Page 113 of Rebel Romeo

She tilted her head at me, seemingly surprised. “You did?”

“More than I hate Dad.”

She gasped. “Don’t say that.”

“Even if it’s true?” I snapped.

“Don’t let it be. That girl, your Juliet? She’s lovely. And you can’t love lovely people if you’re filled with darkness, Holden. Promise me. Promise me you won’t hold onto the hate like I did. Like your father does.”

She was talking crazy.

No. She was talking drunken babble.

A swallow stuck to my throat and I couldn’t look at her as I pulled into my parking lot at the condo. “Fine,” I said, putting the car in park. “I promise. Now, come on. Let’s get you to bed.”

I hopped out of my truck and rushed around to help my mom out of the passenger seat.

She barely let us get to the front stoop before she was grasping me tightly. “You love her, Holden.”

I froze while punching in my code to the front door lock. “We only just had our first date, Mom. Love isn’t on the table yet.”

The lie stuck like taffy in my throat.

It wasn’t on the table yet.

But that didn’t mean it hadn’t crossed my mind with every sickly sweet ache I felt in my chest when she was near.

“Well it should be. She seems like a sweet girl. Just don’t let the Dorseys chew her up and spit her out.”

Is it possible to stop the inevitable?

Gulping, I held open the front door for my mom.

The house was quiet despite it being a school day. Duncan didn’t have class until tonight and even though it was lunchtime, he was probably still sleeping.

From a few feet away, I noticed my bedroom door was slightly ajar. Weird, since I almost always closed it.

“Here, Mom…” I pushed the door open and nearly jumped out of my skin as my mom squealed in surprise.

Addison jumped back from my desk. “Holden! I-I thought you had class?”

“What the fuck are you doing in my room?”

She shifted her weight back and forth and I noticed she was wearing one of Duncan’s t-shirts. Wearing only one of Duncan’s t-shirts.

So much for sleeping with Ross. Guess she’d moved on.

“N-nothing,” she stuttered. “I, um, well…” Then with a sigh, she dropped a polaroid on my desk. “I was going to leave you this.”

I barely had to look at it to see it was a picture of her tits. No face. Just boobs.

I walked over to where she had left it, picked it up and crumpled it in my fist before dropping it into the trash can beside my bed.

With tears in her eyes, Addison ran out of my bedroom.

Mom glared at me from the doorway and I sighed, pulling back my covers to try to coax her into bed. “It’s not what it looks like, Mom?—”

She walked slowly toward me, deeper into the bedroom. “It looks like you are your father’s son, after all. Cheating on that sweet girl.”

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