Page 67 of Tell Me Softly
“I talked to the coach. You think all I did was read that measly message you sent me? He told me the whole story. So sure, it could have been worse, but it wasn’t. You’re fine. So I want answers.”
“Taylor’s in my class, Mom. He’s friends with my friends, and we have to do a project together.”
“Those boys are going to get you in trouble. Ever since they came back, you’ve been behaving erratically. You’re distracted, you got detention—now you’re screwing up at cheerleading. I can’t even imagine what grades you must be getting.”
“My grades are perfect,” I murmured, looking out the window.
“I don’t want you hanging out with them, Kamila,” she continued, barely letting me finish. “I’m serious. We’ve already had enough problems out of them…”
“Problems out of them!” I cut her off, raising my voice. My mother stopped the car in front of the house, but I didn’t get out. “You’re the one who brought us problems, Mom! Or do I need to remind you of the consequences of your affair?!”
I was incensed. There was so much I’d kept stuffed down inside: so many fights, Thiago’s angry expression, Ms. Di Bianco’s sadness, Taylor’s regrets…
“Shut your mouth, Kamila,” she hissed. “Your brother…”
“Maybe my brother needs to know that our mother is a…”
She slapped me across the face before I could get the word out. “If you ever insinuate a thing like that again, I swear you’ll never enter my house again.”
I got out without even looking at her. She hadn’t even given me a chance to say goodbye to my car. I wiped away the tear that fell down my cheek and went up to my room. Neither of my parents came to check on me, let alone tell me who they’d sent my car to or why they’d done it without me. Only Cameron cared. And when the shouting started in my parents’ bedroom, repeating the same scenario I’d heard all week, I found him there in the doorway, asking, “Can I sleep in your bed?” His pajamas were on inside out.
“Come here, you poor thing.” I turned around his top andbottoms so you could see the dinosaur print on the outside. “Of course you can.” I made a hollow for him next to me.
He cuddled up close to me and turned to see my face. His teeny hand came up to rub my cheek.
“How come Mom hit you?”
“Because I almost called her a bad word.”
“But I thought violence was never justicized.”
I laughed.
“You meanjustified. And you’re right. But maybe sometimes it is, just a little bitty bit.”
I could tell it was killing him to see our parents pulling further apart every day.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kami
The next day, when I went downstairs for breakfast, the house seemed oddly silent. Dad was making scrambled eggs, and my brother was sitting at the kitchen table.
“Good morning,” I said, pulling my hair back out of my face. “Where’s Mom?”
“She left,” Dad said. “She’s spending the week at a spa resort.” I could tell by his voice he was angry.
“A spa resort? I thought we were…?”
“It was already paid for,” he said. “She told me what happened yesterday in the car.”
I felt embarrassed that I’d almost called her a slut, but then it was her fault, blaming Taylor and Thiago for everything that was happening when she was the one who had screwed up their lives.
“I’m sorry,” I said, sitting across from him at the kitchen island.
“Don’t you dare even suggest anything like that again, you hear me?” he said.
I nodded, and Dad seemed to decide that was enough. “Shall we put on some music?” he asked. He wiped his hands on theflower-print apron wrapped around his waist and pulled out the tablet that was mounted to the wall. It controlled everything in the house, even the lights in my room. My brother and father both smiled when Dad played his favorite song, the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun,” and the three of us started singing loudly as we put the finishing touches on breakfast.
