Page 101 of Grease Monkey
“Tell me, or I’ll fucking ask her myself.”
“No. You can’t,” I cry out.
I need out. I need to leave. Go back to Connecticut, leave here, and jeopardize my job to keep him safe.
“Tell me!” he roars, tightening his hold, and I flinch. Long gone is the Teddy who brought coffee this morning and was shocked to see I still had the shirt he bought me at the planetarium, replaced by this enraged beast with wide eyes, flared nostrils, and veins pulsing profusely in his forearms, neck, and temples. He breathes like he’s in pain, swallowing down a fit of anger so deep you could almost touch it. Suddenly, he lets me go, and I stumble forward, gasping for air as he finds my phone on the kitchen counter and unlocks it with the same passcode I’ve always had.
“Teddy, no, what are you doing?”
Holding the phone to his ear, he snarls, “Calling your fucking mother and finding out what the fuck is going on.”
I scramble toward him, tugging at his wrist and trying to pry the phone from his grip. “No, stop Teddy; she will destroy you. And not just you. Everyone. Your dad, your mom… your brothers. Please hang up the phone.” My nails dig into his skin as I try to force him to listen, my breaths coming hard and fast as I fight him for my phone.
He lets me take the device, and I smack the end call button and power down the device, air finally filling my lungs. My hands shake as I clutch the phone to my chest while Teddy’s are in tight fists, his lips pulled back, baring his teeth.
“What?” The word sends chills down my spine. I run my hand through my hair over and over, trying to swallow the lump in my throat as I start to pace. Teddy steps in front of me, the thick veins in his neck bulging as he grits out, “Speak, Ana. Now”
I press a hand to my stomach, wishing it would stop roiling. My eyes dart around the small space, bouncing from wall to wall as I try and fail to come up with a way out of this. I can’t tell him, I can’t risk him, but as he towers above me, shrouding me in a cold shadow, I know I’ve lost.
“She found out about the college acceptance letters. She saw the one from Arizona, found this shirt…” I tug at the tee. “The clothes I borrowed that day in the rain, the birth control…”
“Birth control?”
“I never got the chance to tell you I went on it. But it doesn’t matter anyway. She found all of it and was mad. My room was a mess when I got back from New York. She’d ransacked everything, trying to find…” I shrug. “Who knows what, but then she told me to end it. Told me we would never last, so why wait for the inevitable?”
“So you did as you were told, like a good little girl.” His voice is cold, and I rub my arms as goosebumps scatter over my skin.
“I didn’t want to, Teddy. When I said I wantedus, I meant it. I was going to tell her about Phoenix as soon as I got home, but she beat me to it. I told her I chose you, that I’d do whatever she wanted—Harvard, law school, anything, as long as I still had you. I loved you, Teddy. More than I’ve ever loved anyone in my life, but it wasn’t enough.” I risk a glance at him and immediately drop my gaze as I’m met with blackened eyes. “I promise I never wanted to not be with you. She said if I didn’t, she would make sure your father’s business went under, that he’d get convicted for tax evasion or something. Bowie would be found with child pornography, and Wyatt would lose his license. I couldn’t let that happen, Teddy. I couldn’t let my happiness ruin your family.”
“How. How could she possibly do that?”
I scoff, and Teddy growls.
“My dad knows people in high-up places. He’s not a good man. He gets the worst kind of criminals off for a living. Getting someone to plant photos, falsifying documents… that’s child’s play to him.” I step forward, and Teddy steps away. I want to touch him so bad, it hurts. I want to force him to see that what I did was necessary. That my actions hurt us both. “It was better for me to break your heart than be selfish and break your family, Teddy. You have to see that?”
Teddy’s silent, staring at the ground as he processes my story. That has to be a good sign, right? He’s taking his time. Thinking it over… But slowly, his head rises, and I’m floored by the look of disdain he throws my way. “All I see is a coward. A pathetic little puppet who followed Mommy’s orders and didn’t try to fight for what she wanted. Fight for us.”
“That’s not fair, Teddy.” I say, my throat burning, my eyes aching with the pressure of tears fighting to break free.
“Fair?” he snarls. “Fair? What’s not fair is being told by the girl you love that it’s not workingby text.What’s not fair is going to her house, only to have her mother tell you that you are not and will never be good enough for her. What’s not fucking fair is going to the restaurant that her mom told you she was at on a fucking date, only to have it confirmed that your girlfriend couldn’t even wait five minutes before moving on with someone else.”
Date? I wasn’t on a date. Oh God. He thought Richard and I were on adate.
“Teddy, I…”
“She told me you were on a date. That day you broke up with me, she said you were on a date, and when I turned up there, you were with someguy, smiling as he held your hand.”
No. no. no.
“I can explain…”
I don’t get to finish. He turns and storms to the door, slamming it so hard behind him that the walls shake, taking the little piece of my heart that still beats for him along with him.
Chapter Forty
Teddy
I’m shaking. I’m so fucking angry. While I get it—believe me—I really fucking do, I don’t get why she didn’t fight. I would have gone round for round with my folks if theyeverdared to do what her mom did. Not that they ever would.Jesus,even after everything, Momstillhas a soft spot for her old neighbor.
