Page 58 of Anger

Shrugging, I figure he’ll never believe me, so why not tell him what actually happened. “Yeah.”

Shaking his head, he looks over at Priest who’s now pitching a fit, threatening to scrap the entire car.

“Liar,” he says.

I laugh again. “Come on. You two have been putting way too much time into that Chevelle for Priest to make good on scrapping it.”

Priest kicks the side of the car, and Shane’s attention snaps to him.

Thankfully, he forgets all about me as he rushes forward to save the body work they’d already done on the Chevelle.

And just as easily as Shane forgets about my bullshit, I do, too.

At least in the shop, I can pretend like the past isn’t creeping up on me as my entire world threatens to crumble.

Amélie

I’m not going to make it much longer. Not like this anyway. Not with so many problems pulling me in every direction that I can’t get my head straight long enough to begin to deal with one before the next comes along.

In the past few weeks, Granger has been getting more frustrated with me. He wants something for his money, and I’m still refusing to give in.

Normally, this would be the time to move on to greener pastures and end the game I’m playing, but there’s nobody left to play the game on.

Giving in to what Granger wants isn’t an answer, and soon, I’ll probably be fired from the club and booted out on my ass without a dime to my name. I won’t be able to pay my rent, which means I’ll lose my apartment and then what?

I’ll have to drop out of school and finally admit to everyone that I’m as bad at life as my mother. Not that dropping out will be so horrible. At least then I can hide the fact that I was failing all my classes anyway and would’ve been kicked out eventually.

“Ames? You there?”

Sighing heavily, I grip my hand over my phone. The bill is due next week, and I’m not sure I’ll have the money to pay it.

It’s just one more thing for me to lose.

But for now, I’ll lie. Keeping up appearances is what I do best.

“Oh, sorry. Yeah, I’m still here. I just got distracted by some students walking past me. You wouldn’t believe the shit these rich assholes do around here. Did I tell you about what I saw the night Brin took me to the governor’s party? They were getting it on out in the open—“

“You told me. Twice, actually, since the night you went there. But that wasn’t what we were talking about.”

My brother’s voice softens. He called me ten minutes ago and was keeping the conversation light until bringing up the last subject I feel like discussing.

“When are you going to call mom back, Ames? I can’t keep lying to her to spare her feelings.”

A knot forms in my throat. My mother is one of the scars that are hidden inside me. I love the woman for raising us but hate her for the fears she crammed in our heads. Not that she could help it.

“I’ve been busy,” I argue, the lies continuing to roll off my tongue at a rate that is surely creating a cozy little spot for me in the fiery bowels of hell.

“Between school and work, I haven’t had time. And you know how it is with Mom. She’s going to question every little detail about my life and get all worked up with the belief that I’m going to get abducted and human trafficked or some shit. Then she’ll demand I leave school to live with the two of you again and continue our lives on the run. She hates that you helped me escape that.”

It’s always been the same with Mom.

She’s why we ran so much my entire life.

I was always the new kid in school during the years she actually let me go to school, but then I’d get ripped out again as soon as her inner demons whispered to her that it was time to run.

The woman has a mental illness.

That’s the sad truth of it.

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