I sit back and let out a sigh as I tip the bottle back. “What do you think it means?” I ask Cole.
He doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he stands there, his scarred knuckles fisted down at his sides as he stares off into space. No doubt thinking about what all he’s been through in the past year. And all that he’s lost. What he has to lose now.
“I think it means that once again we’re gonna have to do whatever it takes to make sure no one can touch us.” Then he looks down at me, arching his brow in question.
Am I in? Do I agree?
“I’ve got your back,” I say without hesitation, then bring the bottle to my lips again.
Without saying another word, he turns and dives back into the pool.
CHAPTER TEN
DEMI
MONDAY MORNING, I walk into my first period at Westlake High and plop down on my seat. This is my first year here. My third month into the first semester. My mother made me move from Oregon to Texas for my senior year, and I hate her so much for it. I had gone to Collins all my life. I had friends. I had been on the cheerleading squad since fourth grade. Then when my sister told my mother she wanted to move to Texas to be with her friend Austin, my mother told me that I no longer had a choice. That there was no one there to look after me anymore. She completely forgot the fact I have a father! He even went to bat for me. Tried to talk my mother into letting me stay there living with him.
“Angelica.” He sighs. “She will be fine. Her junior year is almost over. She can finish off her senior year here.” He paces the living room while on his phone.
I sit on the couch, biting my nails off one by one.
“So what if Becky isn’t here? I am.” He comes to a stop and squares his shoulders. “I’m her father!” he snaps. “Listen …” he trails off, and I can hear my mother raise her voice, and I know she’s won. She’s been trying to get me to come to Texas ever since their divorce five years ago. My only leverage was that Becky was here. I hate her, but my mother felt she was responsible enough to help my father raise me. Even though the truth is I’ve pretty much raised myself.
Our father isn’t a bad guy. He’s not an alcoholic, and he doesn’t bring strange women in and out all hours of the night. In fact, he hardly ever dates at all. He’s married to his work. That has always been his mistress. And that’s what drove my mother to have an affair with her now husband. She left him, and he just buried himself deeper. But he’s always been there for me when I needed him. Even if it was through a phone call.
He hangs up, and I look up at him, already feeling the tears threaten my eyes. He turns to face me and lets out a long breath.
“Please don’t make me go,” I beg. “I want to finish school here. With you. My friends.”
He kneels in front of me and takes my hand. “Pumpkin …”
“Don’t,” I shout, yanking it away. “You always take her side. What about what I want?”
He stands, pocketing his cell phone. Any sympathy he showed me moments ago is now gone. She’s made up her mind, and he’s decided as well. He’s not gonna fight to keep me. And she just wants me there because of Becky. “I’m sorry, Demi, but your mom wants …”
“Fine!” I run out of the living room and up the stairs to my room. As I pass Becky’s room, her door swings open, and she steps out, blocking my way.
“Why are you crying?” she asks, looking me up and down.
“I hate you,” I say, wanting to punch her in the face. She is a waste of air. All she does is take and take from me. And she does it just because. I’ve never done anything to her.
“And I hate you too.” She shrugs. “Mom called me. Asked if you’ve been good.” She looks down at her nails and smiles. “I told her that I’ve seen you with a boy.” Her eyes meet mine. “An older one …”
“You fucking bitch!” I scream and shove her into her room. She trips over a jacket lying on her messy floor, and I go down with her.
“He never wanted you!” she shouts, yanking on my hair.
“You took him from me!” I fist my shaking hands and hit her in the face. She killed him!
“I’ll take them all from you.” She growls.
I go to hit her in the jaw, but I’m yanked back by my shirt. “What the hell are you two doing?” our father shouts.
“She attacked me.” Becky begins to sob, placing her hands over her face.
Fucking fake bitch!
I try to kick her, but my father shoves me out of her room. “She …” He slams the door in my face, closing himself in there with her to hear her side of the story and calm her down.
My world just got ripped out from underneath me. I have to move right before my senior year. I’ve got less than a month left of my junior year, and in just a few months, I’ll be packed up and moved to Texas to live with my mother. The only thing I can hope for at this point is that Becky moves in with Deke ’cause that’s the only reason she plans on going there. For him and for her best friend, Austin. I overheard her saying that Austin is following Cole and his little sister, Lilly, to Texas. And I plan on making my sister’s life a living hell just as she has done to mine.
“How was your weekend?” my friend Lauren asks as she enters the classroom and sits down next to me. We’re not close like I was with my friends back in Collins. But I don’t have to have friends. I’m just fine being alone.
I groan. “Shitty. Yours?” I ask.
She gives me a big smile. “Perfect. I got to see Billy.”
“And how did that go?”
“Amazing.” She sighs heavily. I wanna puke. “He’s having a bonfire party this weekend out on his parents’ property. Wanna go with me?”
I stiffen. That last time I went to a bonfire was my sophomore year while I was still living in Collins. Back when things were somewhat normal.
I sit on my bed, flipping through the channels and looking for something to watch on TV. As usual, there’s nothing. A knock on my door has me shutting it off. “What?” I ask.
My sister pops her head in. “Wanna go out tonight?”
I eye her skeptically. She wears a crimson long-sleeve shirt with black lips on it and matching black skinny jeans with a pair of black boots, and her blond hair hangs straight down her back. “No.” She never asks me to hang out with her, so for her to do it now is sketchy as fuck.
“Come on.” She pushes my door all the way open and steps into my room. “I just spoke to Deke, and the GWS are gonna be there.”
My heart skips a beat at the mention of the sharks. I don’t know why. He doesn’t know I exist. And if he did, he would never like me the way I like him. “Pass.” I turn my TV back on. Might as well save myself the embarrassment.
“This is your chance, Demi. Dad is out of town. And Mom keeps threatening to make you move to Texas.”
I bite my bottom lip as I think that over. My mother doesn’t mind that Becky lives here with our dad, but she’s been telling me for four years now that she’s gonna make me move to Texas to live with her. The only reason she hasn’t forced that on me yet is because she’s gone more than my dad and she doesn’t want me left home alone. I’ll hate her if she makes me move. I’ve only got a couple of years left in high school, and then I’m off to college. And I’m gonna choose the first place that accepts me that is far from my family. “Fine,” I growl.