“Please, Mom! You can’t handle this?! What a joke. You should be the one in rehab, not me and everyone knows it.” Mandy scoffed.

“Amanda!” Shelley exclaimed, self-righteously. “I’ve never!”

“Never what, Mom? Never had the truth out in the open? Where do you think I got my first dose? Wasn’t on the streets, that’s for sure. And moving your little stash from the candy machine from underneath your bathroom counter to underneath your mattress didn’t work. I still found ‘em, Mom,” Mandy taunted, and the sight was kind of beautiful.

Ouch.

Shelley l

ooked like she was about to either explode or faint. Either one, would be entertaining.

“You, young lady, need to say goodbye to your boyfriend because it’s the last time in a very long time that you’ll see him again.”

“What?!”

“But—” Devon started, but quieted instantly.

“You can’t do that!” Mandy screeched. The honest to God perfect cheerleader mask had fallen from grace. Instead was a living breathing human being.

Thank God.

“I mean it. You are grounded until your father and I figure out what to do with you. That means no boyfriend, no phone, no computer, no television, and no parties.” Who knew Shelley had it in her to be stern? And actually parent?

“What about school?”

Points for Mandy—she’d be fighting to go anywhere at this point, even school.

“No school. Not until we decide what to do.”

“You mean where to ship me off?” Mandy griped.

Kevin cleared his throat. “Your mother is right. You can say goodbye to Devon and then you need to go to your room for the rest of the night.”

“I can’t believe you guys! You are such hypocrites! You’re always gone. Always! And now you suddenly decide to be my parents?!”

Throw in a foot stomp and you’d have an official temper tantrum.

I loved this Mandy.

“We are not hypocrites and do not speak to your father like that.”

“Stop it! Just stop it!” Austin cried out, hurtling to his feet. “This is bullshit. Every fucking word, it’s all bullshit.”

What did I say before? My mini-me.

“Austin,” Shelley gasped, taken aback. Even Kevin had been shocked to silence.

I was so proud of them. A little of me had rubbed off on both of ‘em.

“I think it’s bullshit that we needed Taryn to man up and do your jobs. She’s the one who took Mandy to rehab, she’s the one who saw it was a problem and just did something about it. Mom, you don’t do shit fir me. And Dad, you’re never here to do anything with me. And when you are, you’re always in your office. I think it’s bullshit!”

Mandy looked over to Devon, but her eyes saw me in the doorway.

“This isn’t about Taryn,” Kevin started.

“No, it’s about you two and you just suck as being parents,” Austin retorted. “You don’t even know where Taryn is anyway. No wonder she’s always gone. Why the hell would she want to be around here when you guys aren’t even around?”

Oh boy. Stab me straight in my heart.

Tags: Tijan A Whole New Crowd Romance
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