Page 74 of My Rules for Revenge
“I pay the house bills and her online classes, and I’ll be helping you out with your college costs. This is a marriage of convenience, Indira. Your mother knows it, I know it, and it’s time for you to know it. Do you understand me?” he asked.
I looked at my mother one last time. I begged her to back me up with my eyes. She simply got up, squeezed my shoulder, and walked away.
“I now know everything I needed to know about this family.”
My nails deeply dug into my palm as I tightly clenched my fists. It hurt, but I didn’t care. There was nothing I could do. I feltcompletely helpless. Now, it seemed like I was the one who tried to blow up my family and not him.
I was in a complete daze, and nothing made sense. My mother fell right into his slimy, manipulative hands as always. He did pay for everything, though, so it was very difficult to escape that. Realistically, we couldn’t live on our own without jobs, but I just wanted my mother to take my side, and she didn’t. She did what she always does and blew off her problems, accepted my father’s twisted justifications, and went along with them. I ultimately understood the reasons why she did, but I still felt sick.
My father had the audacity to open up for a hug. I shoved right past him and went up to my room. I slammed the door shut so hard I loosened the door hinge. I buried my face in my pillow and screamed.
Over the next few weeks, I simply wanted to forget about what happened, as my plan to blackmail my father failed spectacularly. He wasn’t the only one who betrayed our family—my mother did as well. I truly saw how things were when she simply said nothing to stand up for herself, which was disheartening, and the sad part was… I fully expected her to behave that way—a part of me hoped that she wouldn’t—but that hope is long dead.
Eddy helped me clear my head.
I continued to hang out with him at our usual spot at the park near my house. Sometimes I helped him study chemistry, and sometimes we played basketball. We got very close and became good friends. On that day, however, I wished we had never met.
It all started when we sat on our usual bench and just talked about things.
“Do you like school, Indira?”
“Yeah, it’s alright. I don’t have a lot of friends, though. That kind of sucks. I only have you,” I explained.
“What about Heather? You seem to be friends with her,” Eddy mentioned.
“She’s pretty funny. I like her,” I expressed.
“I’ve always been a bit afraid of her, but I think she’s pretty,” Eddy remarked.
I shot him an offended look.
“You think she’s pretty?” I asked.
“Yeah, she’s a cute girl,” Eddy admitted.
“Oh!” I exclaimed.
“She’s, uh… cute like you.”
I blushed.
“Oh, well. Thank you,” I replied.
“Yeah, of course. Did I make you uncomfortable just now? I’m sorry if I did,” Eddy said apologetically.
“No, you didn’t. It’s okay,” I said.
“Okay.”
“Do you like school?” I asked.
“I do, for the most part, but I feel like an outsider on the basketball team sometimes. I guess we’re similar in that way,” Eddy pointed out.
“I guess we are.”
“I can promise you that I’ll never make you feel like you’re an outsider,” Eddy assured me.
“I believe you.”
