I let her concern wash over me like a gentle spray of water. And felt it wash off right away. Unable to fix me and my circumstances, unable to make a dent in the problem that was Hans and Cole. Whatever I said now, whatever outcome it would lead to, wouldn’t help, short of leaving Gray Lake for good. And I couldn’t do that to my mom, not when the wedding was mere weeks away, not when she had met the man who made her smile reach her eyes, who wore his heart on his sleeve for her. My mom deserved him and every good thing he could offer. She had worked hard to make a livelihood for the both of us, had played the role of both father and mother growing up, and now she deserved to be pampered. So I wasn’t going to cry over some stupid high school bullying. I was just going to have to keep my chin up, be on the alert and do my best to survive the year.
“I’ll be okay mom. I’ll be okay.”
***
It turned out that the twins had gotten wind of the fact that our parents were going to their house by the lake for the weekend. I could see my mother was reluctant to leave me behind, and I couldn’t say the feeling wasn’t mutual. But I didn’t want to be a third wheel to what I imagined Marcus would see as a weekend getaway for the both of them. I hadn’t known the Isaacs had a weekend home, but it came as no real surprise.
So we said our goodbyes on Friday night, me with a heavy heart and a big smile plastered on my face. My mother chucked me under the chin and stroked my face, saying she would send me pictures once they arrived. Cole was nowhere to be found but Hans stood by the doorway, eating an apple as he waved Marcus goodbye.
“You boys behave yourselves,” was Marcus’ parting words. Hans rolled his eyes playfully. I watched, in both despair and awe at how well he kept that crazy side of him hidden. Being the recipient of that beautiful smile made you forget he wasn’t the all-American boy he portrayed himself to be. I felt my skin crawl when he turned to appraise me. Closing the front door, I silently turned around to head back to my room, my heart palpitating at the thought of being alone with the twins in the house. Susan had the entire weekend off, visiting some family in a town an hour away from here. I hurried back to my safe haven and locked the door behind me, trying to decide whether to leave for Sarah’s tonight or wait until the next day, as planned. I grew even more distressed by how rattled I felt, and how unsafe I was in what was supposed to be my own home now.
I decided to occupy myself by sending a text to Melissa. When she didn’t reply, I figured she was probably out on a date or binge-watching Netflix. I missed hanging out with her, and I felt ready now to tell her everything. She was so far removed from my new life I didn’t feel bad for telling her about the craziness around me. I figured if something happened to me, at least she would know the story.
Sighing, I put my phone away and forced my eyes shut. Shutting down my brain was an entirely different challenge altogether. My thoughts whirled around in my head, the edges of something just out of my mind's grasp teasing me. I was having trouble reconciling everything, and I felt there was a piece of the story that I was missing. But what was it?
The next morning, after an unsatisfactory night's sleep with lots of tossing and turning, I packed a bag to bring to Sarah's for the weekend. I wasn't keen on spending another night alone with the twins in that monstrous house, and would rather relax and stuff my face with pizza. Or even finish my English essay that wasn't due for another two weeks.
I drove my mom's station wagon to Sarah's place, feeling lighter the farther I was from the mansion. Sarah's neighborhood was in an upscale, modern part of town, where the houses were sleek and environment-conscious. Her house was just at the end of a neat, winding road, a compact but elegant version of what to me looked like a greenhouse. I wondered what a thunderstorm would look like behind those floor-to-ceiling windows.
"Hey," she greeted me when she opened the door. She looked incredibly relaxed in her cropped tee and shorts, her hair down, furry pink slippers that I wouldn't have associated with her looking right at home on her feet.
"Hi!" I replied brightly, giving her a half-hug, my other arm lugging the stuff I had brought from home. "Thanks for having me. I wouldn't last another night there." The words sounded funny coming from my lips, like some premonition. I suppressed a shiver that began to crawl up my spine.
"No problem. It's good to have company. I stopped asking my parents for a sibling a decade ago."
I laughed at that, instantly feeling at ease. Glancing around the house, I realized Sarah didn't flaunt her family wealth the way most girls did. And there appeared to be buckets of it, if her house was anything to go by. I liked how she was comfortable in her own skin, self-assured, in a way few others were. She reminded me of Melissa that way.
We spent the day chatting away, swapping stories about our childhoods and exes. I only had Randy to tell her about, so my story-telling was predictably short, and relatively uneventful. "He was more of a very, very close guy friend than a boyfriend, really. He was happy to just kiss me and listen to me talk to him for hours.”
Sarah's eyebrow cocked up at that. "So, he never wanted
