This World That Divides Us

CHAPTER 32

The night I got home from Jack's at 1 am – remember how I said I had never seen my dad that angry? Well, I lied. Because right now, he's angrier than that.

"D-dad, what are you doing here?" I falter, stunned to see him.

"The question, Anastasia, is what are you doing here?" When I stay silent, he says, "Get your things, now. You're leaving."

"Why?"

He dips his chin down and looks at me bafflingly. "Why? Because you're supposed to be in school. That's why."

"It's just one day, dad. My teachers will understand."

He snickers at me and then shakes his head in a disappointing way. "Who are you and what have you done with my daughter? The Anastasia I know would never behave like this."

I shut the door behind me and take steps toward my dad. "Oh, that's fair, dad. Real fair. Coming from you."

"I said I was sorry about inviting your mother."

"You said it, but I don't think you meant it. With all due respect, dad, you invited her here for you, not for me."

"That's not true."

"It is. You never got your closure with her, and this was your chance."

"I invited her here so that you could make amends."

"I didn't want to make amends! And you knew that!"

I hear the door creak open. "Mr. Moore," Jack says, shocked. My dad rolls his eyes at Jack and grabs ahold of his hips.

"I came here for my daughter and I'm not leaving without her."

"Guess you're staying because I'm not leaving," I say.

"Stas, you should g-," Jack begins to say, but I cut him off.

"Don't even say it, Jack. I'm staying with you."

Dad looks back at me and I can sense that my words hurt him. But there's no way that his hurt equates to mine.

"Anastasia...," my dad begins.

"Dad, I'm staying."

My dad keeps his gaze on me before nodding his head. "I know that it might not seem like it right now, but one day, you'll understand that, what I did, I did for you."

And with that, he takes one more look at me and gets on his way.

***

And done.

I just submitted my application to Dartmouth. While I feel super relieved, I also feel a little empty inside. For most of my life, my world revolved around doing everything it would take to get into Dartmouth. And now, that's kind of over and done with. The only thing that I can do now is wait and hope that I get accepted. Everything else is in the past. I can't go back in time and change things, and I wouldn't. I know how hard I worked. I know how much I sacrificed.

"I can't look at this anymore, my eyes are tired," Molly says, picking her head up from the book that she's reading.

"Mol, you have to. It's part of our English Comp assignment."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, blah. I don't even care if I fail."

"Mol, don't say that."

"I'm serious, Stassie. I don't see how any of these BS pertains to my life."

"Mol, you know that you have to finish the book if you want to do well on the exam and pass the class. How else are colleges going to take your school work seriously if you don't?"

"Who says I even want to go to college?"

Her question catches me off-guard and I look up at her. "You don't?"

"I don't know," she shrugs. "Maybe. Maybe not. Why is that something I have to decide right now? College will always be there."

"True..."

"Plus. Why does life have to follow this formula of graduating high school, going to college, getting married, and having kids?"

"It doesn't. That doesn't have to be your life if you don't want it to be, Mol."

She chews on her pen cap and thinks. "Yeah, it doesn't. Anyway, how much longer are you going to be? I'm ready to leave soon."

"Uh, right after I finish printing these library cards."

"Okay," she says, closing her book. "I'm going to grab a few things from my locker. Meet you out front in 10?"

"Sounds good," I say.

I round the desk so that I'm standing on the opposite side of it and feel a pair of hands cover my eyes.

"Guess who," the voice whispers in my ear.

I cover his hands with mine and then say "Johnny" as a joke before bringing our hands down and turning around.

"Ha-ha, very funny," Jack sarcastically says, coming in to kiss me. "Almost done here?"

"Yeah. Molly's waiting for me out front."

"Molly? You're leaving me?"

"It's called 'girl time', babe."

He pouts at me in an adorable way and then says, "Fine."

Jack reaches for my hand and gently tugs on it, leading us to the back of the library.

"What are you doing?" I laugh as I trail behind him.

Jack brings us to one of the empty book aisles and lightly pushes me so that my back hits the shelf. "This," he says, coming in to kiss me.

"Jack, we can't do this here."

"Why not?" he whispers in between our kisses.

"If we get caught..."

"Who's catching us?"

I don't respond and continue to kiss him. Simply because I can't stop. Jack has the tendency to make me get so lost with him that I forget all the rules.

I run my fingers through the back of his hair as we continue to kiss and the only thing that finally makes me pull back is the fact that Molly's waiting for me.

"Okay, I gotta go," I tell him, pushing him off me, but he pulls me into him again.

"One more," he says, but one more leads to 10 more. And, hey, I'm not complaining.