Page 5 of The Perfect Love

All they did was pick on me and treat me like crap because I wasn’t fun anymore.

I want to rage at them. I want to scream about what selfish, unempathetic people they are. That they should consider themselves lucky they have no idea how I feel. I want to tell them to fuck off.

But I don’t want to create more turmoil in my life.

Our hometown of Birch Lake is small, and rifts run deep. I don’t want that.

For half a second, my thumb hovers over the button to delete and block the conversation, but I don’t click that either.

Instead, I take a breath, then type a response.

Me: Because this is where I need to be.

Then I put the conversation on mute, play an audiobook through my Bluetooth speaker, and finish setting up my bookcase.

This is my home now.

This is my life now.

And even though I’m messy at best, still crawling out of the darkness and afraid to be around the opposite sex, I’m doing the damn thing.

I’m going to live my life and be the most beautiful, badass version of me I’ve ever been. That’s how I win.

2

Pretty F*cking Spectacular

Trevor

“Have fun living withseven other people, potentially hearing your ex have sex with one of your closest friends, and… oh, yeah. Don’t forget to wrap it before you tap it.”

I stare dryly at my sister. “Remind me again why I like you.”

“Because I’m your favoritest person in the whole world.”

Hyla’s warm brown eyes dance as her sun-kissed blonde hair rustles in the wind. Her smile and her words are a playful mask of the pain I know she’s feeling.

She’s my sister in every way except biology. We’ve known each other since we were born. My mom is the mom in her life, and if Hyla would ditch her shit-tacular parents, my mom would adopt her in a heartbeat. She’s had a rough time lately—the last fewyears, really—but so have I. We’ve been each other’s ride-or-die for our entire lives. Through her shitty parents, and plenty of heartbreak and loss. Leaving her the first time for college two years ago was tough, but after all we’ve both been through in the last six months, leaving her this time is harder, even if she will be a lot closer to Mom.

I pull her into a hug. “You are my favorite person.”

“Excuse me. What about me?”

Mom’s all smiles with her hands on her hips, but I know she has a hard time letting me go too. We survived the worst together. I’m glad she and Hyla will have each other when I’m not here.

But this is the moment I second-guess going.

I’m transferring schools this year. I could’ve gone somewhere closer to home, but I still wanted to explore more, and experience life outside my tiny town of Ida. So I’m moving to a different tiny town and into a house with seven of my friends.

At least it has a sweet view of the lake.

“Stop with that look,” Mom says. “This will be good for you. You need a breath of fresh air, and where better to get that than right by a beautiful lake?”

Right. Forgot my mother is a mind reader.

I shift from Hyla’s arms to Mom’s and hold her close.

“I love you.”

---