Page 107 of This Life and All the Rest
“Take the hint. You’re being pathetic and embarrassing.”
I take three steps, so I’m directly in front of her across the kitchen island. She flinches, but she doesn’t step away.
“He’s doing better now that you’re gone.”
My voice booms on the last word.
“Remember that, Claire? Remember? Remember how Macon wasin fucking rehab, but you chose to make me think he didn’t care about me anymore?”
Her mouth drops open, her lips quiver. So many unexplained emotions dance over her face before settling on defensive. She preps for a fight, and I’m ready to give her one.
“You were supposed to come back,” Claire says. “You weren’t supposed to stay in England. You were supposed to be back when he got out.”
Bullshit.
“So you, what, just wanted to hurt me a little bit more? Just wanted to cause me pain for the summer?”
“No! No. I was just...I was mad,” she says. “You weren’t supposed to stay gone.”
“I was never supposed to leave,” I shout. “Were you so fucking jealous that you had to orchestrate the whole thing?”
“What? No!”
“You’re such a miserable bitch, Claire. Couldn’t stand that you weren’t the center of my attention? You were so fucking petty that you had to split us up?”
“No, Lennon, Jesus,” Claire shouts. “I didn’t know you’d go AWOL after that email, okay? I thought you would come home at the end of the summer and then—”
“—And then what? And then fucking what, Claire?”
“And then you’d know! And then it would be fine and fixed, and we’d go back to normal! I thought you just needed to cool off. To get Macon out of your system. This wasn’t supposed to happen!”
This is un-fucking-believable.
Everyone else was pulling the strings in my life, and I was left with nothing. I was a pawn.
“So, you got me sent away? Do you know how fucked up that was, Claire? Do you even know what a mess you caused?”
“I didn’t get you sent away!” She fists her hands at her sides, and she narrows her eyes. “I shouldn’t have said those things in that email, but I didn’t send you away.”
I laugh sardonically, loud and ominous.
“You might as well have. You told my dad—”
“I didn’t tell your dad shit, Lennon. It was Macon.”
My head jerks back and my mouth snaps shut as I stare at Claire.
“Macontold your dad that you’d slept together on prom night. He asked your dad to send you.Maconis the reason you were sent away early. Quit blaming me for everything.”
What? No. Macon wouldn’t do that.
“You’re lying,” I spit out. “That’s what you do. You’re fucking lying.”
“I’m not! I swear to god, I’m not.”
Tears are starting to trickle down her cheeks, and she brushes them away hastily.
“And you know what else? Macon was here. That day you were crying and begging to say goodbye? He was here, upstairs, beat to shit and bloody, and he hid from you.”
