Page 77 of Aftertaste

We weren’t.

We hadn’t been for over six years.

“How’s school, Thalia?” Dad asked from the head of the table to my right. Mom made a noise in the back of her throat. She couldn’t stand to listen to him talk, yet she insisted on him being here tonight. She only demanded family meals when she had something she wanted to share, and we all knew it, we were just waiting for her to finally come out and tell us.

“Good,” I said, keeping my head down and trying to make myself as small as possible. I didn’t want to be the center of attention, not when Dale was sat right next to me. He could have sat opposite me, but he hadn’t. I swore he could sense that I wasn’t myself.

My breath halted in my chest as Haven’s face appeared in my mind. She’d look so betrayed as she stared at me in her apartment.

“Dale?” Dad asked. “How’s college?”

At the sound of his name, my focus snapped back, hyperaware of him next to me.

“It’s good,” he said, repeating the same word I’d used. “Boring but—”

“I think that’s enough small talk,” Mom lashed out, and we all turned our heads to face her. Her dark-brown hair was perfectly curled, her lips lined to perfection, not an inch of her makeup out of place. “I called you all here for a reason.” Everyone stayed silent, knowing better than to interfere when Mom was talking. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately.”

I bit down on my bottom lip as a hand trailed onto my thigh. A hand I knew all too well.

My gaze flicked to Dale, but he didn’t acknowledge me as he continued to eat the takeout my mom had ordered. There was no way she was going to cook, not when she could spend my dad’s money on crappy, healthy food. Who the hell ordered a salad for delivery?

Dale’s hand reached higher, and I cursed at myself for wearing a skirt to school today. His palm was on my bare flesh. Every part of me wanted to jump up and get his filthy hands off me, but I was stuck. Stuck at this table. Stuck with him. Stuck living a life I hated.

“This family has been broken for many years.” Mom narrowed her eyes on Dad, and I tried my hardest not to let anything show on my face as Dale’s hand wormed its way higher. “And I know just the solution to bring it back together again.”

I slapped my hand over Dale’s, stopping him from going any farther. His head turned, his gaze meeting mine. He promised things silently, things I’d known were coming but had denied it to myself over and over again.

“I want a baby.”

Dad choked on the wine he was drinking, spewing it all over the food on his plate. “You want a what?”

“A baby.” Mom sighed. “It will fix us.”

Dale’s hand squeezed harder, but I didn’t move my grip off his fingers. I wasn’t letting him do this here. Not right then, not in front of my parents.

“No,” Dad said, placing his glass on the table carefully.

“What?” Mom asked, her voice getting louder.

“I said, no,” Dad repeated. “I’m not doing this with you anymore.” He stood and grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair. “I’m done.”

“Done?” Mom laughed and stood too, her napkin falling off her lap in the process. “Isay when we’re done.”

They were moving out of the room, and my panicked breaths were getting faster and faster. If they left Dale and I alone now, I wasn’t sure what he would do or how far he would take it. So I pushed my chair back, the legs scraping on the floor and gaining all of their attention. “I’m going to Sage’s.”

“No, you’re not,” Mom ground out, pointing her finger at me. “Sit back down.”

“Go,” Dad said softly to me, and I moved toward him. “Go spend some time with your friend.”

“You would say that,” Mom snapped at him. “You’re barely ever here, so what does it matter if Thalia is. You leave this family every night to go fuck your latest piece of ass—”

I slammed my hands over my ears and hightailed it out of there. My footsteps pounded on the stairs as I ran to my room, grabbed enough things to stay at Sage’s house for a couple of nights, then darted back downstairs.

Dale waited near the door, but he couldn’t say anything because Mom and Dad were arguing in the hallway, neither of them wanting to back down. They were the buffer I needed, the buffer I’d prayed for every day since Dale had come into my room and lay in bed with me.

“Thalia,” he warned, but I ignored him and waltzed on by, acting like he wasn’t even there.

It was temporary, I knew that. But I needed time to process everything that had happened with Haven. Time to put my mask back into place before I could face Dale again.

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