Page 72 of Unloved

I just want my mom.

They talk, but I can’t hear the words, I only feel a couple of gentle touches from Mr. Reiner across my back or on top of my head—like he’s giving me a bit of kindness or strength before he goes.

And then my dad is dragging me out of the rink, still in my skates, into the bathroom where the blades scrape over the tiles as he speaks, low and cruel into my ear.

“Don’t ever pull that kind of shit again. A goddamn embarrassment. When we go back out there, you better show them all up. You’re not on a team—you show themyou’refucking worth somethingon your own. Be a superstar.”

“I have class,” I mumble, head pounding, cutting him off entirely. Not that I’ve heard the last few minutes of his tirade.

But I do hear his final words.

“I’m coming to the Harvard game. Mess this up and I’ll blow up your contract with Dallas.”

Fury pulses through me. “You’re not my agent. You can’t do that.”

“Watch me. Besides, who the fuck else is going to do this? Elise is gone and it seems Archer left this burden to me—as if I didn’t have enough on my plate, having to deal withyou.”

Right. Because having me as a child was such a liability.

“I don’t need you.”

He laughs. “I’m your father. Your name isfamousbecauseImade it so.”

“Leave me the fuck alone.” I hang up, feeling a little sick, and a lot worse for wear.

I feel as out of place as possible sitting on the too-small stool in the biology lab with thirty-plus students from my lecture. But Ro told me it was a good idea to show up to the optional evening review, so I did. I’d rather not spend more time with Carmen Tinley than I must.

“And that’s active transport?” I blurt the question, knee bobbing and pen rocking in my fingers as I shove my other hand through my hair. Tyler’s sudden smirk makes me shrink back a bit, regretfully. “Or… passive, I guess?”

I bite down on my tongue not to mutter “never mind” like I usually would, to force them to move on and leave me behind. It’s one concept you don’t get. Except, it’s not. Every foundation in biology seems to build on the ones before, and the second I fall behind on one, I’ll never catch up.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Tyler mutters, slumping on the table.

Ro stands from her chair, confident and relaxed.

“Think about it this way,” she says, clasping her hands. “Passive transport is like rolling a giant stone down a hill—it uses no energy, right? And active transport is like taking the same stone and actively rolling it up the hill, which would use a lot of energy. So, a sodium-potassium pump is…?” Ro pauses, tapping her nail against the whiteboard where the large diagram is drawn. I have a suspicion she drew it, knowing now how artistic she is.

“Active,” I answer, smiling. It might be the first time I’ve answered a question in a class setting aloud—hell, it might be the first time I’veaskeda question in class since I was fourteen.

“What a stupidly simplistic explanation,” Tyler sneers, looking at Ro. “Sounds like you’re talking to a child.”

A few of the student who are listening laugh, enough that I see Tinley look up from her one-on-one discussion with a table near the back. She doesn’t move, thankfully, but Tyler doesn’t seem even slightly concerned by her attention.

“Tyler—”

“If you want to listen to the future kindergarten teacher with bows in her hair, I’m sure she’ll give you a little gold star and smiley face on your paper. Might even hold your hand while you take the exam.” Again, a few students laugh, but I shoot a quick glare over my shoulder that shuts half of the underclassmen up. “But if you want to pass, then you need more than whatever the hell she just said.”

Ro blushes furiously, but maintains her heightened posture and doesn’t back down from Tyler’s irritating smirk.That’s my girl.

“We haven’t even gotten to the breakdown yet. They need to understand this concept to understand the—”

“Ro,” Carmen cuts her off.

My eyes shutter at her voice.

“If I needed your help to teach, Ro, I would ask.”

“Freddy had a question—” Ro says, trying to defend herself.

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