked up my keys that I had dropped in our scuffle. “I’m going to fix this. That’s what us Herbaughs do, right?”
I stormed out of the house like the devil was on my tail, leaving my shaken mother behind. I raced along the familiar streets, barely stopping for red lights. I made my way to the hills.
I parked my car, noting that Rhett’s car wasn’t there.
Was I too late?
Or maybe I was wrong. Maybe he hadn’t meant all the awful things he’d said and had come to his senses. The hope was there, flickering beneath the weight of doubt and indecision.
I had to be sure.
I ran up the graveled path toward my destination, convinced of what I’d find there.
So I was surprised when I arrived at the overlook and found Jenn there alone.
She looked up at the sound of my footsteps on the gravel.
The air was heavy with the weight of an impending storm. Thunder rolled in the distance. Sheets of heat lightning flickered like strobe lights. The dark, inky valley was like a black hole below us.
Each flash lit up her ashen face streaked with dirt and tears. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Where was Rhett?
I looked around and could tell she was alone out here.
Why would he leave her when she was clearly injured?
“Where is he?” I demanded, my voice shaking with a fury I could barely contain.
Jennifer’s mouth quivered and she let out a sob. “I don’t know. I left him here. But then—” She covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking as she cried.
I advanced toward her, my hands curled into fists. What was I going to do? Punch her? Pull her hair? I wanted to destroy her. To tear her limb from limb for trying to take what was mine.
I wasn’t above debasing myself by starting a cat fight.
Her eyes widened. “What do you want?” she asked, her voice thick with tears.
There was another flash of lightning, and this time I noticed something shimmering around her neck.
“What is that?” I reached out and ripped the gold chain from her neck.
“What are you doing?” She put a hand to the hollow of her throat, her skin lined with an angry red welt from the chain being pulled against her flesh.
“Did he give this to you?” I shouted, holding up the class ring that, at one time, I had worn around my neck.
Sensing danger, Jennifer took a step backward. “I … he … it was just …”
“This is mine!” I screamed, losing what little control I had. I shoved Rhett’s ring in her face. “None of this belongs to you, do you hear me? None of it!”
She was crying again. Silent tears dripped down her cheeks. “I know,” she said and even I could hear the defeat in her tone. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything. I never meant—”
Her tears mingled with her blood, and I almost felt sympathy for her, but then I looked at Rhett’s class ring in my hand. My anger grew.
“What do you want?” she asked again. Her voice was low and husky, the words cracked and broken on her lips.
Lightning flashed like it was pushing me on. Encouraging me.
What did I want?
I looked at this woman who I felt was responsible for every horrible thing that had happened recently.
My humiliation.
My heartache.
I blamed her so completely that I had lost all sense of reason.
I grabbed hold of her wrist, squeezing it, my nails digging into her skin.
“What do I want?” I growled, our eyes clashing in a savage battle of wills. A battle I knew I would win.
“I want you gone.”