Page 5 of Rescuing Brinley

“Did you have to take pictures with her?”

Tommy laughed at the question as he pocketed the money his friends gave him. He smirked. “Nope. I made sure to get there late. Long after her little sister had left with her date.”

“Callista Deaton…now that’s one hot chick. I know she’s only in seventh grade, but I’d do her in a heartbeat,” one of the boys said.

“Do you think they’re really related? I mean, Brinley’s nasty and her sister is smokin’. It’s so fuckin’ weird.”

Nope. She couldn’t do it.

Brinley turned abruptly and walked toward the door. She was humiliated—which she was sure was Tommy’s goal all along. Well, that and to get money on the bet he’d made with his buddies. But the boys thinking her twelve-year-old sister was “hot” was the final straw for her.

She was able to hold back the tears that welled up in her eyes until she was outside, sheltered in the dark night. She could’ve called Cypress to come pick her up, but she chose to walk instead. Her feet hurt in the heels and she was chilly in the dress she had on, but it didn’t really matter.

This wasn’t fair.

Life wasn’t fair.

But she’d learned that lesson a long time ago.

First during the conversation between Mom and her friends, when Brinley was four. Then with the death of her stepfather.

Her stepdad, Gary, had been her only friend when she was younger. Her champion. He’d told her constantly that she was his “pretty little Brin.” But he’d died when she was just six. Heart attack. And after that, she’d gotten no love whatsoever from her remaining parent. She’d like to think her mom never meant to be intentionally cruel…but Brinley knew better. And every comparison to Callista was like a knife to her heart.

Even worse were all the comments she’d overheard from other pageant moms over the years.

“You think she’s going to grow into those ears and that nose?”

“Isn’t there anything you can do about her crazy hair?”

“Those freckles are…a lot.”

And their daughters were downright horrid toward her. She’d been bullied mercilessly. Cypress had helped her with comebacks when someone made a rude comment about her looks. When they told her to her face that she was ugly.

I can fix my looks with plastic surgery. Your stupidity is permanent.

Congrats on having an opinion.

It’s still better than being you.

If I wanted a laugh, I’d ask for your GPA.

I might be ugly, but at least I have manners.

Better ugly than ignorant.

You’ve got something between your teeth.

That last one was Brinley’s favorite, because it never failed to send the girl making fun of her racing to the bathroom to check her teeth.

She’d developed thick skin a long, long time ago. Normally, boys who called her names and girls who whispered and laughed when she walked by didn’t bother her.

But tonight was something different. She’d actually thought Tommy was more mature than the others. And she’d been truly happy for a little while, thinking she might get to be normal. Might not be the “ugly girl” tonight.

She should’ve listened to Cypress’s warnings. Should’ve known Tommy didn’t actually want to take her to the dance.

Brinley stopped and looked up at the sky. At the stars winking overhead.

She was done.