Artemisia High

14 | Crumble

"How could you?" Cinder exclaimed. If her slamming the door didn't wake the Linhs up, her irate screaming most certainly did.

She didn't have to wake them up, though, because they were already sitting in the living room drinking tea. When Adri saw Cinder, though, she spilled the tea she was drinking all over herself.

"Cinder, what do you think you're doing?!"

"I could ask you the same thing. Why didn't you tell me I still had living relatives?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, you disrespectful girl. How dare you wear that dress."

Cinder ignored her last comment.

"Oh, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Channary Blackburn was my mother and Levana Blackburn is my aunt."

"All I know is that Garan brought you home and said you were in a car crash with a previous foster family. He had a thing for taking in stray animals, didn't he, Pearl?"

Cinder balled up her hands into fists but didn't have time to clap back because Adri kept talking.

"You have some explaining to do, young lady. That is Peony's dress, not yours."

"I'll explain after you tell me what you're hiding."

Adri clenched her jaw and took a deep breath. "I'm giving you one minute to take off that dress or else."

"Not until you tell me the truth."

"I'll rip that dress off of you with my bare hands if I have to."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Your time is up, young lady. I might have to keep you under my roof for two more years, but that doesn't mean I'll tolerate your nonsense. So starting right now, I'm only giving you a roof over your head and nothing else."

Cinder scoffed. "As if you give me anything else anyway," she mumbled. Adri must've heard her, though, because she scrunched up her face even more.

"Forget college. All of your fund money from Garan is going to cover Peony's hospital bills. In fact, if you're going to be a part of this family, you need to provide, too. Start working more hours at the repair shop; we need to make more money from it. And I'm not paying for any of your other expenses—food, transportation, toiletries. Every penny counts."

Cinder's jaw went slack in disbelief. She didn't expect Adri to quite literally only give her a roof over her head. How was Cinder going to pay for her own expenses? How would she make enough money to keep Peony alive? Perhaps she could get a job at the mall after school or start a campaign to get more people to come to the repair shop to save a pretty girl dying from cancer.

As soon as a smug smile overtook Adri's face, Cinder only got more mad. She had nothing else to say, though, so she just left.

Cinder entered her room and sighed. She collapsed onto the floor against her door. She could hear Adri yelling at her to return the dress once she took it off, but Cinder drowned her out with her sobs. She sat with her knees pulled up to her chest and cried softly into her dress—Peony's dress.

❂

Cinder was awoken at 2 a.m. by the sound of Iko's giggles. Well, awoken wasn't truly accurate. She couldn't sleep at all, so she was already awake when she heard Iko come home.

Cinder rolled onto her side away from the door just before Iko walked into her room to check on her. Iko could always tell when Cinder was lying, though, so she didn't leave.

"Cinder?" Iko whispered knowing full and well that Cinder was awake.

"Can we talk about the dance?" she asked and moved to sit on the bed. Cinder shifted in bed but still didn't respond.

"Why'd you leave so early? We were looking for you after. In fact, why did you come in the first place?"

Cinder sighed. "Can we talk about this in the morning?"

"It is morning."

"I'm not in the mood, Iko."

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed."

"More like I went to sleep on the wrong side."

"What happened? Was it something at the dance? Don't tell me Kai—"

"Kai did nothing wrong. It was Adri."

Iko sighed. "What now?"

"You saw me wearing Peony's dress at the dance, right? Well, Adri went crazy when she found out, so she basically took away everything from me."

"So, what? No phone? You barely use it anyway."

Cinder shook her head. "No, Iko. I mean no food, no water, no BART card—"

"What?! She can't do that...can she?"

"It's not so different from how she treats me now," Cinder said with a shrug.

"You can't let her walk all over you like this."

"I don't have a choice. I have to do it for Peony."

"Peony wouldn't want you to do this."

"She never did anything to help me."

As soon as she said that, Cinder regretted it. She knew how wrong her statement sounded. It wasn't even true. Peony had kept her sane in this household. Plus, it wasn't like Peony could go up to her mother and force her to treat Cinder right.

"Goodnight, Cinder," Iko said. She got up quickly and slammed the door on her way out.

Tomorrow would be hell. Well, it was already tomorrow, and Cinder was already in hell.