“I know. I get it. But as much as they like to pretend we have some kind of choice, you know as well as I do that it’s bullshit.”
“I don’t care, Lauren. I’m done.”
“And yet you’re sitting here still doing exactly what you’re told,” she points out helpfully.
Sucking in a deep breath, I watch as the sun sets behind the trees in the distance praying for some kind of divine intervention that will give me all the answers I need.
“Your father will never let you walk away.”
“I know,” I mutter, already terrified about what he will do.
“She must be one very special girl for you to risk all of this,” she muses, continuing to eat the contents of the plate without offering me one. Not that I could eat anything right now even if I wanted to.
“She’s everything.”
“I hope it all works out for you, Elliot, I really do.”
“But?” I ask, aware that despite the fact she’s stopped talking, she hasn’t said everything she’s thinking.
“But… it’s never going to work. You’re an Eaton. Your father and brother won’t let you go no matter how good your plan is.”
“We’ll see,” I say, sounding a lot more confident than I feel.
Silence falls between us and I finally pull my phone from my pocket to discover what I already knew.
Abi still hasn’t responded.
She read my message but hasn’t reacted at all.
My fingers itch to send another, to ask if she still went with the others but in the end, I put my phone back to sleep and shove it back into my pocket.
Deep down, I know she hasn’t gone. I know she’s sitting alone and miserable in her dorm room.
I also know that it’s all my fault.
“We should get back,” I say reluctantly.
“Why? They might get all excited that we’ve slipped away to fuck.”
I glare at Lauren. “I want to get out, not to get in deeper.”
She shrugs, getting to her feet and brushing the crumbs from her dress.“Shall we?”
Reluctantly, I follow her back to the house feeling anything but ready to spend long, painful hours listening to my father schmooze his associates and watch Scott lick his ass like the perfect dutiful son he is.
Mum catches my eye the second we walk back into the formal living room, and she offers me a soft, apologetic smile.
But it does very little to calm the riot happening inside me.
“Ah, here they are,” Scott says obnoxiously, ensuring that every set of eyes in the room turn to me and Lauren. “Having a little alone time, were you?”
I shake my head, but it does nothing to deter him.
“You know, when you’re finally with me at uni next year, you’ll be able to have all the time together you want.”
“Can’t wait,” I mutter.
The rest of the night is just a continuation of the same. Scott pokes at me every chance he gets and more often than not is congratulated in a way by our father who finds the whole thing amusing. I mean, who wouldn’t enjoy having your golden child embarrass your failure of a son in front of everyone you spend your life trying to impress?