Page 113 of Nemesis

“Where are we going?” I asked again.

She looped her arm through mine and held me close. In recent months, my body had sprouted. I grew six inches in three months. My joints and muscles pulled tight, my limbs still held an ache. Like being out in the cold for too long and plunging into a warm bath. But I towered over her now, the top of her head becoming my new constant viewpoint.

Not my father, though. He still had an inch on me, and muscles, too.

“This is a rite of passage.” He tucks his phone in his pocket.

He chose the front seat, letting the driver open and close the door for us in the back, instead. Me first, sliding across the black leather, then my mother. There were water bottles in the doors, soft classical music playing over the speakers.

“What is?”

He twisted around and gave me a look.

One that said to stop talking, to be quiet. To justwait.

I hated waiting.

The sun set sometime while we were on the ferry, and it was completely dark by the time we reached a nondescript building. My parents led the way in. People opened doors for us, someone offered champagne. Even to me.

I was sixteen and definitely not allowed to be drinking, but nerves got the better of me.

I took the glass and swallowed all of it down before they could take it away. I set the empty glass back on the tray and continued, my nerves compounded by the fizz in my belly.

We entered a theater and walked down an aisle, having come out on a particular row. We couldn’t see who was in the other booths, each U-shaped and high-backed. They faced away from us, and there were privacy screens on the row above us that blocked them out, too.

If anyone was even in the room with us.

We sat, me on one end, my father on the other. Mom perched in the middle, seeming torn about who to sidle up to.

“Are we watching a play?” I asked her in a low voice.

She shook her head and gave me a small, secret smile. “Just tell us who you like, darling. All right?”

The lights dimmed, and my attention was dragged to the now-illuminated stage below. It was dark when we entered, but the spotlight shone in the center. Waiting for its star.

The whole theater, from what I could tell, was dark velvets. The paneled walls, the booths. It screamed luxury. Gold fastenings and accents.

There was a small table in front of us with a lamp and a box with a button. It turned on at the same time as the spotlight, glowing red.

It switched to green just as a curtain down at the opposite end of the stage rustled, and a girl appeared.

Tall. Blonde. She wore a bikini and heels, and she walked to the center of the stage. Turned in a slow circle. Her bikini bottoms didn’t cover any of her ass.

I…

What?

“Do you like her?” Mom inches closer. “She’s pretty, but you could do better. It’s all about the spark of attraction.”

I tried to lick my lips, but my mouth was too dry. My heart was beating too fast.

“I don’t understand.”

She touched my knee. “You will.”

I slammy fist into the wall, cutting off the memory before it can drown me.

I’m not that person.

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