“You cared enough for her, for the both of us! You always put her first, before me and the girls! You two had your own little club that none of us were part of!” she continued to yell.
“So, you were jealous that I love my daughter! That’s why you treated her so horribly?” dad asked incredulously.
“You always loved her more than me!” Alyssa cried then.
“Of course I did! She’s my daughter, the kids always come first,” dad shouted. “Maybe if you had cared for her even half as much you do yourself or your own girls, things might have worked,” he finished. And then all was silent, except for the slamming of doors.
“Come on, let’s go inside,” James said, leading me into his house as I stood frozen with my eyes wide in surprise by their argument.
I cuddled up to James in his bed as he gently caressed my back. He was strong and solid, grounding me but how long would I have him?
“James, I honestly don’t know what going to happen now,” I whispered.
“Shh,” he said softly, “Everything will be okay. We have until graduation before anything needs to change, let’s wait until then to worry.” I nodded, he was right, we still had loads of time before graduation and I didn’t want to waste the time we had left together being down. Like dad said, if we were meant to be, we would work. I just really hoped we were meant to be.
It was uncomfortable going back to school once the holidays ended. Gert and her gang were trying to make James miserable now that he had left them for me and hadn’t completed the stupid list. I was just thankful that we’d had our holiday to put some space between them after that horrible incident at lunch. I was still hurt and angry with them. Where did they get off, enjoying other people’s pain? Tiffany had followed me to the bathroom during Science, we were alone when she spoke to me.
“Hey, I’m really sorry about the whole James thing, before break started,” she said sincerely.
“Why do you guys even do that stuff?” I asked, not understanding at all what could motivate someone to be so cruel. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders.
“I don’t know. I just kind of follow along, it’s easier,” she her voice small. I could see that. It was easier to put a target on someone else, to avoid having one on yourself but it didn’t make it right or okay.
“You’re better than that,” I told her and she made a face.
“I wish I was,” she said and then turned to leave. “I’ll try to get them to leave you guys alone, but it might be hard with Gert. She really has it against you guys,” she told me before leaving me to myself. Why did Gert hate me so much? What had I done to her, that made her so set on hurting me?
At lunch, Lloyd joined us. Tara had finally gotten up the courage to ask him to prom and he had said yes! They were hanging out more now and I got the feeling that the feelings were mutual and Lloyd was just shy. If they were going to be anything more than just dates for prom, Tara was going to have to initiate it. So far, Em and Tara both had dates to prom. Em was going as friends with Steve, a nice guy that I didn’t know too well. I was the only one who seemed to be going alone, me and Derek, but for him it was by choice. I assumed James and I would be going together, we were dating after all, but he never once mentioned prom or even said if he was going and the topic had come up multiple times. I felt shy asking him now, after I’d had so many chances but I really wanted to know what was going on. Both Em and Tara just kept telling me to ask him, since he hadn’t done it already but I felt slightly uncomfortable, what if he didn’t want to go to prom and felt like he had to for me? I was going to have to find a way to get his opinion on the subject and soon.
James
Michaela and I had enjoyed our holidays together, all things considered. When her dad and Alyssa announced they were getting a divorce, all the girls took it pretty hard, especially Paix. Mickey was doing a little better since they broke the news and the shock had worn off. She was mostly just missing her dad, who had pretty much run away and left her in that house of evil until we graduated. I still couldn’t believe Mr. Lesage had just left her like that, especially at Christmas. Mickey spent the holidays mostly with Gran and the rest of it with my family, it was the best Christmas ever for me, I just wished her dad could have been there too. Who knew when he was coming back to check on her. We were both looking forward to our upcoming spring break, but that also meant we were that much closer to graduation and the big question mark that came afterwards. Mickey had applied to pastry schools in both New York and Paris, and I had applied to University in New York but I knew it was going to be a stretch for me to get accepted. For now, we were just enjoying ourselves and pretending that there wasn’t going to be a huge shift in our relationship in the next few months and that the clock wasn’t ticking.
“Mickey, are you excited for prom?” mom asked Mickey, as we all ate dinner together. Mickey ate most of her dinners with us now, she’d even come over early and help mom do all the cooking. Mickey shrugged and I felt
