Page 103 of Skalterra By Nightmare
The bell over the door rang out as I ran onto the street, and my flip-flops slapped with every running step back towards Gams’s store.
I knew Mom had been angry the morning I’d stumbled out of my car covered in sticks and dirt, and yes, she’d driven off in a hurry, but she’d seemed so calm after coming home, if a bit wetter than before.
Sabrina raised a hand in greeting as I passed her on the sidewalk, but I ignored it, surely setting our flimsy friendship back even further. However, there was no time for Sabrina right now, because Linsey Harper had put my mother’s tantrum on the internet.
When I pushed into the air-conditioned interior of Gams’s shop, I thought she’d already seen the video. She waited for me, leaning against the counter with her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed behind her round glasses.
But then I saw the wrinkled missing flyer in her hand, stained with bits of day-old melted ice-cream.
“I found this in the trash can.” Riley’s black-and-white face smiled back at me. “What’s extra weird is that it has the Port Fletcherton Community Board approval stamp. How did this get to the Port Fletcherton Community Board, Wren? And then all the way back here?”
I held up my phone.
“Mom’s on the internet.”
“Well, I should hope so! Her books are very popular in certain circles, but—”
“It’s a video.”
Gams stared at me for a moment, her lips twisting as she breathed heavily through her nose.
“Fine,” she snapped, and slammed Riley’s poster onto the counter. “What’s this video?”
I silently held my phone out to her and let the video play. I didn’t have the heart to watch it again. Gams’s eyebrows shot up her forehead, and she nodded along as she watched in awed silence.
“I would’ve chosen different words than ‘cheat daughter’ for that Linsey girl, but still. Very impressive. Is that it?”
“Is that it?” I repeated. “Gams! Everyone can see this!”
“So delete it!”
I pulled at my hair, feeling my ponytail come undone beneath my fingers.
“That’s not how the internet works!”
“Von Leer isn’t going to care. It’s okay—”
“I don’t care about Von Leer! I care about Mom! I care about her book tour!” I yelled. Yes, there had been a time where this video would’ve mortified me in a different way. I would’ve been embarrassed to have my mother freaking out and getting sprinklered online on my behalf, but Liam was right. I wasn’t going to see anyone from high school ever again, and I’d already solidified their opinions of me when I got Linsey expelled from Von Leer.
And Von Leer? They already knew my mother. She’d been their student. She’d done more speaking engagements there for her romance novels than anywhere else. Her books were in the student store, despite their filthy content.
No, this wasn’t about me. This was about how I’d been dumb enough to get stuck in the woods and set Mom off like this. This was, just like most things, my fault.
Gams threw her head back and laughed, and the sound brought embarrassed warmth to my cheeks.
“Eliza is a grown woman, and she was perfectly within her rights to dropkick those ugly lawn gnomes. Maybe not legally speaking, of course, but any good mother would’ve doneat leastthat.”
“But—”
She held up her hand to cut me off and pulled her own phone out of her pocket.
Mom answered on the first ring.
“Mom? What’s going on? Is it Wren?” Mom’s voice was tight with worry.
“There’s a video of you on the internet.” Gams cut straight to the chase.
“Whoops.” Mom’s laugh echoed over the speaker. “Is it from the tour? The other day in Nice, things got a little out of hand. In a fun way, of course.”
