My jaw falls open. “What are you talking about? This was supposed to be temporary.”
“I know, honey. It was. But we’re happy here, aren’t we?” Her question is laced with hope. It infuriates me.
“No, Mom!” This is my fault—I made her think I could be happy here permanently. I blink back the tears threatening to flood this room. “I want to go home. Yes, Bramble Falls has been fine. It’s not as awful as I expected it to be. I had fun. But I need to get back to my school and my internship. And toDad! God, I’ve barely talked to him in two months. I miss him. Don’t you get that?”
“I’d never stop you from visiting your dad, Ellis,” she says.
“I don’t want tovisithim. I want to go home, where welive. Where I’m going to college next year!”
I can barely breathe.
“Moving here wouldn’t mean you won’t get into Columbia,” she says.
I shake my head. She doesn’t seem to understand what moving here means for me.
It means my parents will inevitably get a divorce. It means I won’t have access to the same opportunities I’d have in New York—opportunities Ineedin order to have the best shot at getting into Columbia. It means I’ll never see Dad because he’salways working. It means his new intern will move up in the company while I’m forgotten—by both Dad and Mr. Street. It means the loss of my life as I knew it.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if it means Mom asking me not to go to school in the city next.
This was probably her plan all along.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me,” I say, my voice breaking.
“I’m not trying to do anything to you, sweetie,” she says, stepping closer.
“You are so selfish.”
“What?”
“You’re moving me away from home—away from my goals—so that you can sit in your room andpaint. You’re punishing me because you hate Dad. And God forbid I want to be like him instead of you.” I grit my teeth and take a step backward. “Do what you want, Mom. But I’m not moving here. I won’t.”
I turn around, where Sloane is staring at me, shocked. I brush past her.
As soon as the door closes behind me, I let my tears fall. And they don’t let up the whole way to the Caffeinated Cat.
When I walk in, Cooper’s face lights up. Until he realizes I’m crying.
Betty Lynn takes over at the register, and he follows me outside.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” he asks, pulling me into a hug. But having his arms around me only makes me cry harder.
My dad would be so disappointed.Stop being so emotional, Ellis.
I wipe my face, clear my throat, and step back. “I’m leaving.”
“To go where?”
“Home.”
His face falls. “When?”
“Now,” I tell him.
“Your mom didn’t give you any warning? No notice? You’re just… going?” he asks, like he can’t wrap his head around it.
“My mom put in an offer on a house in Bramble Falls.”
A whirlwind of questions passes over Cooper’s face. “I’m so confused. She put in an offer here, but you guys are going back to the city?”
