Page 28 of You + Me – Against the World

My mother puts her hand to her heart, Basile rolls his eyes, and Lily tries to send me an indecipherable message with hers. My father remains impassive, which is a very bad sign.

“Timothy called us. He was trying to get in touch with you all night.”

Oh, well played, Alma…

“Why are you lying to us?” my mother cries out. “I thought I raised you with values. You, your brother, your sister. Why are you doing this to us?”

And the emotional blackmail begins.

“Because I couldn’t bring myself to tell you… because you love Tim more than me. I want to break up with him, and I know you’re not going to be happy about it.”

“Really, Alma? That’s your choice!” my mother retorts, indignant at my accusation.

“No, it’s yours! You’re the ones who introduced him to me, who forced him on me!”

Tears spring to my eyes, despite myself.

“Turning the situation around won’t save you, Alma,” my father says, cold and determined. “And we still have no idea where you were all night. Give us the truth this time!”

“At Clémentine’s! Where else would I have been? She was as depressed as me, so we spent the night talking, comforting each other. She promised me it would be fine, that you’d understand…”

“Then why isn’t she answering her phone, damn it?!” my father shoots back, getting worked up again.

“Darling, is the reason you look so tired because you’ve been crying all night?”

In a sudden show of compassion, my mother wipes away a tear from my cheek.

“So, what is it?” she whispers. “Tell us! Are you… gay? You like girls… is that it?” Her voice has risen to a dangerously high pitch.

Lily bursts out laughing from the other side of the room. “Oh, please tell us it’s true, Alma! That’s exactly what our family’s been missing!”

“This is ridiculous…” Basile mutters, as grouchy as ever.

“Alma, of course it would be quite a shock, but we will always love you just the way you are. Right, Edward?”

The patriarch doesn’t react.

“Let it go, Mom. It’s not that. Nothing like that. And even if it were… Anyway, I’m just… tired of everything you expect from me. It’s too much. I’d like to make my own choices.”

“Well, that starts with learning to make sensible choices, Alma. You’re grounded for a week. You go to class, you come home from class. That’s it. No coffee, no movies, nothing. If Clémentine wants to see you, she can come here. And no more lies. You sleep here EVERY night. We’ll talk about this again next Saturday.”

My father’s sentence has been handed down.

I go shut myself in my room, almost relieved. Last night was incredible and definitely worth a week of punishment. It was worth so much more than that… And this won’t stop me from seeing Vadim at college, only from seeing him elsewhere.

Alone.

I need to talk to him. I turn on the computer on my desk and dig deep into my pocket for the little scrap of paper where he scribbled his cell number, email address, and username just before I left. I log into the college messaging platform that everyone uses but that I hardly ever do.

Clémentine gets in first.

Clemy_juicy: Hey, are you there? Where were you? With him?!

Alma_from_paris: Yes… Thanks for covering for me. Sorry my parents were harassing you.

Clemy_juicy: You know they called the cops?! And you didn’t answer your cell all night either! I freaked out! Did you get my messages?

Alma_from_paris: Phone’s dead. I have to go plug it in.