LHM
"You're being such a jerk!"
Jacy was standing in the hallway, fists on her hips, shaking with rage. Edward glanced at me over her head before looking back at her, his jaw set tight.
He shook his head. "I'm sorry."
"But—"
"There are no 'buts.' Life sucks sometimes. You get over it."
This all started over a simple piece of paper. An invite to a competition in Belize, care of Plan B. But I'd used up all my vacation time for the year, and Edward was in no shape to chaperone her. The black eyes had faded, and the stitches were out, but he still held his shoulder gingerly with his elbow tucked into his side. He was still loopy sometimes, that knock to the brain he took sending him into moments of senselessness. Jacy didn't have a passport, and we didn't have the money, even with the majority of the trip paid for.
She was not taking it well.
"Why?" She wailed, on the verge of tears. This girl threw epic tantrums—the kind that had her lying in the middle of the grocery store aisle falling apart over a box of cereal. She still dragged out her inner toddler from time to time, but she'd never unleashed it on Edward.
"Because we're not sending you off to another hemisphere by yourself." He stared hard at her.
We're.
"They said they would provide a chaperone!"
Edward scoffed. "I wouldn't trust Mike to take you down there, much less some skater douchebag. You're just a kid."
She straight up snarled at him. "I'm a teenager."
"Barely," he scoffed.
"You're not my dad."
Ouch.
I could see the flinch, the momentary twitch of his resolve, before he squared his face and stood taller, towering over her.
"Maybe not. But I'm the closest thing you've got."
AN
Hadley is my favorite flower.
Thank you for reading.
xo
HBM