Page 5 of Wild and Bright

Much more obedient than I ever was, Cadence immediately gets up and walks in the direction of her bedroom.

When she’s out of earshot, my mom turns to me. “Your dad and I can’t allow this anymore. We can’t reinforce your terrible parenting by paying your student loans and letting you live here rent free. From now on, you’re going to have to take care of yourself.”

My mouth falls open. “Are you serious right now?”

She shrugs. “It’s not out of the blue. Your dad and I have been talking about it for a long time. Logan’s been supporting himself since he graduated college. I think it’s only fair you support yourself, too.”

I grit my teeth, my nostrils flaring. “Logan doesn’t have a child.”

“We’re doing this to protect Cadence.”

“You would kick your granddaughter out onto the streets because of a fucking YouTube video? Because you’re trying to protect her? Mom, do you, like, not know what irony is?”

She lifts a brow. “I never said anything about kicking Cadence out.”

My whole body stiffens. I open my mouth, but I can’t speak.

My daze is short-lived when I catch the twinges of a smug smile on her face. She’s enjoying this. “You are…” I grit my teeth, but I won’t be able to stop myself from saying more. I’m too far gone. “You are a miserable cunt. You’re out of your mind if you think I would ever let you raise my daughter.”

My mom only stares steadily at me, but I catch that faint twitch of her left eye.

I take a step in her direction, lowering my chin. “If I leave this house, Cadence is coming with me.”

Her eyes widen minutely, but then she seems to recover herself. “If you try to take her with you, I’ll call child protective services.” Her voice is eerily quiet.

My lips part before closing again. “What for?”

She shrugs, obviously trying to look calm, but the movement is jerky. “I’ll say I’m concerned about her, which is the truth. What if sexual predators see her on one of your YouTube videos?”

If I weren’t so riled up, I would laugh. “Do you really think CPS is going to take Cadence away because I put her in one of my YouTube videos?”

“I’ll tell them about the bathtub thing.”

That familiar aura settles over me, making my whole body hum. My gaze falls to the floor before slowly drifting back up to my mom, and I’m startled. Her face is strange somehow, as if I’ve never seen it before. If I hadn’t grown to know this feeling so well, I would think I was dreaming.

“Mom.” My voice is barely above a whisper. “Are you really reminding me of the worst moment of my life because I pointed out your wrinkles?”

She says something, but I can’t hear it. I’m transported back to the moment I woke up and the water was cold. When I heard my baby crying and knew with certainty that I could never make up for my carelessness.

“I’m going on a walk,” I say in an empty voice.

When Logan suddenly appears in my vision, I’m pulled into the present. I guess I walked into the kitchen. The metal ridges of my car keys cut into my hand, but I don’t remember grabbing them. The look on Logan’s face tells me he heard everything that happened in the living room. “She’s not really going to kick you out.” His voice is urgent. “She’s just being a bitch.”

“I know.” I start walking to the front entry. “And I don’t care.”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” he calls out, and the apprehension in his voice makes me want to hit him.

Why does everyone around me think I’m a loose cannon—even the people who are supposed to love me the most?

* * *

My walk is short, I think, or maybe it only feels like it. By the time I make it back to my street, Hunter is sitting at the front porch table of the Hayes house, a vape pen in one hand and a phone in the other. When he smiles brightly and waves, I start in his direction, almost running to meet him. As soon as I get close, I leap into his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist.

He squeezes me tightly, burrowing his head into my shoulder. “Ah, my girl,” he says against my hair. “I’ve missed you.”

I rest my head on his shoulder. “I hate concert tours.”

He stiffens before setting me down and pulling away. “We’re actually not touring for a while. Not for the next six months, which means I’ll probably be around here a lot.”

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