Page 127 of Show Me How
All he had to do was tell me to stay. Or showed me that it’s what he wanted before I got into that car. I know we didn’t agree to have a future together, but I thought . . . or hoped, that he felt the same way I did. That he’d fallen in love with me back, because shit, do I ever love him.
From his flirty grins to his unwavering support and blunt personality, I’ve grown to appreciate everything about him. The way he isn’t afraid to try something new and has never judged me for a single thing, past or present. He’s offered me the typeof kindness that doesn’t come naturally to some. It’s the purest form of it that never fails to bring me out of my shell and give me the courage to follow what I want.
There’s more that I haven’t even begun to find yet, but I want to. We didn’t have enough time together, yet the time we did have was more than enough for me to realize that I could be happy there, with him.
But I couldn’t risk my heart so soon after healing it. Not when he didn’t tell me how he felt.
“Why are you still in bed? Get up! Chadwick has been waiting for hours alone.”
Mom stalks through my bedroom and rips my curtains open, forcing the sun to flood through. I blink my tears away and stay lying beneath the blankets, unmoving.
“Millicent, this isn’t a joke.”
“I don’t hear myself laughing.”
A pause. The air grows thick with tension. “Watch your attitude.”
“Do you remember how many birthdays I’ve had?”
“Is that another one of your jokes?” she bites.
I roll my head along my pillow to stare at her. “Twenty-six, Mom. I’ve had twenty-six birthdays. That officially makes me no longer a child to be bossed around.”
The rage that rips through her should be studied. I’m not sure anyone is supposed to getthatred.
“Millicent,” she snaps, eyes so narrowed I can hardly see the brown colour of them. “What happened to you?”
“I grew a backbone.”
“No, you learned how to disrespect your mother.” She grips the bottom of my duvet and rips it clean off the bed. I grind my teeth, only a thin sheet covering me now. “Get. Up. You’re going to get in the shower and wash away that town and the way it clings to you like a bad smell.”
Pulling my legs up, I sit against the headboard and shake my head. “I don’t feel up to being flaunted around the property today.”
“Millicent,” she hisses.
“Millie. I prefer Millie.”
Without another word, she spins on heeled feet and struts out of my room, not bothering to acknowledge my statement at all.
I cross my legs and exhale, a few of the chains that were wrapped back around me slipping free. The lack of bedroom door doesn’t allow me any privacy, so I pull the sheet up to my chin and stare into the hall. When a set of low, muffled voices sounds from where my mother disappeared to, I clutch the sheet tighter, knowing who’s going to appear next.
And like a bad dream, Chadwick appears.
He frowns at me from the doorway, his eyes betraying how unimpressed he is with all of this.
“It’s past eleven,” he states.
“I wasn’t aware there was a wake-up call scheduled.”
His jaw twitches. “Your mother mentioned you being upset about leaving that town.”
“She did? How’d she figure that out when she never asked?”
It’s like I can’t help myself. The serrated edge of my words continues to strike before I even realize it. This tiny bit of freedom is all I have in this place, and now that I’ve tasted it, I can’t go back to how I used to be. Not when everything around me is all wrong.
“What happened there, Millie? Why are you behaving like this?”
I glance out the window, taking in the dark clouds in the gloomy sky that I know are heavy with snow. It’s warmer here than Oak Point, even being up on a mountain.
