Page 2 of Sweet Vengeance
And I add, “The biggest liar, you mean.”
We chuckle, and somehow, I feel a little better.
“I’m sorry he’s not here.” Rory dances the fingers of his free hand over the top of mine that he’s holding. We’re not more than friends—any of us. Tiernan is bisexual. He’s always been like an adult in a kid’s body, so he figures stuff out before me and Rory. I might be bi too. Who knows? I haven’t thought about it all that much. Even if I am, I wouldn’t do stuff with them. That’s just not how we are. The closeness between us goes beyond anything sexual, like we’re this truth written into the stars.
I shrug. “It is what it is.”
“He loves you,” Tiernan says.
Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t. He’s not an asshole to me like Sloan is to Tiernan, so I guess that counts for something. “I don’t care about him,” I lie, then lean my head against Rory again, wishing I could wake up and find out this has all been a terrible nightmare.
That my mom isn’t dead and that my dad cares about me after all.
*
Ollie
Sixteen years old
I watch asDad holds Mom’s cold hand, sitting in a chair at her bedside, bent over with his face against the mattress, and sobs. We’re in what used to be our dining room, but it was turned into Mom’s room a long time ago. It’s filled with hospital equipment, everything we’ve needed to take care of her for years, ever since the traumatic brain injury that changed our lives.
She loved hiking. She was more outdoorsy than both me and Dad, but we would all spend a lot of time in nature because she enjoyed it so much. It was her love of the outdoors that got her hurt—one wrong step, one slip, and she was tumbling down rocky terrain and hit her head.
She couldn’t walk anymore after that, couldn’t talk. Our whole world had been flipped upside down, and Dad never left her side once. We took care of her, protected her, loved her, and now she’s gone.
“Ollie, come here,” he says, and I walk over to him.
Dad wraps an arm around me in the tightest of hugs. The other hand is still holding hers, building a connection between the three of us, this bond that has always been there and always will be.
“I’m so sorry she’s gone. She loved you so much. You were her pride and joy.”
I nod, my eyes filling with tears, wetness brimming over, tears chasing each other down my face.
She did love me. I know that. Mom loved her family more than anything in this world, just like my dad does.
We sit with her for as long as we can, crying and hugging and telling stories. How funny she had been, how much she loved birthdays and playing pranks, which Dad and I would sometimes pretend to be annoyed about. Maybe we had been annoyed at the time, but these last three years since her accident, I’m sure he would have done anything for one of those pranks, same as I would have.
When they take her body away, it’s one of the hardest moments of my life, my tears hardly stopping for even a moment.
Dad and I keep ourselves busy, planning the service together, picking all her favorite things for the reception afterward.
The house feels empty when everyone leaves and it’s just Dad and me again.
“She would have thought today was beautiful,” he tells me, and I smile.
“Yeah, she would have.”
Dad sits beside me on the couch of our small home. He wraps an arm around me. “We’ll be okay, Ollie.”
He’s not talking about money, though that’s going to be an issue. Both my parents are…wereteachers. Money has never been something we’ve had a lot of, and now we’re in debt because of Mom’s treatment.
“I know.”
And we are okay. It’s not easy, and we miss her all the time, but Dad and I are good about talking about her, keeping her memory alive.
I almost don’t apply for colleges outside the state when the time comes. I don’t want to leave Dad alone. We’re each other’s best friend, and I can’t imagine him home in Michigan without me.
But Dad insists. He wants me to follow my dreams, andI’ve always wanted to go to Ashford University. They have a fantastic pre-law program, and ever since I was in first grade, arguing on behalf of a student who got in trouble for something he didn’t do, I’ve always known I wanted to be a lawyer.
