2:29 AM

Chapter Thirty-One

I can't believe it. I just caught my mother in bed with Harrison. Mom's sitting against the headboard with the bed sheet pulled to her waist. She's not wearing a bra.

"Shit," Harrison mutters. He pulls on a pair of jeans and a shirt. "Andy, let me explain."

"Go shove it up your ass," I say to Harrison. Colton's standing in the doorway. "What the fuck, Mother?" I ask.

"Oh, please," Mom says. "Don't take that tone with me."

"I'll take whatever damn tone I want with you! Why the fuck would you have fucking sex with your husband's best friend?" I yell. My mind's a mess right now.

"I have a question for you, dear daughter," Mom says. "Why are you here with a boy? You know, the apple never falls far from the tree." I blink. "You're a whore, just like me," Mom says.

I can't find anything to say. "I am nothing like you," I say slowly. "How long has this been happening?" I ask her. She purses her lips. "Harrison?" I turn to him. He looks remorseful.

"A year and a half," Harrison says quietly. He's looking at the floor.

"You're a filthy whore, Mother," I say. She sits up straighter.

"Tsk, tsk," she says. "Do you have anything else to say?"

"How about fuck you? Fuck you for doing this to Dad! How selfish can you possibly be? How pathetic are you?" I say. She rolls her eyes.

"Toss me my panties will you?" she asks. "You, pretty boy, with the green eyes." Colton looks at me. He steps forward and picks up her panties. Colton sets them down on the bed. Mom grabs them, slips them on and then stands up.

"Can you put on a fucking bra? No one wants to see those saggy-ass mom boobs," I say. She laughs.

"I'd hardly call these saggy," Mom says. She laughs. "You'd be surprised how easy it is to get a breast lift and implants when you give a surgeon a little bit of motivation, if you know what I mean." She crosses her arms over her chest. Colton's eyes are averted. Both he and Harrison are standing there awkwardly.

"You're a fucking no good bitch-slut," I tell Mother. She laughs.

"I used my assets to get far in life, don't be mad at me because people don't find you attractive. It wouldn't kill you to lay off of candy bars," Mom says.

"Fuck you," I tell her. "You can go and rot in hell. You must have some kind of nerve fucking your husband's best friend, in the cabin that you're supposed to celebrate your husband's birthday in." 

"It's his birthday tomorrow?" Mom asks. "I hadn't noticed."

"Harrison isn't the only man you've had an affair with since you've been married to Dad," I say. It's not a question.

"I haven't touched your father in years," Mother says bordley. I draw the line at Dad. She can insult me all she wants, but she has no right to say anything bad about Dad.

"You have no more value to me than a piece of trash," I say evenly.

Her palm connects with my face. There's a stinging pain that I don't even feel. "Don't ever talk to me like that," she says.

"Go die in hell," I say. She slaps me again. "Fuck you." I square my jaw.  "At least I am not a drunk, pathetic excuse of a woman, or a mother, who lacks self-respect and dignity. I am better than you in every way, Mother. You're an old, shriveled hag, don't you forget that."

Mother slaps me so hard that the sound echoes around the room and I stumble back one step. I see Colton and Harrison wince. I grab Colton's hand and start to walk away. "Don't forget who raised you," Mother calls to me.