Clap Back by Lani Lynn Vale

Author:Lani Lynn Vale [Vale, Lani Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Just because I choose not to drink doesn’t make me no fun. Being no fun is a separate choice, which I’ve also made.

—Maven to Auden

MAVEN

My mind was spinning.

My heart was aching.

And again, I was terrified out of my mind.

“What the absolute hell am I going to do?” I muttered, what I thought was to myself.

“You’re going to get in the car and drive home with Auden,” Ellodie answered.

I looked up to find her still quietly standing inside my room.

I’d finally gained enough courage to let Auden’s hand go and let him go out of the room to talk to a few officers who’d been at the scene of the accident.

They hadn’t gone far.

In fact, they were outside the little curtained off area talking, and Auden’s back could be seen from the crack between the curtain and the wall.

He kept glancing over his shoulder, making sure that I was still okay.

It was on the third look over his shoulder that I decided to stop being scared.

Auden wouldn’t let my dad anywhere near me without being there to make sure that nothing happened.

“I didn’t mean to say that out loud,” I admitted.

She smiled sadly at me, then said, “Want to tell me anything about your dad?”

“What do you want to know?” Athena asked as she barged into the room. “Do you want to know how he controlled every aspect of her life until she moved out? Do you want to know about the guilt trips that forced her to stay a whole lot longer than she ever wanted to? Do you want to know about how every time she found someone who meant something to her, he would run that person off? How about when she was twelve, and she started her period, he slut shamed her for doing something that every girl in the world did? There are hundreds of little instances she’s told me about. And then there are the things that I’ve witnessed with my own eyes. You know, if he wasn’t who he is, Maven could’ve gotten a restraining order on him a long time ago. In all honestly, she should’ve left the damn state and went to hide, but again, her father knows everyone. There’s no way he would let her leave without following her and bringing her back. His leash on her only extends so far.”

I dropped my head to my chest, the glued laceration on my face smarting with the move.

They’d numbed it but told me the numbness would only last about thirty minutes or so.

Here I was fifteen minutes in, and I’d yet to be discharged.

I had a feeling my staying in place had more to do with the fact I could still hear my dad raising hell in the hallways and not because it was necessary for me to stay.

“Auden won’t let him in,” Ellodie whispered.

I looked at her.

Her eyes were filled with worry. However, I could also see a promise there, like she’d been in my boat once, and knew firsthand that Auden would fix everything.

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