Page 38 of Drum Me Away
She shook her head. “Go ahead and laugh. The whole thing is ridiculous anyway.”
“Want to talk about it?”
CHAPTER14
Faith
DidI want to talk about it?
Hell no.
Should I?
Probably.
After all Lucas had done for me—not to mention, hello, we were sleeping together now—at the very least, he deserved an explanation.
“Regina Morrow,” I finally said, sighing over the name. So many memories. Mostly good ones, admittedly.
And one very, very bad one.
“Her mother and mine are, or at least were when I lived here, really good friends. Well, as good as a friend as my mother has, which honestly isn’t saying much. Anyway, they lunched together and ran the PTA together and my mother always told her what to do. When Regina’s mom wanted to open the coffee shop, my mother was an investor. Not that she even drinks coffee—only tea for her—but she’s a business-savvy person and she knew it would make money since we were probably the only place in the state of Washington at the time without a coffee shop in our little downtown area.”
“I’m guessing you and Regina over there spent a lot of time together as kids.”
My lips curled into a wry smile. “Yeah, too much. Although honestly, early on, we were friends. But as we got older and I became more estranged from my mother, Regina and I started growing apart. Finally, we had a huge falling out in eighth grade, and my mother was so appalled by my behavior that she pulled me out of the prestigious private school we went to and enrolled me in the local public high school. I didn’t know what she thought to accomplish at the time. Hell, I was excited because I figured there’d be normal people there I could actually relate to.
“But as it turned out, my mother knew what she was doing. Everyone hated me on sight because I was Elaine Hearsy’s youngest daughter, and Elaine was the premier snobby bitch in this community.”
“Damn, that’s a lot to unpack. Including the fact that I didn’t know Devempor wasn’t your last name until right now,” Lucas said.
I bit back a wince. I’d adopted that surname when I started college. By the time I met Lucas and the rest of the band, I was so comfortable with it, it hadn’t occurred to me to tell them it wasn’t my given name.
“It’s my grandmother’s maiden name,” I confessed. “When I left this place, she was the only tie I was interested in keeping. Not to mention, no way in hell did I want anyone in that world”—I waved my coffee cup to indicate the band and our fans—“to connect me to this one.”
“So what was the big falling out between you and Regina?”
I shook my head. I’d never told anyone what happened that day in my mother’s sitting room.
“It was so stupid. Regina was—and apparently still is—super tight with her mom. They were best friends. After much time and distance from the situation, I can now admit that I was jealous of their relationship. But at the time, I didn’t realize that was part of my problem.
“Regina got upset every time I got mad and bitched about Mom. And that venting probably kept me sane, because let me tell you, living in Elaine’s world was no picnic.”
Lucas made a sort of grunting noise that I assumed was meant to sound sympathetic, even though I knew damn well he couldn’t even remotely relate to this story. Still, I appreciated the show of compassion.
“So one day, after a particularly rough battle with my mother, Regina and her mom came over. I don’t even remember where my sisters were at the time. Ava was probably avoiding being home, like she always did, and Maria might very well have been hiding in her bedroom, because she hated when Mom and I fought too.”
That familiar anger and frustration rolled over me until, as I had so often back then, I felt as though I were in danger of drowning in it. I wanted to reach for Lucas’s hand, craving the comfort I was sure he could provide, but I clutched my coffee cup and ground my teeth instead.
“My mother was the perfect hostess, smiling and being all sweet, even to me, and I lost it, because how the hell could she have just had a screaming match with me and act like we were fine? For fuck’s sake, we never made up after any of our fights, and I just finally broke that day. I started yelling at her, picking up where we left off before they came over, right there in the middle of the sitting room.”
I deliberately paused, needing the small break to let my thoughts settle. I sipped my coffee and stared at nothing at all as we slowly wandered down the sidewalk.
“Regina rushed over to me and pushed me, telling me to stop being so mean to my mother. I was so jacked up on my own anger that I didn’t even think. I just turned around and decked her. Hit her right in the eye. She went down like a sack of potatoes and had a shiner for weeks afterward.
“Her mother gathered her daughter and they left in a huff, while mine railed at me for what felt like days before sending me off to my bedroom without dinner or my computer. I stayed there for a week, with Maria bringing me meals every day. When I was finally released from prison, the only thing my mother said was that I was going to a new school in the fall.”
I shrugged, the action cloaking how I really felt. “That’s it. We never spoke of it again, and this is the first time I’ve seen Regina since.”
