Page 59 of It Was Always You

"And he couldn't do that at his own house?"

I looked down. "No."

My dad pursed his lips. "I don't want you spendingany more time alone with that boy in this house. It's against our rules, and you know that."

"But we weren't alone. Jake was here until a few minutes ago."

"Those are the exact same things your sister said to me. And I love Grant, he's my little buddy, but your sister had a hard time of it. She was lucky to have you to help out so much with Grant. But I won't let that happen to one of my girls again. You need to be smart."

Why did he always have to think I was up to something bad? I hated how just because Maddie had gotten into lots of trouble when she was my age that he assumed I was going to follow in her footsteps. I hadn't done a single thing wrong.

I laid my head back and blew out a frustrated breath. "We're just friends. He wouldn't dare do anything with me, anyway, even if we did want to...which we don't. Guys know all about my purity ring and my drill sergeant dad. Pretty sure I won't get asked out on a date until I'm hundreds of miles away at Yale. If then."

Which reminded me of exactly why Noah, or Harrison, or any guy for that matter would never dare touch me.

My paranoid dad was ruining my life. It wasn't fair that I was being punished for my sister's actions. When was I going to get to stop proving myself to him?

My dad stood then touched my shoulder. "I just wantyou to have more options in your life. Getting mixed up with the wrong crowd has more of an impact than you know."

I crossed my arms and glowered at him. "All I did was fall asleep. I'm not going to end up like Maddie."

"That's all I want to hear. Just make good choices and your life will be easier."

Except for the fact that I had always made good choices, yet my sister's choices were the ones making my life hard at the moment.

But instead of saying anything about that, I just sighed and said, "You don't have to worry about anything. I'm still planning to go to Yale. Nothing will get in the way of that."

My dad gave me a small smile, though his eyes told me he was still worried about me. But I tried not to look too hard or it would just make me feel guilty. I wasn't going to do what my sister did. But I wasn't going to just cut Noah out of my life. He needed someone right now, and at the moment, that someone was me. I wouldn't let him down.

20

NOAH

"I'm sorry,but your card was declined." The girl at the first drive-thru window at McDonald's gave me an uncomfortable look. It was the kind of uncomfortable that made me think she knew who I was. Which meant we probably went to the same school.

I cleared my throat, feeling awkward myself. "Are you sure?" I had checked the balance on my account yesterday. There should be at least thirty dollars left.

"I can try another card," the girl offered.

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. "I don't have another card. Could you just try once more?"

The girl nodded before ducking back in to swipe my card again. How could my money have just disappeared from my account? I needed that money to get me throughuntil at least Saturday. I had to eat somewhere, and from the way Mr. Stevens had reacted to finding me at his house, I doubted I'd be bumming food off them much more.

The girl came back, holding my card out to me. "It still wouldn't go through."

"Okay, thanks." Without meeting the girl’s gaze, I took the card back and tossed the useless thing onto the passenger seat. Then I rolled up my window and stared ahead at the car in front of me, wishing I could just drive straight through and hide my shame.

Had someone hacked into my account somehow and stolen my money?

The brake lights went off on the car ahead of me, having successfully gotten their food into their vehicle. I followed it out of the drive-thru, not bothering to stop at the second window since they wouldn't be giving me my order after all.

I drove down the next block and pulled along the curb to call my dad. Maybe he would know what had happened to my money.

He picked up after the third ring. "Hi, Noah." His deep voice came through my earpiece.

"Hey, Dad," I said, trying to figure out how to proceed. Our last conversation had ended with him accusing me of getting into drugs. "Um, do you know what happened to the money in my checking account? Ihad thirty dollars yesterday, but my card just got declined."

"Yes," he said. I could hear the chattering of my step-siblings in the background.

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