Sydney
Before Mom could respond, Brooklyn pushed her chair back.
“Done,” she announced, standing up, her phone pressed in her hand as she kissed Mom on her cheek.
Mom just smiled up at her.
“Bye, Sydney,” Brooklyn said quickly before disappearing down the hallway.
Then it was just the both of us left.
I looked at my plate and looked at Mom’s.
She wasn’t standing up anytime soon.
“Sydney, you know I love both you and your sister equally, right?” Her tone was serious.
The kind of serious tone I’d heard people whisper about when they talked about her work.
“You’re both special to me,” she continued.
“I couldn’t have wished for better daughters.”
I nodded, chewing slowly.
Mom exhaled and set her fork down before leaning slightly closer.
“You can talk to me if something’s bothering you.
It’s your senior year, and I want you to enjoy these last months of high school.”
I swallowed.
For a tiny second, I almost slipped.
Almost let the name Tyler Sinclair escape my lips in a desperate attempt to let Mom know someone hated me so badly at school.
And then I was paired with someone else who had higher tendency of making my life at Lakeview High a nightmare.
God, I wanted to pour out my heart.
But what if she gets too worried and offers to withdraw me?
That’ll be too stressful for her.
I really didn’t want to be a burden to anyone.
Besides, changing schools had never kept the whispers and laughter away.
Each new school just had new bullies waiting.
“I’m fine, Mom,” I said instead, lowering my head to my plate.
“Just schoolwork and stuff.”
I could feel Mom’s sharp eyes on me after that, and I knew she didn’t really believe me.
“Alright then.” She said with a smile.
A beat passed.
“I was in Newston yesterday.”
I froze.
And for some reason, my heart thumped loudly in my ears as I raised my eyes to Mom’s.
She was staring, but her smile didn’t fade. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
“I went to see your father,” she added.
I don’t know why, but the words struck me wrongly, and the pancakes lost their taste.
My dad wasn’t something she could just bring up at any moment she liked.
Not after she let us leave for reasons I still haven’t been told about.
“Sydney, i—”
”It’s okay, Mom.” I cut in, forcing a smile.
“He died more than a year ago.
I think I’ve made peace with it now.”
Mom looked sceptical, but she knew better than to press further.
Instead, she reached across the table, her thumb brushing across my hand.
“Your father loved you so much, Sydney,” she said quietly, her smile turning gentle.
“He used to say you were the kind of girl people would only understand when they grew up.”
She squeezed my fingers.
“And I think he was right.”
I swear if Maeve hadn’t made my phone buzz at that moment, Mom would have seen me cry and realized how much that conversation had meant to me.
Instead, I just nodded at her and grabbed my phone, mumbling something about needing to catch up on a chemistry project.
Then I dashed up the stairs.
And before I could get dressed and walk back down, it was just me in the house.
Don’t get me wrong—moving in with Mom and Brooklyn after living with Dad for sixteen years had been exciting.
And whenever Mom was home, she never made me feel small the way people did at school.
She never forced me into fitting clothes and tried her best never to mention that I was three times Brooklyn’s size.
Except when she wanted to be cute and called me her chubby baby.
And as much as she was rigid, strict Anna Prescott to the outside world, she was my Mom—our Mom.
And she’d made it easy to love her.
“So you’re really ditching an exclusive pass to a girls’ night out at my house?” Meave’s voice broke into my thoughts.
I smiled, pressing the phone to my ear as I shut the car door behind me.
“It’s just one weekend, Maeve.” I said.
“I’ll try to convince myself to be available next week.”
She gasped dramatically.
“Sydney Walker.”
”What?” I rolled my eyes, still smiling.
“Fine.
I might allow you to drag me.”
She sighed in relief.
“Much better.”
I laughed.
“So you’re already at school?”
My gaze lifted, like my brain had just realized the same thing.
Yeah, I was at school.
On a Saturday. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
“Yeah,” I said, glancing around the almost empty parking lot.
Safe for two cars plus my mom’s, and a Lamborghini.
“It’s pretty quiet.”
”Well, obviously,” she huffed.
“Only nerds hang around buildings like that when they should be eating popcorn and binge-watching stupid rom-coms under uncomfortable blankets.”
I laughed again.
God, Maeve was dramatic.
“You know nerd is not an insult, right?” I said, my eyes catching the main doors of Lakeview high which was very much guarded.
She huffed again.
“I know.
But now I have to go to my grandaunt’s wedding!”
I blinked.
“Grandaunt?”
”Yeah, it’s her second marriage.
Apparently the first man ran away or something.
I wasn’t paying attention because I didn’t want to go!” she whined.
I laughed harder.
“Don’t blame me.
Blame chemistry,” I said.
“I’m not failing a class.
And I know you wouldn’t either.”
Her voice dropped slightly.
“I know.”
I pushed open the door, and walked in.
The school was quiet and…empty.
It was so peaceful with less snickering, stares and comments about how many tummy wobbles it took for me to walk down the hallway.
And more noticeably…no Tyler Sinclair surrounded by teammates, looking effortlessly cool in clothes that somehow always looked a size too small.
‘What’s that, Sydney?’ my mind mocked.
‘The place a little too quiet for you now?’
I stopped in front of the chemistry laboratory.
“Really?
Now you’re going to ignore me?” Meave nearly shrieked into the phone.
I shifted my gaze to the phone.
“I have chemistry, remember?”
”Oh.” I heard her flop down on something soft.
“Bye, then.”
She clicked it off before I could respond, and I shoved the phone into the back pocket of my jeans.
I peeked through the glass on the door and looked around like I was expecting a jump scare.
But I could see no one, even though I could hear soft whispers and low chuckles.