Page 19 of Sugar Coated

Mike heaved a giant sigh. “Fine.”

“Thank you.” As I whispered it, I swore I saw his hands clench around the steering wheel a little bit harder than they held onto it before, but maybe it was all in my head. Maybe I’d gotten used to the jealous Mike.

Maybe I wanted him to be jealous, because that meant he cared.

The drive home was a silent one after that, with neither of us saying a single word more. I wouldn’t say it was awkward. Morelike uneasy, like we both knew the other person wanted to say something else, so we waited for them to break the silence while stewing in our own thoughts. Not even the radio played in the background.

Given the time, my dad would probably be at work. Honestly, I doubted he would even know that I was gone last night; the one person who might’ve realized it would be Tessa—the woman didn’t have a job of her own, and because of that she paid a ridiculous amount of attention to the goings-on in the house. She would’ve sensed how quiet it was and went looking to see what was wrong, then she would’ve found an empty room and a missing Mike with no note, no messages, and no calls.

Maybe, once Tessa realized I was gone, she might’ve called my dad, but I doubted it. If I had to place a bet, I’d say she thought I was only rebelling, not that anything bad happened to me. She’d be half-right.

When we pulled into the driveway after driving across the city, my stomach dropped. I wasn’t looking forward to talking to Tessa. The woman was okay, I guessed; she kept my dad sane the two years I was gone, and he must’ve loved her enough to put a ring on it. To me, however, she was intensely overbearing, and sometimes it got to be too much.

Too many expectations. Too much pressure.

As Mike parked the car, I gathered up my courage to face Tessa and her wrath. It was kind of funny, in a depressing way: she acted like this was her house, not mine. Like she’d been living in it longer than I had.

Maybe that’s what I didn’t like about this house anymore. It never really felt like me, even before the kidnapping, and now that Tessa was here, I was an outsider.

Getting out of the car, I squared my shoulders and held my head high. I didn’t know if Tessa would be home or if she’d beout and about; usually during the day she was off doing whatever it was she did, but with my luck, she’d be here, waiting for me.

I didn’t wait for Mike. I made a beeline toward the door. Stepping inside the house after being kidnapped a second time was weird. Like I was caught in a dream and this wasn’t real. A strange feeling, one I couldn’t really describe.

My ears heard nothing in the house, and I dared to take it as a good sign. By the time Mike walked into the house behind me, I was already heading up the stairs to go to my room. Had to mess up the pillows so it didn’t necessarily look like I tried to sneak out last night.

Hey, maybe I’ll get out of this without any more lectures.

I kicked off my shoes once I was in my room and hurried to the bed, where I fixed the pillows and straightened out my sheets. I didn’t make my bed every single day, but I wasn’t one to tangle up the sheets, either.

I heard someone walking by in the hall, and I assumed it was Mike going to his room after a long night, but of course I wouldn’t be so lucky. The sound of footsteps didn’t fade away as that someone kept walking by. Nope. It stopped only when its owner walked into my room with her hands on her hips and an accusatory glare in her eyes.

I didn’t have to look to know it was Tessa—and she caught me red-handed fixing up the pillows. Of course.

“Where were you?” Tessa’s voice was a bit shrill, the kind of voice that instantly put me in a sour mood.

I was slow in meeting Tessa’s dark stare. “I… went out for a stroll?” My lie, though it came easily, would not be believed by a single soul thanks to the way I said it. I might as well have admitted I was at a college party, that I hooked up with my Devil, and then I got kidnapped. Not that I felt guilty over any of it, but that’s kind of how I sounded.

Tessa’s gaze dropped to my feet and sluggishly made its way up my body. “In those clothes? Please.” She cocked her head at me, her silence practically as loud as her words. She wore a matching athletic suit of a dull gray; her brown hair pulled back into a low, loose ponytail. My guess was she was either on her way to the gym or she’d just gotten back.

“What?” I made a big show of glancing at my clothes. Granted, I did wear the same clothes I wore last night, but it wasn’t like the outfit screamed college party. I didn’t think.

“You were gone. Mike was gone. With Kieran still in the hospital, the house was as quiet as it was when you were taken.” Tessa brought up my first kidnapping like it was a normal topic of conversation, when anyone else in their right mind would have danced around the subject a bit more carefully. “I’m going to ask a second time, and I want you to be honest: where were you?”

For a moment, Tessa and I have a staring contest. It was clear it was a contest of wills. Who was stronger? Who would bend first? Would Tessa give up and leave me alone or would I divulge my little secret of where I was?

Hmm. I didn’t want anyone to know I was kidnapped, but maybe it’d be fun to tell a little bit of truth.

“If you must know,” I paused for dramatic effect, “I was at a party.”

Tessa’s eyes nearly bugged out of her skull at my admission. Seriously, they widened so much if a gentle gust of wind came up from behind her, her eyes would fall out and roll on the floor like marbles. “A party? Excuse me? Who told you it was okay for you to go to aparty? I know it wasn’t your father or me.”

“I’m nineteen. I can do what I want.”

“You are your father’s daughter. You live in his house. You might look like a circus freak, but deep down you are still a traumatized girl. Going to a party was the last thing youshould’ve done.” Tessa must’ve not had a single nice bone in her body; every word she spoke came with a bitchy attitude.

“You can’t tell me what to do.” The second I said it, I wanted to smack myself. What a stereotypically teenage thing to say. Ugh. What can I say? Tessa brought out the internal rage in me like no one else ever had; it was her superpower.

Her reply came swiftly: “You may not respect me enough to listen to me, but I’m sure your father will agree with me when I let him know where you were.”

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