Page 100 of The Midseason Fakeout

I stand. “Yes, sir. See you at practice.”

He shakes my hand, and I see myself out of his house. Coach has an open-door policy, so his place is familiar to a lot of us.

When I get to my car, I take my phone out. Bailey’s left me a text, so I open it to see where I’m supposed to be meeting them, but instead, a sledgehammer cracks my chest wide open.

Aidan, I’m sorry, but I left. Please don’t contact me again. It’s better this way.

28

BAILEY

Mom pullsher silver Audi into one of the parking spaces on Main Street. She leans over, peering out the windshield with a frown.

Glancing up, I realize we aren’t outside the restaurant I put into her GPS. I’d been too busy thinking about Aidan and hoping that his meeting with Coach was going okay to notice where we were. “Why did you stop here? This isn’t it.”

“We can walk,” Darrin suggests from the backseat.

Mom pushes her car door open. “It’s not exactly where I’m used to shopping, but the clothes on the mannequin look cute enough.”

I side eye her. “You want to go shopping now? I thought we were going to eat.”

“I’m not shopping. You are.”

I peer up at the window and notice the dresses on the mannequins with the cute flower prints or the styled solid colors. Just the kind of stuff I’m used to wearing before. I give Darrin a quick peek in the backseat, and his jaw is hard, but he looks away when I peer for help.

This is fucking ridiculous, I scream in my head. My temper breaks, like releasing a dam. One step forward, two steps back. “Mom, they’re fucking clothes!”

“Manners.”

My mouth unhinges. “You have the audacity to say that to me? You’re the one telling me I’m not good enough. You’re the one shitting on everything I like as a person. I’m not going in there. I’m not buying whatever you think is appropriate. It’s lunch. Not a fucking ball.”

“No, I’ve had about enough!” My mother’s crazed words chill me, and I seal my lips together. She pinches the bridge of her nose. “I’ve listened and listened, and you still have yet to give me a good enough reason to change plans. Bailey Marie Covington, I’m ashamed. I really am.”

Her words hit me like a punch to the gut.

“Mom,” Darrin hedges.

“And I’m disappointed in you, too,” she says, whipping her head over her shoulder to look at him. “You should’ve told me what was going on here. It was your responsibility to look after your sister, and the minute she started acting out, I should have been your first call.”

I peer between the two of them. Regulating my breaths is difficult because of the pain slicing through me. Why am I never good enough? Just me?

Darrin hangs his head, and I can’t keep my mouth shut. “What changed? Because you were just crying back at the house. I thought you really understood.”

She picks lint off her linen pants. “I needed to play along until I removed you from the situation.”

“You mean Aidan?”

“I mean that boy and everything else holding you back. The way you have taken the bit of leeway your father and I gave you and have turned it into this is appalling. Your clothes. Your behavior.” She swallows. “I found condoms in your nightstand, Bailey.”

My stomach clenches. “You went through my things?”

She ignores my question and asks one of her own. “Are you having sex with that boy?”

“Stop calling him that boy! I love Aidan. His name is Aidan.”

She scoffs. “This place has brainwashed you. It’s exactly what I feared. Indoctrinated you into an ordinary existence. He’s going to knock you up before you’ve even had a chance to live. That’s what these…people do. He’ll have no chance to take care of you. Or the baby. You’ll end up at my doorstep, and if you think I’ll help you when you’ve done nothing but defied me, you’re wrong.”

“Mom, you’re talking about what-ifs that haven’t happened.” Darrin leans forward, his hand reaching for my mom’s shoulder.

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