Gods & Monsters

But first I need to do this one thing. I need to survive this last insult to our love. Go to prom with Duke Knight.

Remember how I said my mom had started to push me toward Duke? It’s gotten worse. Now she doesn’t confine her suggestions to our house. She expresses them in public, namely at church.

“I think you kids should hang out more.” My mom laughed right alongside Mr. Knight, Duke’s dad. “My Evie’s always busy with her books. Thank God, she’s stopped going to her treehouse and running around in the fields, though. But she really needs to get out more.”

“I think you guys should go to prom together,” Mr. Knight suggested.

Duke smiled tightly and mumbled something about being capable of getting a date on his own. That dick. He turned to me and asked - with his lips, while his eyes said he’d rather be anywhere else in the world right now. Thank God, Sky hadn’t arrived yet. I was hoping I’d have the same luck with my boyfriend but nope. He was there and he watched the whole thing. He stood across the room, his focus on me, his gaze dripping with rage, while my mom nudged me with her elbow and said yes on my behalf.

I thought someone was strangling me. I felt faint, my vision turning hazy with unshed tears. Even so, I shook my head once, trying to convey to the boy I love that it didn’t matter. Not enough for him to risk another incident. Though we did fight about it on the phone.

We’ve been fighting ever since. It’s more like a cold war, where he sounds frustrated and angry, and I cry silently, and then he apologizes for making me cry. The next night we do it all over again.

I’ve debated making myself sick, sticking a finger down my throat to make myself throw up. So Mom thinks I’m too unwell to go. But that’s even worse than staying home where I’m under a constant cloud of suspicion. That would give her more fuel that her daughter is really having an affair with the monster.

I’ve also debated outright telling her. It’s only four weeks. What’s the worst she can do? But then, I remember what they did with my classmate, Jessica Roberts. Everyone was surprised when she turned up pregnant last year. She was on her way to college to be a pre-med, but she committed the sin and became the slut, instead. My mom’s words, not mine. And naturally, my mother thought it was Abel. Until Jessica came out and admitted to falling in love with a college guy who was visiting the town. In the end, her parents sent her away. I don’t know where she is in the world, but I hope she’s okay.

So I can’t risk it. I can’t risk being sent away to God only knows where, when we’re so close to the goal.

When Duke arrives at my house, I hardly spare him a glance. My mom takes pictures and all I do is stare at her with all the hatred I’ve felt over the years. While Abel’s camera makes me feel alive, free, immortal even, every click of my mom’s camera kills my spirit. She tells me to smile and I ignore her. We glare at each other while my dad stands off to the side. I hate him so much, too. I hate everyone right now.

Once the pictures are done, we head out. I don’t realize when the car pulls out of the driveway, and neither do I care. I’m looking out the window, but I barely pay attention to the road or to the scenery. When the car stops, I take off my seatbelt, ready to get out and away from the guy next to me. But I pause, realizing that we’re not at the school. We’re in town. But mainly, we’re in front of Mr. B’s store. Where Abel lives, right upstairs.

“What… What are we doing here?”

Duke’s hands stay on the steering wheel as he shrugs. “Go.”

“What?”

He turns to me. “Go. He’s probably already plotting my murder up there.”

My heart starts pounding. “W-What? Who?” It’s a dumb question and I’m not that good of an actress when directly confronted.

“Really?” He sighs and faces me. “Look, I know you hate me. Trust me, it wasn’t my intention to hurt Adams or to hurt you. I was just –”

“You were just messing with Sky like you always do.”

He squints his eyes, probably thinking up a lie. But he surprises me. “Yeah.”

I study him. He looks the same: spiky gelled hair, starched shirt, expensive watch. But his gestures, his demeanor, they’re different. “Why’d you kiss her?”

After everything settled down, I asked Sky about the kiss. She said it came out of nowhere. One minute, they were fighting and the next, his lips were on hers. I asked her how it felt and she said he tasted like shit. Very graphic and unnecessary description. But I had a feeling she was lying, even to herself.