Better Than Revenge (Sweet Secrets #1) (11 page)

My mom freed herself of my dad’s embrace and went back over to the stove as she said, “Dinner will be ready soon so you’re just in time. How was your practice?”

Brianna’s face lit up. She had probably been waiting for someone to ask. “It was amazing. We did tumbling for most of the practice and I finally landed my double Arabian layout!”

Dad clapped his hands together loud enough for the sound to ricochet off of the walls and amplify as he said, “I’m just going to pretend like I know what that is, but it sounds extremely complicated.”

“It sure is! Congratulations, Brianna!” screeched my mom in excitement.

To my surprise, Blake dropped his arm from where it was slung over my shoulders and walked over to Brianna, giving her a high-five. “You’ve been trying to get that flip for forever! Congratulations, Bri!”

Bri?

I felt someone’s eyes on me, so I broke my stare at Blake and Brianna and looked toward Lena, who was staring at me with wide eyes and furrowed eyebrows as she mouthed, “What the hell?”

In response to her unspoken words, I shrugged and turned back to Brianna and Blake. Blake had moved away from Brianna and was now engaging in conversation with my dad while Brianna talked to my mom as she chopped up some vegetables. It was annoying how she bounced on the soles of her feet as she spoke. How can someone be so freaking happy about landing a dumb flip? I guess that means I have to be the one to rain on her parade.

Lena watched me as I walked over to Brianna, casually slinging my arm over her shoulder and cutting her off as I said, “Lena is spending the night tonight so I need my room. I guess you’re just going to have to sleep in the guest room today,” I sighed.

Brianna turned her head toward me and gave me one of her famous fake smiles. “Or I could just hang out with you guys tonight instead. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

I suppressed my groan and tried to think of something to stop that awful idea from coming true. “Well, I don’t think that that would be a great idea. You know, you and Lena don’t really get along that well ever since,” I grappled for something to say, pausing momentarily before something popped into my mind, “you got into that fight with her little sister.”

My mom stopped cutting up the onion that was in front of her and gave Brianna a surprised look. “You got into a fight with Lena’s little sister?” Her eyes were wide, and I could see the unmistakable look that she got when she was judging someone pop into her head. My mom loathed violence almost as much as she hated trans-fat. “What was it about?”

Brianna looked caught off guard as she opened her mouth and tried to talk but nothing came out. She slightly resembled a fish out of water.

To her relief, Lena stepped in for her. “It was probably about something stupid. Gabriella even refused to tell me what it was about when I asked.”

My mom shrugged and went back to chopping. “I’d like to meet Gabriella someday.”

“Sure. I’d be glad to bring her over one day. She recently started going by Ella though so if she does come over, make sure you call her that. I don’t want her to chew me out,” she chuckled.

My mom laughed along with her. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She turned and focused her attention on Blake as she said, “Blake, hun, are you staying for dinner?”

Blake stopped talking and smiled at my mom. “No, but thank you Mrs. Forrester. I think my mom wants me home for dinner.”

“Do you need a ride home?” my dad offered.

Blake nodded and before he could say yes, Brianna chirped up and said, “I’ll give Blake a ride home.” She tossed me an evil smile.

Blake looked at me, asking me with his eyes if it was all right or not. I didn’t want to be the jealous type of girlfriend who controlled every little aspect of her boyfriend’s life so I shrugged and nodded; pretending like I didn’t care.

Blake looked to Brianna and shook his head. “No thanks. I’ll ride with Mr. Forrester today. Maybe he’ll let me drive…” he trailed off, raising an eyebrow at my dad.

My dad laughed. “Fat chance.”

I smiled at Blake, grateful that he didn’t accept Brianna’s ride. Lena asked for the bathroom and I directed her toward the nearest one. Brianna sent me a glare before she offered to help my mom set the table for dinner. As Blake and my dad got ready to leave, Blake pulled me out onto the porch with him and pushed my back up against the wall beside the screen door. The crisp air blew against the exposed skin along the back of my neck.

“Thanks for not letting Brianna give you a ride home.”

Blake leaned in and pressed his lips gently to mine. To my distaste, he pulled away just as suddenly as he had leaned in. His shattering blue eyes caught the light as he tilted his head down to look at me, causing a few strands of his black fringe to fall into his eyes. “Violet, I love you. I know that you don’t like that I’m becoming friends with Brianna and I respect that. You’re my girlfriend so you’ll always come first. If you don’t want me to hang out with her anymore then I won’t.”

“I don’t like Brianna and I never will. I don’t even understand how you suddenly became friends with her. Why were you at her house in the first place?”

Blake placed his hands on the wall on either side of my head and stared straight into my eyes. “Promise me that you won’t tell her if I tell you?”

“I promise.”

He shifted on his feet before saying, “Brianna failed physics last year, so she was forced to repeat it this year. Apparently, Brianna has already skipped that class four times and it’s not even the third week of school yet so her physics teacher gave her an ultimatum; either she could join the school’s academic decathlon club, or she would get a call home to her parents and possibly get kicked off of the cheer squad. You know that cheerleading is basically her life. Without it all she has are her overbearing parents and her fake friends that don’t really even care about her. So she joined the academic decathlon team and that’s how we started hanging out. A few of my teachers saw my grades and offered me extra credit if I joined the team. Apparently, we lose to every school in our district each year.” He shrugged and reached his hand up to my face to brush a stray strand of hair away. His fingers lingered against my cheek for a moment as his face tilted downward, slowly moving closer to mine.

Quickly, I pressed two fingers to his lips, halting the kiss. “That doesn’t explain why you were at Brianna’s house though.”

The screen door slammed open next to us, causing Blake to jump away from me. My dad sent us a knowing look before tossing his car keys into the air and swiftly catching them. “Oops. Did I interrupt something?” he feigned an innocent face. “I sure hope I did,” he teased, smirking wickedly. “Ready, Blake?”

Blake nodded his head yes at the same time that I said no.

“Dad, can you give us a moment?”

“Nope,” he said in a sing song voice.

“Please?”

“You have until I start the car.”

I smiled smugly. “Thank you.”

He shrugged and turned away, jogging down the driveway toward the car.

“Smart man,” whispered Blake under his breath.

I shook my head, stepped forward and gripped the cotton of his shirt between my fingers; pulling him toward me. “So why were you at—?”

The sound of the engine starting cut me off causing me to frown and Blake to chuckle.

“I’ll tell you later.” He bent down, pressing his soft lips to mine as the smell of his spearmint gum washed over me. The sound of the car horn beeping at us made me jump in surprise.

“I think I should go.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder, pointing at the car that held my impatient father.

“Probably,” I agreed.

“I love you.”

I hesitated at his words. “Thanks,” I replied after a few beats of silence. My cheeks burned as I realized what I had said. To hide the tinge of red in my cheeks I tilted my head down in embarrassment.
Say it back, Violet!
I encouraged myself mentally.

Blake ruffled my hair and turned away, running toward the car. As they pulled out of the driveway I stood shell-shocked on the porch. I watched the tail lights on the car until it turned at the end of our street with one thought on my mind.

Blake had said that he loved me.

I groaned internally as I thought about my lame response to his sudden announcement of his love for me.

Thanks.

“Gosh, I am such a freak.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying for years. It’s good to know you finally agree with me.”

I spun around to face the owner of that voice, not surprised when I saw who it was. Brianna stood in the doorway with the screen door cracked open and a sinister smile adorning her face. Crossing my arms over my chest, I questioned, “Were you spying on me?”

Brianna scoffed. “Yeah, like my life is so boring that I have to spend time watching
you
,” she answered with sarcasm so thick in her voice that I could imagine it dripping from her mouth.

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“I only came to tell you that dinner is ready.”

“All right,” I muttered back, but Brianna had already let the door swing shut and was heading back to the kitchen, leaving me to follow.

Chapter 15

“Stop moving, Forrester. You’re going to ruin it!”

To my distaste, the skin on the back of my neck continued to itch intolerably. Letting out a deep sigh, I wiggled my freshly painted toe nails that glittered when they caught the light. Despite my earlier thoughts about how painting your nails makes you look like a self-absorbed, pampered girly-girl, I actually liked the way that the sparkly orange nail polish looked against my skin. My eyes focused on my half painted finger nails that were still in the process of being completed. Lena sat at the center of my bed with her legs folded under her as she held my calloused hand in her thin delicate one. She balanced the bottle of nail polish on her thigh, being careful not to spill anything as she dipped the nail brush into the bottle and began sweeping it in even strokes over my nail.

“I swear you’re going to look so pretty when I finish.”

Rolling my eyes, I scoffed at her statement. “Yes. Because having colorful nails can really change your appearance.”

Lena tilted my hand up and blew on the wet polish that coated eat nail. “Just wait and see. After I finish your nails, pluck your eyebrows, and add a little eyeliner, you’ll be breathtaking.”

I scrunched my face up in confusion at her words. “Who said that you could give me a freaking makeover?”

“I did. Come on, it’s the least you could do. Help me take my mind off of the fact that I got suspended for standing up for you.” She smirked at me, obviously thinking that I was going to allow her to cover my face with clown paint just because she defended my honor by punching Brianna. Yeah, right. I would have done that myself eventually anyway.

“Boo-who. I got suspended for a week last year. It’s really not that bad not having to go to school. I think you’ll survive.”

Lena let go of my hand and plucked my wrist before giving me a self-satisfied glare when I realized that I was incapable of plucking her back. “Serves you right.”

“Whatever. I guess you can do my makeup, but if I don’t like it then I’m taking it off. No hesitation.”

“Deal.”

The room elapsed into a comfortable silence for a moment. A trace of Lena’s smug smile was still lingering on her lip gloss covered lips. Trying to start up a conversation that wasn't about myself, I said, “So, what happened at your house? I mean, what happened to make you want to spend the night? Not that you aren’t welcome here, because you are! I'm just curious.”

Lena looked up at me from under her eyelashes. She shrugged her shoulders absentmindedly. “Do you want the long version or the short version?”

I didn't even have to think about my answer. “Long.”

Lena smirked, “I knew you'd say that. You're so predictable.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Don't change the subject. Get on with the story.”

Lena nodded, taking a moment to blow gently on my nails before beginning. “It all started about two years ago. My parents had some big news to tell Ella and me, so we all sat down to have a family meeting.” She rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Of course we were worried about what they wanted to talk to us about. We only ever had family meetings when one of us were getting into trouble, or something bad had happened in our family.” Lena focused her eyes on mine. “Seriously, only bad stuff. Like when my uncle went to prison we had a family meeting. When my grandpa died, we had a family meeting.”

I nodded, telling her that I understood so that she could proceed with her story.

“I remember knowing that something was wrong as soon as I sat down. The look on my dad's face said it all. I think Ella had been worried that our parents had found out that she had snuck out the night before to hang out with her boyfriend or something. She looked worse than my dad did because a few days before she had been banned from seeing him.” Lena cracked a small smile. “I had been hoping that she had gotten caught, because then that would have meant that nothing really bad was going to happen.

“Even though my dad looked nervous and worried, my mom had a forced smile on her face. If you knew my mom back then, you would have understood why even the slightest of smiles made us less worried. She’s always been harder on us than my dad is, so we knew that any form of smiling during a family meeting would be an indication that we weren't getting into trouble, which we didn’t.”

She looked away, and let out another deep sigh. She was silent for a second before she looked back in my direction and met my eyes. “She was pregnant.”

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion at her words. When I had first met Lena, she told me that she only had one sibling—Ella. Why would she lie?

“They told us right away that they didn’t want either of us to get attached to the baby, because they didn’t plan on keeping it. At the time we were short on money, and my dad was working two jobs just trying to make ends meet. My mom had just gotten laid off so we were living from paycheck to paycheck. I even had to sell my car to one of the girls that went to my school.” I watched an annoyed expression pass over her face for a brief moment at the mention of that.

“They told us that they were going to give the baby up for adoption because it would be unfair to bring a baby into the world when they couldn’t afford another child. I understood what they were thinking, but I found it extremely unfair that my little brother or sister was going to be given away when my parents had kept Ella and me. Despite our money struggles, we were all still a family and we loved each other. I didn't see how having a new baby would make that any different. By the time the baby was born anyway, I figured that we would have been done with our money problems. I just hoped that my parents were going to change their minds and keep it.

“Gabriella on the other hand was devastated. She had always wanted a little brother or sister and now that she was getting one, my parents were going to take it away from her. She had always said that I was the best older sister anyone could have because I was always there for her, helping her with her homework or just taking the blame or covering for little things that she did. It may not seem like it now, but she was always trailing around behind me and my friends. She used to look at me like I was the coolest person to ever step foot on Earth. I think she wanted the chance to be someone’s older sister too, you know?” She paused to look up and give me a sad smile.

I nodded in understanding. That had to be such a hard situation for her and Ella, not to mention for their parent’s too.

While Lena had been talking, she had capped the nail polish bottle and repositioned her body into a more comfortable spot. It had been the first time that she had looked at me since she started her story. At first she had been wringing her hands nervously and staring at my bed spread as she spoke. I returned her sad smile with a sympathetic one before she continued speaking.

“Gabby hates me now though. She wanted me to say something to mom and dad about keeping the baby. She thought that they would listen to me and that I would protect our baby brother or sister from being given to a new family. I never told her about the night that I spoke to our parents. They practically laughed in my face when I suggested that I get a job to help pay for the expenses that would come with having a new baby in the house. They thought that it was sweet that I would offer to help out like that, but they wanted me to focus all of my time on school and not worry about anything but getting the best grades that I could.

“When my mom went in for her ultrasound, she was told that she was not only pregnant with one child, but two. The fact that my parents weren’t making nearly enough money to raise two children, let alone four, ruined any thoughts that I had about keeping the babies.

“As if everything wasn’t already bad enough, Gabby started hanging out with a few of the older kids at her school. Her grades dropped, and she no longer talked to me anymore. She stayed at her friend’s house for most nights but whenever we crossed paths she would go out of her way to ignore me. I would catch her sneaking out more and more. All I wanted was for my little sister to talk to me again. It hurt to know that she hated me. It was almost as if I was the one who had decided to give away the babies. I wanted them just as much as she did, maybe even more.”

A tear leaked from Lena’s eye, trailing down her freckly cheek in a slow path.

“My parent’s never even told us the sex of the babies. They didn’t find out until they were born. I guess they thought that if they found out the sex it would make it harder to give them to a new family. I always had a feeling that they would be boys. Deep down I know that somewhere in this world, I have two little brothers.

“I tried to keep myself busy with school work, but there were always times when I would come up with different names for them. I always pictured two little red headed babies with rosy cheeks, sucking on their thumbs, and drooling spit down their chubby chins.” She cracked a smile, looking at me with damp eyes. She brought her hand up to rub at the tears and forced a laugh while saying, “I’m so emotional.”

I scooted over next to Lena, draping my arm over her shoulder. “It’s okay. So, how does that tie into what happened today?”

Lena shrugged. “It’s just, everything in our house is so tense now. I told my mom about how I got suspended for fighting and we got into a huge argument. It was pretty bad. I couldn’t stay there.”

I sighed, thinking about everything that she had just told me. “Was the adoption the reason why you moved?”

Lena shrugged, “Part of it. We wanted a fresh start. Ella also got into some trouble with her friends. You’d have to ask her about that situation if you wanted to know. It’s not my business to tell you that. Another reason is that my dad got a job that pays more than enough money to support us now. He’s finally getting use out of his degree. My mom had a work friend that was looking to adopt and they lived near our old house. She didn’t want us to live so close to them. I guess she was afraid that Gabby or I would try to see the babies or something. She’s been depressed a lot lately though. She deserves it after all of the crap she put us through last year.”

“No one deserves to be depressed.”

Lena shrugged out from under my shoulder. “If Gabby and I could get over it then why couldn't she? She was the one who decided to give the twins away in the first place.”

“It doesn't seem like you've gotten over it. Maybe you and Ella just have different ways of dealing with the situation.”

Lena rolled her eyes. “My mom lies in bed all day, my dad buries himself in his work, Gabby likes to get treated like dirt, and I try not to think about it all. We are one messed up family, huh?”

“Everyone has different ways of coping. Maybe you should all get together and talk about what happened. Talking is a good way to get stuff off of your chest. You can't just keep your emotions bottled up inside forever.” I wanted to punch myself in the face. I was sounding too much like my mom. Whenever she fed me those lines I would roll my eyes and completely disregard any advice that she was giving me, but now that I was giving Lena that same advice, I realized that maybe my mom actually knows what she's talking about. Maybe she's not as crazy as I thought she was.

Lena shook her head solemnly; she was completely oblivious to my thoughts, thank God. “I've tried talking to them. Ella just always ignores me. She thinks that just because she hangs out with people my age, dates older guys, and goes to wild parties that she’s more experienced than I am.”

I furrowed my eyebrows. “Ella's in tenth grade, right? So she's about fifteen?”

Lena shook her head, saying, “She got held back in eighth grade. She's sixteen. She doesn't turn seventeen until two months after my eighteenth birthday.”

I nodded, processing this new information before shrugging. “Just remember this: You can pick your nose, and you can pick your family’s noses, but you can’t pick your family.”

Lena furrowed her eyebrows at my statement. “That’s not how it goes. It’s, “You can pick your nose, and you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your friend’s noses.”

“Whatever. I was close.”

Lena flicked my knee and laughed. “Finally the regular Forrester returns. The serious, advice giving Violet was kind of scaring me.”

“I know what you mean. I kind of scared myself a little bit too.”

Lena smiled, flashing me a good view of her braces clad teeth. “You’re definitely not a therapist, but you had some good advice. Thanks, Violet.”

My jaw dropped, and I made a big scene of covering my mouth and feigning shock. “You called me Violet. I think that may be the first time you’ve ever directly referred to me as Violet, and not Forrester.”

Lena raised an eyebrow at me. “Don’t get used to it. I like Forrester better than Violet. No offense though,” she added quickly.

I waved her off, my orange nails sparkling in the light as I did so. “None taken.”

Catching my hand, Lena frowned and made a
tsking
noise. “How did you manage to ruin one of your nails already?”

Glancing down at my nails, I noticed that one of them was indeed smudged. “How am I supposed to know?”

“They’re
your
nails. How would you not know?”