This was a nightmare.
“Everything okay?” Ben asked, leaning down to huskily whisper in my ear like he knew exactly what was up.
I shook my head. “A step-monster is in line in front of us. I don’t want her to see me. I’m supposed to be at work today, remember?”
Fine lines fanned out from Ben’s sunglasses. He was probably only now remembering what a loser I was.
Tears burned my eyes, but I’d be damned if I was going to let them fall. I was going to be strong.
Then I heard Daphne’s light laugh trill through the tent and a wave of fear slammed into me.
I would be strong on Monday.
First thing.
For real this time.
I spun around and pushed my way through the people standing in line behind us. A tear that’d been burning my eyes fell and tracked down my cheek.
I couldn’t even come to a festival with thousands of other people without them ruining it for me.
Chapter 5
“Hey!” Ben shouted behind me, but I was too deep in my pity party to register it at first. “Wait up!”
When I registered that it was him shouting at me, I also realized I was crying. More tears tracked down my cheeks and dripped off my face.
Oh god. Why? I finally had an amazing man interested in me and I was doing this? Mortified beyond belief, I ducked behind a large sign promoting some white-boy rapper.
I dug frantically through my purse for something to clean me up. Finding a crumpled pack of tissues, I pulled one out and swiped at my face, uncaring how it affected my makeup.
I should’ve known better. Amazing things like this don’t happen to girls like me. They happened to the Daphnes and Amelias of the world—the girls who already had everything.
“What happened back there?” Suddenly Ben was in front of me, bending down to look at my face. “Are you okay?”
A pained croak left me, and it only made me cry harder. “Seriously?”Pull it together, Emma!“I’m fine. You can go now.”
“Go?” Ben pulled back slightly and gave me a look like I was being crazy. “Why would I go? Where would I go? I want to be with you.”
“Seriously?” I snorted in disbelief. Then I closed my eyes in embarrassment at the sound I just made. Finally, I shook my head then gave him a look. “You don’t know me. Because if you did, you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near me.”
“Wait, what? You’re amazing, Emma. You’re gorgeous, sweet, caring, and funny. Why wouldn’t I want to be with you?”
“You don’t know that. We’ve spent all of an hour together. You don’t know me at all.”
“I saw you in the diner, remember? I watched your stepmother be a witch to you, and then you turned and smiled at your customers like you weren’t dying inside. I watched you give your concert tickets to that guy at the counter so he could take his wife to a show he couldn’t afford. You put others above yourself, time and again. You’re fucking amazing.”
“Then why has my family always hated me?” I buried my face in my hands.
I just wanted the ground to swallow me whole. I needed my filter back. I hated being this vulnerable in front of anyone, let alone a sweet guy like Ben.
“I don’t know. But that’s on them, not you. Sometimes people are just assholes.” Ben’s arms came around me. And when I didn’t protest, he pulled me into his chest, resting his head on top of mine. And he sighed. “My own father is more concerned with hooking up with my fans than managing my career. A lot of days, I feel like I’m his parent. Sometimes family forgets they’re supposed to have your back. So that’s why you make your own.”
Make your own?
Then he went on. “You build your own little tribe. Surround yourself with people who care about you—the real-you, not the fake-you you have to show the world to keep yourself safe.”
After a second, I whispered, “Who’s your tribe?”
