Page 105 of Diem

Snorting, I turn to the door. “If my life is so perfect then how come I’m speaking to my half-sister, born out of an affair, through a bathroom door?”

After a beat of silence, she whispers, “At least our dad chose you.”

“Yeah, well welcome to the family,” I mutter before I hear the door open and close with a whoosh.

Damn but if Hailey has hated me all these years for that, she’s been deluding herself. The grass is never greener. Never.

∞∞∞

Matt greets me after school with a soft smile and I return it with a sad version of my own. Despite everything swirling around the school, I think he’s chosen to ignore it, which has to be half delusion and half hope.

My stupid obsession with Diem is not a secret but Matt seems to have set the matter aside.

“Hey,” he says, bumping my shoulder.

“Hey,” I murmur, scanning the lot. These days, my hope is to make it through the day without any unfortunate meetups with Diem.

So far, my wish has come true. I don't know what to think about Hailey’s confession beyond it being just as pathetic as my own thoughts. Truthfully, I do feel sorry for her but if she thinks my sordid side of the road is any better, she’s dead wrong.

I guess the only good part about all of this is that I haven’t had time to worry about the messages and rabbit’s foot. With any luck, whoever that was, assuming it wasn’t Frank, gave up on what was hopefully a stupid prank. Ugh. Even I’m not naïve enough to believe that.

“You wanna—”

“Oh,” I say, pulling my phone from my back pocket. It’s from Penny to my relief. Raising a finger to Matt, who’s lips pull into a frown, I tap out a response to her invite to meet up before saying to Matt, “I’ve gotta go.”

“Uh, okay bye.”

Waving behind me, I hustle to my car and pull from the lot on squealing tires. Dad finally gave me back my privileges but with it came a warning about finals. Since I’m still banking on my college fund being used to defend my skeevy dad, pursuing a higher education is meaningless. Besides, I have to make it that far to begin with.

There’s nothing I can do about Diem or Hailey or my stupid brother, but I can make this other hell go away, I hope.

When I pull up to Penny’s house, she slides into my car with a weird glint in her eye. To my surprise, she’s dressed to impress and wearing makeup. A sight I haven’t seen since before Dixie died. Hell, I'm not sure she’s bothered since she started homeschooling.

“What’s the plan?” I ask cautiously. I should’ve thought this one through because Penny is on a damn mission.

I just hope the plan doesn’t include a creepy house or anything else dastardly.

“Dixie used to talk about Fight Club. Have you been?”

“Uh yeah,” I say, picturing Diem in the ring. “Why there?”

“Because I went through her things and found this.” She holds out her hand and I grab the flyer.

It’s from a year ago and announcing a series of matchups but below handwritten and circled twice for emphasis it says:Meet at ten pm.

“This could mean anything. Meet who?”

She grabs it out of my hand. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”

“How? By asking everyone?” I say, exasperated.

Leveling me with a stare, she says, “Are you in or not?”

With a sigh, I lean against the seat and pound my head against the fabric.

Will Diem be there?

∞∞∞

---