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“I’ve officially cancelled your party,” Mother said over breakfast the Monday before my birthday.
I hated that my spoon of Apple Jacks halted halfway to my mouth, but I shoveled the cereal in, nodding. Not that I’d expected any different or cared, I told myself.
“No cake, no candles,” Mother continued as though rubbing in the extremely late punishment. “No singing, either.”
Gideon’s jaw clenched, but he made no argument, same as I kept my mouth shut while we finished eating. Mother gave a humph—probably annoyed that cancelling my birthday hadn’t seemed to hurt me, but I ignored her.
Lloyd offered a gaze of pity as I hopped up to finish getting ready for school, but I didn’t have the energy to return his small smile.
I wouldn’t get my sweet sixteen, one of the few things I’d looked forward to in life. I’d been holding out on that kiss for nothing.
“You okay?” Gideon asked as we climbed into his car for the drive to school a few minutes later, both of us in sweatshirts rather than winter coats.
“Yep.” I popped the P and pulled out my cell that had finally gotten returned to me before slipping out the door. Lloyd had tried to get it back quickly, and he’d whispered an apology when handing it over, but he hadn’t been able to sway her.
Me: She cancelled my party.
BFF: Bitch!
Me: Right?
BFF: So now what?
Me: Don’t know, don’t care. I just want to fall asleep and not wake up for a few months.
“Want to talk about it?” Gideon asked as my fingers flew over my screen while texting Jenny.
“Nope.”
“Thanks for hanging that picture over the hole in your wall instead of ratting me out.”
I faced him, my gaze narrowing. “When did you go into my room?”
“You left the door cracked open the other day,” he said, not making eye contact. “I saw the picture right there.”
My eyes narrowed further—I didn’t believe a word he said. “Snooping around for another pair of my dirty underwear?”
“Shit.” He grinned and shifted like he was getting a hard-on. “Jerking off just isn’t the same without the scent of you and that silk wrapped around my dick.”
“Sick fuck.”
“You know you want it.”
“Fuck off, Gideon.”
He chuckled, and I turned away with a sniff, lifting my nose into the air so he would see he couldn’t affect me.
When I stomped up the school’s stairs, Jenny’s eyes went wide the second she saw my face. I’d rushed across the parking lot and left Gideon in the dust. “What the hell?”
Guess I still looked mad enough to fight a grizzly. “It’s not that big of a deal,” I stated about the party being cancelled rather than telling her what Gideon had said in his car.
Devon held the door for us to go inside the school, smiling at me as usual.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, falling into step on my other side.
“My mother cancelled my birthday party,” I told him. “Long story—don’t ask.”
“That sucks.”
