Solace In The Silence ✓✓

chapter 14

"I'M SURPRISED YOUR parents haven't placed you under house arrest yet," Angie joked. She was applying a thin layer of lip-gloss in front of my bedroom mirror while I recounted the conversation I'd had with them to her. "Although I have to admit, I think it would be perfectly understandable."
Confiding in my parents about everything that happened with Joe —the attack, reporting it to the police, and then him showing up at my dorm a week later—had been almost therapeutic.

Despite their anticipated reactions—a lot of wild, frantic hand gestures from my mom, Dad loudly threatening to "hunt that son of a bitch down"—relief had still swamped me. I knew that being honest with them had been the right thing to do. The only way I could face it was head-on, and I wanted them to support my decision.

It wasn't until they'd insisted I defer from UFA and move back to Hall's Hill that I'd nearly regretted trying to mend bridges with them.

My parents had been hoping I'd change for years, trusting that I'd come around eventually and stop shutting them out. Yet, only hours after I'd shown up yesterday, they'd showcased the reason I'd had to.

I understood that any loving parents first instinct was to protect their child. But preventing them from going to school and ruining their social life? That seemed a bit excessive. Then again, I would've been worried if their reactions had been anything short of protective. My parents were good people. Better yet, they were good parents.

"I think I spent over an hour just convincing them to let me stay at UFA ." I laughed in spite of everything. "The only way I got them to agree was if I moved back here again. I'm going to take my classes online next semester."

Angie wheeled around, done pouting in the mirror, and slanted me a sympathetic look. "That's not much of a choice, is it?"
Shifting on my double bed, I crossed my legs at the ankles. "Nope," I deadpanned. "But there's no way I'm postponing my studies, it's my only ticket out of this one-horse town."

"Not true. You always have two options," she said, giving me a wink in the reflection of the mirror. She pulled her blonde hair into a loose ponytail before pinning her bangs off her face. "I mean, I'm still patiently waiting for some hot, rich bachelor to whisk me away on his boat."

Even though I'd been in love with Jake for years—crushing on him for as long as I could remember—Angie had always been the boy crazy one out of the two of us. That worked in our favor, though, because I barely got a second glance when she was standing next to me. Like her brother, Angie was beautiful, and in that unfair, 'why weren't my genes more blessed?' kind of way.

"Good luck with that." I snorted. "Maybe you can ask him if he happens to have a well-to-do twin brother."
She plonked down on the bed beside me and nudged me with her elbow. "See, that's the spirit! You've gotta keep looking at the glass as half-full, not half-empty. This whole situation isn't so bad. It could be worse."

"How? Besides having to commute to UFA most days, I've gone from tasting pure-sweet freedom to haggling for my curfew to be pushed back an extra hour," I groaned, lying back to stare up at the ceiling. Sadness seized my heart when I detected the faint outlines of the glow-in-the-dark star stickers Elvis and I had been a little heavy-handed with in the fifth grade.

My voice was barely a whisper when I said, "This is exactly why I wanted to leave in the first place."
"Would you rather I say that you're right? How much this does suck donkey balls?" Angie demanded.

When I gave her my best withering look, a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "That's what I thought. Look, Bess, just remember, this is only temporary. I'm sure there'll be an update on the investigation soon. Better yet, that little freak will be questioned and held accountable."