Mister Fake Fiance

The vase lands at the same time, shattering and splattering water and flowers everywhere. Furious and dismayed, I stare at the utterly destroyed phone. I doubt it can be salvaged. And my data…all gone. Poof.

Ready to scream, I turn to the crowd, then catch myself. Screaming and yelling won’t accomplish anything except prove to my dad I’m already like my mom, because she used to

scream and yell, then break down into tears. It’ll be better if I just point out the destruction of my phone and wait for them to feel bad about it.

“You broke my phone!” I say loudly.

Almost immediately I realize I’ve made a mistake. Without the vase to shield me, they’re now closing in like a pack of hyenas, still shouting and jostling.

My anger begins to turn to fear. These people won’t hesitate to trample me to get what they want. Except I don’t know why they’re doing this.

“Why were you there?” one of them screams.

There? I stare at the man’s freakishly bright and wide green eyes. He looks like a mouse lemur on its tenth shot of espresso.

“Is it true you’re having relationship issues with your fiancé?”

My fiancé? “What?” I don’t have a fiancé. What are they talking about? “You have the wrong person.”

But I don’t think anybody hears me. They’re too busy screaming and jockeying for position. I try to draw in air, but I can’t seem to get enough. My heart accelerates, beating against my chest like a desperate sparrow trying to escape a trap. Blood rushes through me, hot first, then icy cold.

More words. All garbled. Too many faces. All of them too demanding. Incomprehensible.

I should say something. Or do something. Run. Flee.

But my vision’s starting to waver and go dim. When did it become so dark so fast in Los Angeles?

I crumple against the cold, dark glass wall behind me, making myself as flat as possible, while my knees shake.

Chapter Thirteen

David

“Are you going to meet her again?” Derek asks, sounding amused over the phone.

“Who?”

“The blonde.”

I guess Matt hasn’t told my brother who Erin is, even though Jan told Mom I was awake on Sunday. That’s why Matt’s my best friend, and Jan’s just my cousin. Blood may not be thicker than water, but the Bro Code is. “I doubt we’ll appear in public together again. It was just a one-time deal because I ran into Shelly.”

“That bitch.” There’s still a lot of heat. Derek’s the only one who knows the truth about Shelly, and he hates her almost as much as I do. I also wonder if it has something to do with the fact that he was really rooting for her and me, too. The more someone disappoints us, the more we feel betrayed.

“Yeah.” Bitch is about the nicest thing I can say about her now.

“You should just tell Mom the whole story,” Derek says for the hundredth time.

I huff out a breath. It’s the same ol’ thing Derek’s been pushing ever since I told him about Shelly cheating on me. “She and Mrs. Morris are too tight.”

“So? Shelly’s being a bitch because she knows you’re too chickenshit to do the right thing.”

“It’s called being considerate,” I shoot back, rankled. “You don’t know what it was like when Mom had no friends when she first moved to Virginia. I do.” Mom loves to socialize and hang out. No one is more outgoing. But it was hard for her to make friends back then. I was too young to remember all the details, but I vividly recall how unhappy she was at being isolated and alone, and how much I hated seeing her feeling down. And I wished I could do something about it.

“But now she has lots of friends,” Derek says.

“How many are genuine, though? You know some of them only decided to be her friend because Grandma got rich.” Some might say it’s the family that made its fortune with the app, but I don’t feel that’s quite right. The company was Grandma’s idea, her baby. Without her drive and vision, none of us would be enjoying what we have now. “Mrs. Morris wasn’t like that. She’s one of Mom’s earliest friends. Besides, if I tell Mom, she’s going to either get into an argument with Mrs. Morris or end their friendship. Remember what happened with Fred Leaper?”

Fred was an older kid in our neighborhood who decided it would be fun to pick on me. One day I’d had enough and punched him in the face. That was satisfying, but then we got into it, and during the ensuing fight he caught me on the upper lip, which I couldn’t hide.