The Heart That's Meant to Love You [COMPLETED]

Chapter 57: Highlights

Naomi kept her eyes downcast, her hearing tuned out. She knew the kind of sharp words her mother was spewing. Naomi didn't care to take them in, not this time. So, instead, she kept her mind thinking about other things.

Like Kieran's text.

It hadn't been an offer, it had been a challenge. A throwing of the gauntlet. I'll prove it to you. Kieran might as well have said "do you wanna bet?" because Naomi would have taken that bet. Just like she fully intended to follow through on the challenge. The longer her mother's tirade lasted, the more sure Naomi became about that decision.

"I just can't believe you would do something like this. Do you hate me? Do I not deserve to know where my daughter is? That she's safe and sound?"

The look on Ms. Rowe's face, when Naomi looked up, was nothing short of distraught. As if she actually thought that she deserved to know all the details of Naomi's whereabouts all the time.

After all, she was Naomi's mother. It had been wrong to not tell her that she would be staying out, but Naomi doubted her mother would have allowed it if she had told her. That catch-22 had spurred Naomi's willful rebellion. It might have been a mistake, but it was the first field trip Naomi had taken where she didn't feel like she had to be on guard the whole time.

"Are you not going to answer me?"

Naomi folded her hands behind her back and pressed her fingernails into her palm. "I didn't realize it would worry you so much." Another lie. Naomi had told too many of them lately.

"Well, it did. You're fortunate that Oliver told me where you were, or I might have had to report you missing."

Missing? Naomi doubted that twelve hours had passed before her mother freaked out, let alone the twenty-four it took to constitute a missing person's report.

"I'm sorry," Naomi apologized, although she was only sorry for the lying part.

"You should be." Ms. Rowe pointed a finger toward the end of Naomi's ponytail. "And what is in your hair that's making it look discolored? It's so distracting."

Naomi hesitated to answer that. She could tell yet another lie, but her mother would figure it out sooner or later. If she was going to get into the argument, she might as well rip the band-aid off immediately.

"It is discolored," Naomi confessed. "I bleached it."

"You what?"

"Bleached it. Those are highlights."

The distress on her mother's face morphed into disdain. And stone cold rage. "Why would you do something like that?"

"Because it sounded like fun," Naomi threw back spitefully.

"Fun? Since when has fun had anything to do with the plan? You can't have highlights like that, you're not a rock singer. Do you know how many bad intentions those will attract?" Ms. Rowe reached out toward Naomi's arm. "Come with me, we'll go die it back."

Naomi turned, avoiding her mother's grasp as she took a step back. "I'm not dying them back, mother."

"Don't be ridiculous. You have to. What will people think?"

"Maybe they'll think I'm a normal human being for once."

Ms. Rowe rolled her eyes. "With a plan like ours, normal isn't a good word for you. You're above those peons."

"No, mother, I don't think I am." Naomi maintained her ground, but every fiber of her being shook. "The way I'm living, it's a miracle they don't see me as less than human."

"That doesn't make sense, Naomi. You're so much better than they are. You have class, near-perfect grades. You have a purpose."

"No, I don't. I have a plan." For the first time, Naomi realized that the two were different. Her own words, spoken from her heart rather than her head, worked to open her own eyes to the faultiness of The Grand Plan. "They aren't the same."

"You have everything. You're going to be somebody." Ms. Rowe reached out to take Naomi's hand.

Once more, Naomi shied away. "But what if being somebody isn't the same as being me?"

"Naomi, you're not making sense, I—"

"What if I want to live right now?" Naomi interrupted. "What if I want to know what it's like to have friends or to go places on my own?"

"I told you, just wait a little longer and you'll complete the plan. Then you'll have all that."

"But the plan keeps changing!" Naomi barely stopped the tears from welling up. "You keep changing the plan without telling me. I thought it was ours, but apparently it's yours."

"That's not true, Naomi."

"It is! I don't even know what my interests are anymore. I don't know what it's like to actually enjoy anything. You've created this perfect golden cage for me, and all I can do is watch the people outside of that cage while they live. I want to live, mother, not just exist."

"You're quibbling over words and changing the subject." Ms. Rowe raised her finger to point at the door. "Let's go. To the salon."

"No."

The one word shot like a bullet from Naomi's lips, landing somewhere nearby, but definitely missing the mark of Ms. Rowe's heart.

"It isn't up for discussion."

"You're right. It isn't up for discussion. I'm not dying my hair back." Naomi took another step backward toward her room. "What's more, I'm not going to let them grow out, either. I'm keeping them. Because I like them."

Naomi spun on her heel and marched off, slamming her bedroom door behind her when she got inside.

"Naomi Beatrice Rowe!" Her mother'sshriek richocheted through the apartment and probably the through the neighbor's place, too.

Naomi ignored it, instead choosing to sink to the floor and contemplate what she had just done. She didn't know where she had found the courage to stand up to her mother, but it had leaped from her like a whole new personality. Either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid, that choice. What would her mother say if she knew that Naomi intended to sneak out to meet a boy?

A derisive chuckle fell from Naomi's lips. Her mother would only be okay with Naomi meeting a boy if it was a boy of Ms. Rowe's choosing.

Which was why Naomi had no intention of telling her mother about Kieran. Not until she was sure about the way she felt about him.