Page 119 of Finish Line

She storms toward me, and her palm cracks down on my face. “How could you be so stupid?”

“Patty!” Peter shouts, stepping in between me and my mother.

Nick wraps his arm around my shoulder, pulling me away from her.

“I knew you would cause problems. That’s all you’ve done since you got here,” my mother shouts, glaring at me over Peter’s shoulder. “Now, you’re pregnant?”

“That’s enough, Patty!” Peter shakes my mother by her shoulders.

He moves her away and whispers something to her, but whatever he says pisses her off more.

“Yeah, that trash is pregnant!” She points in my direction.

“No, she’s not,” Peter growls at her. “And if you stopped for one second to ask instead of making the worst assumptions and attacking your daughter, you would have learned it’s Luke’s sister who had a son.”

“Luke doesn’t have a sister, Peter.” She facepalms. “You’re so gullible.”

He rubs his eyes. “Yes, Luke does. She ran away years ago.”

His eyes have bags under them, and he’s lost some of his color. This can’t be the only stress he’s dealing with.

My mom splutters. “Well, how was I supposed to know? Shelby hasn’t acted right since I first brought her into this house. She runs around with four boys, one of whom is your daughter’s boyfriend. She stole Hannah’s boyfriend!”

“Luke isn’t dating Hannah, Patty. They broke up a year ago.” He scrubs his hands through his hair. “Why are you acting like this? It’s like I don’t even know you.”

Mom’s eyes grow hard again before she pushes past him to storms toward me again. “You always do this! You ruin everything. I brought you here because of Peter, but I never wanted you here! I never wanted you, but your father did, so I kept you! Then he left, sticking me with you!”

Peter grabs my mom around her waist, stopping her from reaching me.

My jaw drops. Even in her past drug-induced hazes, she never talked to me like that.

“That is enough!” Peter spins around, pushing Patty away from him, creating more distance between us. “What is your problem? You need to breathe. I won’t have you talking to Shelby like that.”

Mom narrows her eyes at Peter, then sneers, “Oh, so you’re under her spell.” She glares over at me. “Did you crawl into my husband’s bed, too?”

“That’s it, Patty. One more vile word out of you…” Peter leaves the threat hanging in the air.

“You’ll what?” She throws her arms up. “I don’t care. I can’t stand to be in this house so long as that whore is here. Call me once you’ve come to your senses and tossed her out on her ass.”

Mom grabs her purse and keys, then storms out of the house, leaving the door wide open after her.

Peter follows, closing and locking the door behind her.

As he walks back into the living room, Mom drives off.

My heart breaks for him. “I’m sorry.”

“No, never apologize for your mother’s actions.” He places his hand on my shoulder. “She’s going through some things, but she needs to be the one to tell you.”

I wrap my arms around my waist. “Is she using again?”

He shakes his head. “No…” His hand comes up to his chin. “At least, I don’t think so.”

I shuffle and catch Nick’s stunned gaze, nodding toward his dad. “I need to go study for my exam tomorrow, then I’m going to crash. Don’t forget to call Luke, Nick.”

I walk forward and stop in front of Peter. Not sure if he’ll be okay with it, I reach out, waiting for him to accept my offer.

He looks at me for a moment before he steps forward and pulls me into a hug.

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