“But Mr. Pruitt isn’t my legal guardian. Of course they can do something. He freaking kidnapped me.”
“Trust me, they brought up that point. But no one’s budging. Matt’s fancy pants lawyer thinks Mr. Pruitt bribed someone. Everyone my mom goes to just looks the other way. Maybe he bribed a whole lot of somebodies.”
“So you’re telling me that there’s no way out?” I tried to take a deep breath, but it didn’t feel like my lungs were expanding anymore. “I’m stuck here?”
“Brooklyn, you’re the strongest person I know. You got through your mom’s death and…”
“I’m not through it.” I couldn’t breathe. “My heart is still broken.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re not strong. You’re still standing here, fighting the next battle.”
I was barely standing.
“And I’ll be there for you the whole time.”
“Kennedy, he’s not going to let me see you. He barely let me leave the apartment today. I’m…I’m…” I let my voice trail off. I’m trapped. I’d known it all along. I’d held on to hope when I tried to sneak out last night. And hope that today I’d be able to run away. But I’d known the truth all along. I was trapped in this hell.
“He has to let you see me,” she said with a smile. “We go to school together.”
She didn’t get it. Mr. Pruitt had made it very clear about what he thought of Kennedy and her mom. Yes, I’d get to see her at school. But never after. Not on the weekends. Not at work. But all the fight was out of me once the truth sunk in. I’m trapped.
“Let’s just try to forget about it for a day.”
That was easy for her to say. She wasn’t living with the Pruitts. She hadn’t lost her whole family. But instead of saying anything at all, I just nodded.
Kennedy smiled. “Come on. It’ll be fun. It’s kind of like we’re having a double date.”
Oh God. That’s exactly the way it looked. But she had to realize that I couldn’t possibly be on a date right now. My heart had broken when my mom died. It had shattered when my uncle died. And it got tossed into oncoming traffic when I broke up with Matt. I didn’t have a heart left for anyone.
Kennedy pulled me out of the bathroom and we practically ran into Miller.
His arms were folded across his strong chest and he looked…pissed. Or was it amused? I didn’t really know him at all.
But then I realized that amused and pissed were probably exactly right if he’d just been listening to our conversation. “How much of that did you hear?” I asked.
“Just about all of it,” he said.
So…my plans to run away and the double date bit. Great. As if my day couldn’t get any more terrible, now he had to be mad at me too. But why was he mad? Really, I should be the one who was mad. Was it actually in his job description to eavesdrop?
“Awkward,” Kennedy said a little too high-pitched and pulled me past him.
Felix and Cupcake had already cracked open the box of sweets. I usually didn’t eat much dessert. It was easy to be hyper-aware of the food I put into my body when my mom and my uncle had both died so young. But today, I really didn’t give a shit.
I picked up what I figured was the infamous sugarcake and took a huge bite. It practically melted in my mouth. No wonder these things are so popular. I took another bite. And another. I grabbed a second sugarcake and pretty much shoved half of it into my mouth like a barbarian.
“You should probably slow down, you don’t need all that,” Cupcake said and grabbed my arm.
Excuse me? I was pretty sure that offhand comment about my weight was worse than him literally throwing a dodgeball in my face.
“What’s your problem, man?” Felix said, breaking the awkward silence that followed Cupcake’s comment.
“Nothing,” Cupcake said. “I just really think one’s plenty for her.”
There was no other way to look at it. Cupcake thought I was fat. I looked down at my sweater that showed off my midriff. I tried to pull it down a little. I knew wearing these stupid clothes was a mistake. Justin was wrong about Diane Cartwright knowing how to dress people because I clearly wasn’t pulling this off.
“Don’t be rude,” Kennedy said and lifted up her own sugarcake. “She’s had kind of a rough few days if you haven’t noticed.”
“Right.” Cupcake nodded, but he still looked weirdly concerned about me downing a second dessert.
Screw you too, Cupcake. I picked up a third just to annoy him.
“Ignore him,” Felix said. “You look amazing.”
It was sweet of him to say when his friend had just called me fat. But all I could think about was that it was also very awkward. Because I could feel Miller staring at me.
I turned toward his piercing gaze. “Miller, don’t you want any?” I asked. I hated that he just stood there watching us. Couldn’t he just sit down and join us instead?
He didn’t budge from his spot on the wall, so I brought one over to him.
“They’re really good,” I said and handed it to him.
“Thanks.” He took it from me. “Who’s that little jackass?”
I didn’t need him to clarify who he was talking about. “Cupcake. He’s Kennedy’s boyfriend.”
“Want me to take care of him?”
“What does that even mean?”
Miller brushed a crumb off the lapel of his suit jacket. “You don’t need to know the specifics.”
Was this the kind of stuff that the Pruitts paid their security detail extra for? I didn’t need to hear anything else. I could tell by Miller’s tone that it was something sinister. “That’s definitely not necessary.”
“Let me know if you change your mind.”
I could take care of myself. I didn’t need him to do whatever it was he was referring to. And why was that Miller’s first reaction? Seriously, what line of work was Mr. Pruitt in?
I retreated back to the couch. Miller was the only person in the Pruitt’s apartment that I thought was nice. But nice people didn’t offer to “take care” of things in that tone.
“Are you feeling okay?” Cupcake asked. “You look a little pale.”
“So now I’m fat and sickly?” The words just spilled out of me like I had no filter.