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Chapter One
"I can’t believe we are finally here I am completely and utterly exhausted, but could not be happier," Evie, e roommate, said as she threw herself across her freshly made twin bed
"I know It’s surreal, isn’t it? I’ht in fear that I’ll wake up to back at ed in the chair across the roohtmare"
"Tell me about it You aren’t the one that’s had to live with them the last 18 years," I muttered
"True, but I have had to live across the street for the last ten and listen to you bitch and moan every day about the prison wardens they are," she retorted
Evie was right; without her, Iwith my family That or run away and joined the circus Seriously, that would’ve been an upgrade to the life I had while living witha bit, it’s not like they ever beat lected me or really even yelled at me I never wanted for any material item or for my parent’s attention It was quite the opposite actually My parents were so far up my ass that they literally did not allow me to have a life of my own
The reason my parents treated me the way they did all went back to ht after they had finished college Both being young attorneys and wanting to climb the corporate ladder, Matt was often left under the supervision of our grandparents who had a hard ti no, and babysitters that knew asas I do By the tier,jobs as defense attorneys and worked long hours outside the ho Matt alone often Matt becaot in trouble with the law on several occasions for fighting, alcohol and irls and his nuht stands I was pretty sure I was ain As bad as it sounded, I think they felt they had failed miserably with Matt and needed a redo to prove to themselves that they could raise as close to a perfect child as possible I was born when Matt was 16 I was 2 when he left ho with us other than a few random pictures Thankfully, with time, he had eventually become a successful ood graces He beca, who I adore, and they have one daughter, Alyssa My niece is my little ray of sunshine I would babysit for her often and loved spending ti ti her rotten) I was definitely the cool aunt and not just because I was the only aunt
So my parents had me when they were both forty-four, which inover My mom decreased her workload drastically so that she could stay home with me and be present at every moment in my life I still think she’s pissed with God that she wasn’t around when I first gotlike Matt, irl Catholic school for rade What I always found so funny about this eren’t even Catholic They filled uitar lessons, dance lessons, soccer practices and community service My weekends weren’t a the piano for the choir They did everything in their power to sculpt me into their idea of perfection personified, and for the most part, thanks to my non-confrontational, naturally submissive personality, I did exactly as I was told
But today was the day they finally had to letforward to that day for at least the past three years, ever since I realized that kidsor practicing soeous and outlandish rules I knew that I’d never escape their unrealistic and idealistic expectations of et in legal or financial trouble, I would never have to live under their roof again
"Hello! Earth to Scarlett! Are you still withht dreaht? Hht…
"Scarlett, seriously, what the fuck is your proble forced to watch someone shit in your Louboutins," she spat
"I don’t own Louboutins, Evie"
"Humor me…" she said and then a serious look crossed her face " You are supposed to be happy… joyful… hell, you should be ju to be able to have a life"
"Sorry, I was just thinking about how controlling ed to survive until now," I confessed
"Controlling?!? That’s like saying that Lindsey Lohan has a ht have been a psychopath Elizabeth and David are nuts and I’o postal on them until yesterday And I’m still surprised they ever let you be friends with me"
"It’s only because they could see your house from our front ," I said somewhat embarrassed because we both knew that was the truth "And I think they are still in shock over ht back to the day prior when I had told the a clean break fro all of ht or wrong, good or bad, I could and would live with the consequences because they were MY choices I didn’t ly ~ I told the that they had done for me, all that they had sacrificed for me to have the life I had, and how much I loved them for that I had also told them I understood why they tried so hard to protect and shieldreally But when it was clear that they were not listening to a word I said and told me they expected to be in ht on the weekends, I lost it Truth be told, I went bat-shit crazy After all of the screaht I was acting ie wake-up call when the real world wasn’t what I expected it to be I thought they were unreasonable and irrational, and that they expected me to live in some ridiculous bubble forever It still made my stomach hurt to think about it; I had actually voument because I was so upset Thankfully, Evie and her parents allowed ht in San Antonio, because I could not spend one ht under my parents’ roof, or their rule ~ I was done Evie could not believe it when I showed up on her doorstep with my puffy red eyes and tear-stained cheeks She had told me no less than one hundred times in the last twenty four hours how proud ofup forwent down
Evie and I had becoht houses across the street frohborhood the surade Our parents were always cordial with one another but they were never friends that hung out together My parents were older, extreot to have one of their own Evie’s parents were quite the opposite
Her e which is where sheabroad in the United States, he was originally from Australia They could not have looked any less like a couple that belonged with one another, but they were so cute when they were together She was tiny, maybe five feet tall and a size 0, with dark hair and eyes, where Evie’s dad stood well over six feet and donned curly blonde hair and sky blue eyes Even after twenty plus years, they flirted with one another, had date nights regularly, and really seeed in their playful, sexy banter around the house, but I didn’t gest so in a sexual manner They had kept me away from the male population asmust’ve done a number on their relationship because they seemed to have no chemistry or passion for one another as far as I could tell I’h to ensure my conception to be quite honest I aically mated in a petri dish in a doctor’s office But at the very least, I can guarantee you that the sexual encounter was not by chance, it was most definitely penciled in on their schedules These people were obsessed with calendars and schedules… you really have no idea
So my family moved in across the way just several weeks after Evie, whose real name was Evelyn Rose, and her family had relocated to San Antonio from California We were both 8 years old, separated by only a few months, and we immediately becaames, listen to the same music, and we both loved to read We would spend hours at each other’s houses reading the same book so that we could discuss it as ent It was al before we knehat one was At the end of that first su each other, ere devastated to find out ouldn’t be going to the same school I would continue at St Helens in the city and Evie would attend the local public school There was absolutely nothing wrong with the public schools where we lived, in fact they had won nunition awards for their national test scores; however,o to school where Evie went I was told no and that ould never discuss it again So we didn’t
As we grew up, Evie and I stayed close despite the fact that we had different school friends and were involved in different activities We were both very smart and were at the top of our class froh school Evie became very popular at her school and developed quite the social life It was really no wonder seeing how she was gorgeous, brilliant, and a sincerely nice person Evie and I talked on the phone every night before ent to bed, filling each other in on the day’s events The conversations were usually heavily weighted on Evie’s contributions since I had no social life to speak of I didn’t h her since it was the best I was going to get We still spent several nights a week at each other’s houses and still read at least one book a week together Because we had read so rade most of them had been roh school for iht only with their dicks and caddy teenage girls that illing to cheat, lie and steal to climb the social hierarchy Lucky for h school boys and never allowed en possessed drama that took place at my school Evie, on the other hand, just couldn’t avoid it Shehead over heels for a boy at her school during sophoh school jock that everyone treated as a deity Evie soon found out that he lived up to that rich athlete stereotype so precisely captured in all of our books ~ cocky, self-centered, and a cheating scuet euy, but often dated and had her share of sexual escapades with both high school and local college boys