Read Online VIP (Rock & Release, Act I) by Riley Edgewood - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Riley Edgewood
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this might feel like losing another child to them. But then… Maybe they'll just try to erase me the way they did Jason. It's sad, that this is even a thought I'm able to have.
I leave the note on the kitchen counter, and it's when I walk toward the front door, back through the pristine foyer, that the sad sort of longing resurfaces. I miss the mess and the chaos. I miss my parents—not the quasi-robots who live here now, the ones who laugh (real laughter, not fake) and yell (without all the rage) and kiss and dance.
I miss Jason most of all.
The longing splinters into something else, something darker. As happy as the memories are, they also tear me apart. I don't want to lose myself in the whirlpool of these things that used to be, but will never be again.
So I take a deep breath and then another. I text Jared that I'll take the job. And I let myself out the front door into a summer that feels a little lighter than it did this morning.
I'm prepared to apologize to Teagan when I pull up to her grandparents' house. I don't know exactly what I did, but I am sorry for the way things went down. Even more so, I want to move past it. A girl can only handle so much drama, and my dad's given me more than I can take.
Except when I knock it's her grandmother who answers, wearing her usual stern expression, to tell me Teagan's not home. She blows a frizzy white strand of hair out of her face, her cigarette-stained breath wafting through the screen that separates us. "She's at work."
"Oh." Shit. "I'm sorry for bothering you."
She gives a little grunt and closes the door in my face.
Yeah. I'm definitely not going to be able to stay here. Secret or not. I make my way down the few crumbling concrete steps and back to my car. I call Teagan, no answer. I text her, too, and drive around aimlessly for a while waiting for her response. I don't know where else to go. Teagan's the only friend from high school I'm still close with—everyone else is too full of pity about Jason to truly let me get away from the way his death haunts me. Too full of rumors, too. Nothing I want to hear about anymore.
It's been a while since I've been to Teagan's house, and I always manage to forget—or gloss over, at least—the way things are for her. She makes it easy because she never complains. I should've cut her more slack last night.
My phone vibrates and I steal a glance at it while at a red light. It's Jared, asking when I can start. Tonight , I text back, if you want me that soon . I should know better about the way I phrase things to him, because his response is totally predictable. You know I want you as soon as possible .
It doesn't even gross me out though, not really. I mean, obviously, in his freaking dreams. But sleazy Jared is a part of my new summer. Let him sleaze. Who cares?
Not me.
And that's the whole point.
CHAPTER TEN
Eventually, I get hungry. The hangover's lingering in my head and in my stomach, and the sun is beating down on me through my windshield. I need something greasy and bad for me. I pull through a fast-food window, relieved that my credit card still works. At least my dad hasn't thought to cut it off yet.
And then I'm shaking my head at myself. What a privileged little twit I can be. Relieved that Mommy and Daddy haven't cut off my credit card? Poor, poor little Cassidy. Boo freaking hoo. I toss the credit card in my backseat, promising myself to cut it up—or at least stick it in the freezer or something—as soon as I get my first paycheck.
Though, to stick a credit card in a freezer, you have to have a freezer. To have a freezer, you need a place to live. Which I currently don't have, unless I count my car. Which I really, really, really don't want to do. Though it's better than nothing, I guess. It was a gift from my grandmother before she passed away a few years ago, so even if I didn't technically earn it, at least my father didn't buy it for me.
I sit in the parking lot and
I leave the note on the kitchen counter, and it's when I walk toward the front door, back through the pristine foyer, that the sad sort of longing resurfaces. I miss the mess and the chaos. I miss my parents—not the quasi-robots who live here now, the ones who laugh (real laughter, not fake) and yell (without all the rage) and kiss and dance.
I miss Jason most of all.
The longing splinters into something else, something darker. As happy as the memories are, they also tear me apart. I don't want to lose myself in the whirlpool of these things that used to be, but will never be again.
So I take a deep breath and then another. I text Jared that I'll take the job. And I let myself out the front door into a summer that feels a little lighter than it did this morning.
I'm prepared to apologize to Teagan when I pull up to her grandparents' house. I don't know exactly what I did, but I am sorry for the way things went down. Even more so, I want to move past it. A girl can only handle so much drama, and my dad's given me more than I can take.
Except when I knock it's her grandmother who answers, wearing her usual stern expression, to tell me Teagan's not home. She blows a frizzy white strand of hair out of her face, her cigarette-stained breath wafting through the screen that separates us. "She's at work."
"Oh." Shit. "I'm sorry for bothering you."
She gives a little grunt and closes the door in my face.
Yeah. I'm definitely not going to be able to stay here. Secret or not. I make my way down the few crumbling concrete steps and back to my car. I call Teagan, no answer. I text her, too, and drive around aimlessly for a while waiting for her response. I don't know where else to go. Teagan's the only friend from high school I'm still close with—everyone else is too full of pity about Jason to truly let me get away from the way his death haunts me. Too full of rumors, too. Nothing I want to hear about anymore.
It's been a while since I've been to Teagan's house, and I always manage to forget—or gloss over, at least—the way things are for her. She makes it easy because she never complains. I should've cut her more slack last night.
My phone vibrates and I steal a glance at it while at a red light. It's Jared, asking when I can start. Tonight , I text back, if you want me that soon . I should know better about the way I phrase things to him, because his response is totally predictable. You know I want you as soon as possible .
It doesn't even gross me out though, not really. I mean, obviously, in his freaking dreams. But sleazy Jared is a part of my new summer. Let him sleaze. Who cares?
Not me.
And that's the whole point.
CHAPTER TEN
Eventually, I get hungry. The hangover's lingering in my head and in my stomach, and the sun is beating down on me through my windshield. I need something greasy and bad for me. I pull through a fast-food window, relieved that my credit card still works. At least my dad hasn't thought to cut it off yet.
And then I'm shaking my head at myself. What a privileged little twit I can be. Relieved that Mommy and Daddy haven't cut off my credit card? Poor, poor little Cassidy. Boo freaking hoo. I toss the credit card in my backseat, promising myself to cut it up—or at least stick it in the freezer or something—as soon as I get my first paycheck.
Though, to stick a credit card in a freezer, you have to have a freezer. To have a freezer, you need a place to live. Which I currently don't have, unless I count my car. Which I really, really, really don't want to do. Though it's better than nothing, I guess. It was a gift from my grandmother before she passed away a few years ago, so even if I didn't technically earn it, at least my father didn't buy it for me.
I sit in the parking lot and
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