Page 60 of Keep Me
She paused. Her eyes wide and her mouth parted.
“When did things change?”
I looked up to the sky, groaning. I didn’t want to have this conversation. I’d done enough talking with Olana for a lifetime.
“I think it was probably right after I found you sleeping with my old teammate from high school.”
She shook her head. “No. You can’t keep using that excuse on me. I made a mistake. I slept with someone. I own that. But you’ve been distant for years. I acted out because it’s the only way I can get your attention. If I don’t push you into action, you don’t do anything.”
Interesting observation. She tried caressing my arm, but I flinched and backed away. My flesh crawled before she got anywhere near me.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Matty.”
“No, Olana. You’re not going to make me feel sad about something that’s already been fixed. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to go back in there and speak to Britt.”
I turned, ready to leave Olana in the parking lot.
“I didn’t want to say anything, but I spoke to your dad.”
I stopped, and as I turned to look at her, she stepped back, almost as if she was worried about my reaction.
“What did you do?”
She raised her hands. “Don’t get angry. You weren’t talking to me, so I figured you definitely weren’t talking to him, and he needed to know what was going on.”
“He didn’t need to know a damn thing.”
“Yes, he did. I know he’s not your favorite person in the world right now, but your family has been like my family for years. He’d want to know what’s happening.”
I shook my head. My body was so full of anger with no way to dispel it. She talked to my father. She knew how I felt about him and still went behind my back and did it anyway.
“He, uh, told me you haven’t called him in a while. Look, I know things got tough after Evelyn died, but cutting off the only person left in your family isn’t going to help you.”
I bit my tongue until a metallic tang burst into my mouth. She was pushing me to places I’d never gone before. I was angry. Livid, even, yet she just stood there, taking in my reaction like she was waiting for something to happen.
“We think there’s something going on with you that we don’t know about.”
We?She was talking as though she and my father were working together. Although, it seemed they both wanted to hold me down at any opportunity.
“You know why I haven’t spoken to him,” I gritted out. He forgot about me the minute Mom passed away, and hated thefact I was the only reason he couldn’t sell our house and use the money to drink himself to death.
“Matty, that’s not true. He just wants to talk to you, and I think it’s the decent thing to do.”
“Stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“Stop trying to control my life!” I yelled, finally able to speak my truth. She wouldn’t control me ever again.
“I’m not doing that.”
“You sure? Because you clearly don’t understand boundaries, or are you so invested in needing to control the situation that you don’t care?”
Her brows rose and she let out a huff as she shook her head. “I think it’s you that doesn’t know appropriate boundaries, and while you’re at it, a lesson in obligations wouldn’t hurt.”
“Obligations? You’re really going to pull that one on me? When I’m doing everything I can to help you?”
