During one of the conversations before they decided we were moving, Mom told him that, since having us kids, she hadn’t needed it as much and that we deserved to experience life, even if it took her outside her comfort zone.
I’m not saying everything changed. Everything still has its place—books are alphabetized, and even if she and Justice don’t finish their nightly chess game in front of the windows overlooking the ocean, she needs to put the pieces back to starting position, if not in the case.
“I love it here, Truth, truly. I guess I never realized it until we got the house, but it’s like our family as a whole has moved on together, forward together, and by choice, not circumstance. But there are moments you seem to want to be anywhere else, and today was one of them. If maybe you’d be honest with me, I think you lost that excitement when you started this new school.”
“Or maybe it’s because I get questioned for every move I make, because I’m not Justice.”
She blinks a few times and looks down. Her hands knot together, and she begins wringing them.
“I’m just being honest, Mom.”
She nods and looks up. “I know, and I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you it’s going to get better, but you’re his baby girl, and it is who he is. But it’s not just him. I worry about you.”
“There’s no need to.”
She glances quickly at my ankle then back up at me, nods again, and stands up. Then she bends down and kisses my head. “I’m in your corner, Truth, so is your father, but I can’t help thinking you’re hiding something.” She turns to leave me to my thoughts, deep in her own.
If I let them marinate in my lie, it’s bound to get worse.
“I landed on it wrong at the party when we were making TikToks,” I blurt out my second lie. “I knew you guys would be all over the top about it and, at seventeen, I should be able to go to parties without my brother, so I didn’t tell you. Brisa and Patrick didn’t know it hurt until after I fell in the bathroom, because it didn’t hurt that bad last night, so tell Dad not to get mad at them.”
She turns around, relief flooding her face. “I think it needs an x-ray. I’ll take you in tomorrow, so you’ll be late for school.”
“I can wait until after.”
She shakes her head. “I think you’ve waited long enough.”
“Okay. Can I sleep in since I’m going to be late, anyway?” I ask, crossing my finger in hopes of missing third period study hall that three of the four horsemen are also in.
“Sure.” She smiles genuinely then turns to leave.
“I love you, Mom.”
She looks over her shoulder. “I love you, too.”
I grab my phone and send a Snap to Kiki and Brisa, telling them my new “lie” and that I won’t be at school until I get an x-ray, and then I send one to Patrick.
After I set my phone on the charger, I get three texts, all from numbers not saved in my phone. Curiosity gets the best of me, and I open the first.
- Heard you had your phone out last night. Bad idea. Very bad indeed.
The next text reads:
- You were given an opportunity as a test, and you failed. Watch your back.
Again, no signature, but I know exactly who these scare tactics and threats are coming from.
The next text reads:
- You came after us. We’re coming after you.
I tap out a response.
- My list of haters has grown leaps and bounds since starting at Suckshore, but my list of fucks given hasn’t. Your inability to sign your name shows that you’re just a bunch of pussies hiding behind a screen. You don’t scare me, and that’s the … ~ TRUTH.
I copy and paste it in the first message then hit send, then the second, and then the third.
The phone blows up as I start to set it down, all different numbers from before. One by one, I open them.
- Conquest
- War
- Famine
- Conquest
- War
- Famine
- Conquest
- War
- Famine
- Conquest
- War
And the last:
- Keep your family out of this, and we will, too. Involve them, that’s on you.
Then more and more messages pop open, all different phone numbers.
- Conquest
- War
- Famine
- Conquest
- War
- Famine
- Conquest
- War
- Famine
- Conquest
- War
- Famine
They keep coming until I finally shut my phone off.
The words—conquest, war, and famine—refer to three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The one they left out, the fourth—death.
When my door opens, I jump up and gasp.
“Jesus, Truth.” Justice laughs as he walks toward me. “You watching scary movie clips again?”
I nod.
“Sit down and get your leg up,” he says as he walks toward me, shaking his head.
I sit back and do just that. Justice then lifts my leg, props the pillow under it, and puts the cold compress back on my ankle.
I hear a sound and jerk my head toward the window.
Justice laughs and starts walking toward my door.
“Wait—tell me about your time with Bella and Tags.”
He looks back and laughs again. “You don’t wanna hear about it.”
“Yes, I do,” I say adamantly.
“Like hell you do. You’re scared. Let me grab my pillow and blanket, and I’ll be back.”
I don’t even deny the fact that I want him in my room, because I do, and that’s the truth.
Chapter Eight
Idiom
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Truth
Let’s hope so.
I wake up listening to the all too familiar sound of my alarm, “Love Myself” by Hailee Steinfeld, and smile to myself, expecting Mom to come in and start dancing around my bed like she does every school day. So, when I hear her tiptoeing in and there’s no, “Ready to dance your way through the day, Tru?” I am confused.
As she turns off my alarm then tiptoes back out the door, I remember yesterday and the night before. I remember Justice sleeping next to me because, apparently, my one night of badassery was kicked in the tit by a text invasion by the horsemen.
I cover my head, close my eyes, and try to go back to sleep. I try, and I try, and I try, but it doesn’t happen, and I know why—I need to face shit head-on.
I scoot to the edge of my bed and pull the blanket off my head. I then grab my phone and turn it off airplane mode. There is only one message, a group message from the girls.
- Good luck today ~ Kiki
- Break a leg … but not really ~ Brisa
When I scroll through my old messages and see all of them except the two I received yesterday morning are gone, I sit straight up in bed. “No fucking way.”
Justice … shit. He must have seen and erased them, which would make perfect sense, but what makes no sense is that he didn’t wake me up freaking out.