Page 46 of Rot

Don’t ask me what someone like her was doing up this late. Maybe reading a smutty book or something. I didn’t know. Didn’t really care, because either way, I was still flying quite high from our earlier activities.

This was the start of something great.

Chapter Thirteen

Elias still played the part in front of our mothers, acting like he hated me. Glaring and all that. The usual. But I knew the truth, and it made me giddy inside. I let his mean looks slide off me, not caring about his glares or the way he gripped his fork at dinner so tightly I thought the metal might snap.

Jordan had tried to text me over the weekend, but I wasn’t going to have it, so I ignored each and every text. It wasn’t like I needed him anymore, not after Elias had finally admitted it to himself. Still, that didn’t mean the boy stopped trying.

Sunday night rolled around, and I wondered what school would bring in the morning. Would Jordan find me and try to talk to me like he had all weekend? Would he apologize to me for his sister’s prank? I didn’t really care about the stupid prank, but… let’s just say there was some hatred in me over Dana and her past with Elias.

Just because he didn’t care about her didn’t mean she would suddenly stop and leave him alone. I had to make her see that he was mine, but how?

That night, as I was working on some math homework I’d put off all weekend, I heard a knock on the door. I thought it was my aunt, so I said, “Come in.”

It wasn’t my aunt, though. It was my mother, and she wore a worried face—though that wasn’t too different from her normal face. “Sloane,” she whispered my name as she closed the door behind her. Heavy bags sat beneath her green eyes, her blond hair looking greasy, as if she hadn’t showered in a day or two.

I watched her as she walked over to my bed, where I currently lay, sprawled out with my homework. “What?” I asked, unable to hide the snippy tone. Really, I found my mother absolutely annoying; I didn’t know how anyone could deal with her for an extended period of time.

She cautiously sat on the edge of the bed, though her eyes had moved off me and now stared at the carpet. “I know you like it here, but I think we have to leave.”

The words felt like a slap on the face. I blinked at her, my mouth falling open, and I studied her. The way she sat, how she couldn’t look me in the eyes. She hardly ever did, but right now, she seemed to be trying extra hard to avoid my stare, and her shoulders were more slumped than usual.

I could’ve asked why, but I didn’t care about whatever was worrying my mother, so instead I simply said, “No.”

She must not have been expecting that—which was just ridiculous, when you thought about it. Why the fuck would I want to leave? Come on—because she whipped her head in my direction, her eyes wide, and she stuttered out a “What?”

“I said no,” I repeated. “I’m not going anywhere. I like it here, so I’m staying.”

Her hands had started to shake, or maybe they’d been trembling the whole time and I just now noticed. Whether that was due to her return to alcohol or her pills or a combination of the two, I didn’t know. “Sloane, I’m sorry, but I… it’s not up for debate. We have to leave.”

That was a first. Still, I wasn’t going to budge, but I was curious now as to what had gotten my mother’s panties in a twist. “Why?”

“It’s—we just have to go, okay? I told you we wouldn’t be able to stay anywhere long, not after—” My mother stopped, her eyes once again returning to the floor, as if she couldn’t look at me.

Me, her own daughter. Her own flesh and blood. I’d known she’d hated me my whole life, everyone did, really, but this was just a reminder of that. A reminder that she’d never wanted me and the only reason she’d given birth to me was because my grandmother wouldn’t let her get an abortion.

“Listen to me,” I said, setting my pencil down. “I like it here. I have friends. I like my classes at Blackrain High. I graduate in a few months. You can’t keep pulling me around everywhere whenever you feel like running. You can go, but I’m not. I’m staying here with Aunt Maggie and Elias.”

Like hell would I ever leave Elias. Like fucking hell. The only thing that could take me away from Elias would be death, and the rot wasn’t quite done with me yet. It wasn’t my time to die.

“I—” My mother apparently wanted to argue with me.

“No,” I spoke the word firmly.

That was that, apparently. My mother got up and walked to the door, an almost mechanical way about her. She left me, closing the door behind her after stepping out into the hall. I stared at the shut door for what felt like an eternity, half expecting her to come back in with another pathetic rebuttal.

But she didn’t come back, which led me to wonder just what the hell that had been about. My mother wanting to run wasn’t so out of the ordinary, but to come to me, to try to act all motherly all of a sudden to get me to go with her, was unusual.

What the hell was that about?

Chapter Fourteen

Jordan was waiting by my locker Monday morning. I didn’t want to see him or talk to him, but seeing where he was, it was pretty much impossible. Holding back a groan, I squared my shoulders, held my head high, and marched to my locker like the bad bitch I was.

Did he think if he groveled enough I’d accept his half-assed apology and want to continue to be friends with him? That, maybe, I’d go out on another date with him? That we’d make out and hook up and all the other shit he so obviously had wanted? Because, yeah, in the lake, I’d definitely felt Jordan’s mini-me poking me in the belly.

He had another thing coming.

---