“Really? He just gave you some story and said sorry, and you fell for it? I thought you were smarter than that.”
Her comment stung, but the anger that came from it was greater than the hurt. “No, he didn’t ‘just tell me.’ I figured it out. And then, when he called to apologize, I accepted it because he realized he’d been a jerk.” I gave her a hard look. “Imagine how few people we’d ever interact with if we never accepted anyone’s apology for poor behavior.”
“Did he apologize for leaving you in the middle of the night?”
My jaw dropped.
“I didn’t think so.”
I took a half-step back. “You saw him?”
“Yes, Aline, I saw him.” She sighed. “I saw him coming out of your room stark naked and told him to get out before our parents saw him.”
“So, you’re the reason he left and didn’t take the time to write me a note.” I shook my head. “It was none of your business, Freedom. I’m an adult.”
She rolled her eyes. “An adult who couldn’t even tell the first man she fucked that she was a virgin.”
Something inside me snapped, but it wasn’t my temper. I thought it might’ve been my heart. “What did you do?”
She put her hands on her hips. “I did what I always do. I protected you from yourself.”
“Freedom.” My voice was louder but still even. “What. Did. You. Do?”
“I told Eoin the truth. All of it. Not whatever bits and pieces you’d give him.” She shook her head again. “And I was right about the sort of man he was. As soon as he heard he was your first, he freaked out and ran.”
Tears welled up in my eyes as my heart broke again. I was hurt, humiliated, angry. So many emotions. So many things I wanted to say.
“How could you?” It came out in a whisper, and I didn’t trust myself to repeat it without screaming it at her.
“Someone had to protect you,” she said again. Then a flood of crap came pouring out. “You have zero experience with men, and you picked the absolute worst sort of man for your first time. And you couldn’t even just leave it there, chalk it up to an irresponsible decision brought about by a highly emotional and tense situation. You had to make an impulsive choice because you were annoyed at me, and then you went out with him again. You brought him to our parents’ house. That’s not–”
“Stop!” I had to shout it to get her to stop talking, and I needed her to stop. I couldn’t process anything more. “You are not my parent!”
“What’s going on here?” Dad’s voice came from the other side of the kitchen as he and Mom walked in.
Before I could explain that Freedom and I were having a disagreement between the two of us, she beat me to it. “She’s mad because I kicked out the man I caught coming out of her room last night. Naked.”
Heat flooded my face. My parents turned to me, but I didn’t see annoyance or anything like that on their faces. What I saw was…disappointment.
“You slept with a man you’d only been out with once?” And it was there too, in Dad’s voice. Disappointment.
“Oh, no, she slept with himbeforethey went on their date. Twice.”
“Oh, Aline.” Mom shook her head.
“Don’t you ever think before you act?” Dad sighed. “You’re so much smarter than that.”
My heart didn’t break. It shattered. Everything I’d ever done, all the things I’d accomplished, and they weredisappointedbecause I’d made a decision that other people made all the time. That they’d both made at some point in their lives. ThatFreedomhad made, though I didn’t know when or with whom. I could’ve handled them being annoyed at me for having Eoin come into their house without specifically asking how they felt about it. But this…this was too much.
“I think this is enough. I’m done.” I said it quietly but didn’t wait to see if they’d heard me.
I walked back to my bedroom, packed a few things in my carry-on bag, all the while expecting them to come after me. Maybe to find out where I was going or what I was doing. Maybe to just keep talking at me. At least one of the three. Except none of them did.
I heard them in the kitchen, still talking about me and my horrible decision-making skills, my lack of ability to take care of myself, but I didn’t stop. They had to have seen me as I walked by, but none of them said anything to me. They were too caught up in planning how to take care of me now that I would be out in the big bad world of elementary education.
Freedom had driven down in the car we shared, and I took it just to get away without having to wait for a ride, but I didn’t intend to keep it. I knew where the closest bus stop was and where I was going to go. I’d put together a plan and implement it. I’d be smart about all of it.
And I wouldn’t let anyone treat me as if I was less than what I knew I was. Never again.
