Page 55 of Hardcore Vanilla
"Yes, you were," he said, not caring that he was interrupting her. "I'm proud of being a soldier, I'm not ashamed that I'm not using my college degree and that I'm working for Luke, but you took both of those things and downplayed them in order to rile up your aunt."
"I was just trying to help Melinda! You heard her ask me to distract her mom."
"Yeah, but I didn't hear you ask me if I was okay with being the sacrifice for it. You didn't extend me the courtesy of letting me know what you were going to do. You just went straight into making a scene and using me and making it clear that I'm not good enough for your family."
"I don't think you're not, that's what they think! I don't care what your job is!"
"If you really didn't care what my job was, you wouldn't have used it as a weapon and you would have talked it up, not down," he snapped, turning his head away to glare out the window. He crossed his arms over his chest. "You could have done something else to distract your aunt, but you didn't. You deliberately chose to do something that would be embarrassing for me."
"You were already embarrassed by me," she snapped back. "From the second I called out to her, don't deny it."
"So, because I was uncomfortable having everyone stare at us... What? You decided to make it worse for me? Why? What the hell is the point?"
"The point is I successfully distracted her, like my cousin asked me to. You have no idea what my aunt is like when she's on a mission - the only thing that was going to distract her is making a bit of a scene!"
"You didn't even try," he retorted. "You've been deliberately getting under your parents’ skin since we arrived, without even attempting to get along with them. You were completely normal at dinner, so it's not like you can't behave with your family if you want to."
******
Later, Sharon would realize that it wasn't entirely Jake's fault he'd hit on the two phrases guaranteed to piss her off the most, especially since Rina had already faulted her for not being 'normal' earlier that evening. And yeah, she could behave if she wanted to, but she didn't. Behaving actually made her parents worse, not better. They took it as an invitation to try and push their agenda and control her.
"You have no idea what my family is like." The wheels on the Mercedes squealed a little as she made a sharp turn into the driveway. "You don't know what will and won't distract my aunt, you don't know what will and won't make my parents not be dicks to me. You have an awesome family that loves and supports you unconditionally and you have no clue what it's like to not have that."
"Fine! Your family sucks and they totally deserve how you treat them. What about me? You've had a 'bug up your ass' from the moment you met me, and I thought you'd finally gotten it out, but tonight I can see that you haven't."
"Because you're just like them, Judgy McJudgerson Asshole!" she shouted at him, slamming on the brakes in front of the house hard enough that both of them jerked in their seats. She whipped her head around to glare at him. If she could have burned a hole through his head with her gaze, she would have. "The second you met me, you were judging me and finding me lacking, why the hell should I try to impress you?"
"You didn't have to impress me, you just had to not deliberately go out of your way to be as obnoxious as possible. It's not like I knew your parents when I first met you - I didn't know anything about you. And you didn't give me a chance to get to know you, did you? No, you just immediately decided I was like your parents, and went out of your way to antagonize me and make sure I didn't get that chance. Who's really the judgmental one in that scenario? And just for the record, I liked the you I've gotten to know, up until tonight. I don't know what version of you this was, but she's a royal bitch."
Shaken, Sharon just sat there as Jake practically hurled himself out of the car and slammed the door behind him. She watched him walk up the stairs and into the house, a very large lump in her throat.
Part of her wanted to run after him to yell at him some more. A much smaller part of her wanted to run after him and apologize. But she was afraid that if she moved, if she tried to speak, she would burst into tears.
Swallowing hard several times, she angrily wiped the tears away from her eyes as Thomas came down the stairs of the house. She clenched her jaw and straightened her spine, taking in several deep breaths through her nose as she pushed down all her emotions. It felt like icing herself over, like an impenetrable shield that she could hunker down inside of.
It was a tactic she'd taught herself growing up, the only way she'd been able to deal with her parents' constant disappointment that she wasn't the daughter they wanted. Eventually she'd managed to stop caring at all - mostly. She hadn't had to do this in years.
Now she felt even more resentful. She really, really, really hated that she cared so much about what Jake thought. That he'd managed to hurt her.
Nodding regally to Thomas as she passed him, she walked quickly into the house and up the stairs. Jake had apparently already found his way without her. The door to the room he was staying in was firmly shut. Yeah, her plan to head over there tonight... definitely not happening.
Quietly she let herself into her room. She thought about slamming the door for a minute, just so he'd know she was there, but she didn't. It might be satisfying for a moment, but it would also prove his point about her deliberately doing whatever she could to be provoking.
And, despite how mad she was, she already knew there was some truth to his words.
Pulling her phone out of her clutch, she tossed the small purse on the bed as she called Kate even before sitting down on her bed to take off her shoes. The super cute strappy sandals that she'd been so sure Jake would like. Well, he had liked them when he'd first seen them. She blinked back a few more tears that had sprung to her eyes.
"Sharon? What's wrong?" Kate's greeting, the sympathy in her voice, undid Sharon completely.
She burst into tears.
******
Pacing back and forth in the guest room, Jake raked his fingers through his hair.
Dammit.
He should turn back around and find Sharon and apologize. No matter how pissed he was, he should haven't called her a royal bitch. Even if she was being one and even if she'd called him an asshole first.
