In a Mirror by Emily Bourne

Author:Emily Bourne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: teen romance books, contemporary romance, coming of age books, teen drama books, young adult books about being a teen, teen romance beach read, high school romance books, bad boy romance, high school bully romance, friends to lovers romance, second chance romance
Publisher: Halo & Claws Publishing
Published: 2021-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

That night Sophia drives Brittany and me to Dad’s apartment. It’s the first time we’re seeing him since the blowout at Tara’s. We stop at the locked glass doors and I take a deep breath in.

“Hey Brit, did you take some pictures with my camera?”

“Ohmigawd. Like it matters.”

“What? So, you did?”

“Does it matter? I just pointed and clicked. Is it really a big deal?”

I grit my teeth. “Just pointed and clicked?”

“Geez, Charli. Would you get over yourself? Sorry I touched your precious camera. I was bored, ok.”

Brittany punches the buzzer and I want to punch it just as hard. She makes it sound so easy. Point and click? My insides boil.

Tara’s voice sings through the intercom. “Hi hello.”

I grimace. “What? She’s here?”

Brittany stares at me, wide-eyed, hand still on the buzzer.

“I don’t care. I don’t care that she heard me.”

“Um,” Tara’s voice grows sheepish, “come on up, girls.”

Upstairs Dad greets us with hugs and thankfully, Tara backs off.

“We need to talk about what happened at Tara’s,” Dad says.

I eye Tara behind him and frown. “Dad, I thought we were only seeing you tonight.”

Dad tenses and his heads pivots between Brittany and me. “You two need to apologise to Tara.”

“What?” Brittany and I shriek.

“Robbie, no,” Tara says as she walks up to us. “They don’t need to apologise. They are going through a big adjustment.”

“That behaviour wasn’t called for.”

“You knew they were having difficulty handling things, or you wouldn’t have taken them home.”

My forehead scrunches as Tara goes into bat for us. She knows this is hard for us? That their relationship is wrong? My lips beg to smile. Maybe this is the big moment where she ends the relationship.

Tara takes Dad’s hand and says, “C’mon, let’s take a seat and discuss this.”

I’m not discounting it yet.

“Shae explained what happened with you two,” Tara says as we all sit at the dining table. “I’m sorry that made for such an awkward encounter.”

“That’s one word for it,” I reply.

“Shae said she was developing a good friendship with you,” Tara says. “She’s upset about losing it.”

Pain springs between my shoulder blades. “I don’t know if it’s lost.”

“She really wants to talk to you again.” Tara turns to Brittany and smiles. “You too, Brittany. You two barely got to introduce yourselves.”

Brittany replies with stony silence.

Tara clears her throat and adds, “We all want to get to know each other better.”

“Girls,” Dad presses. “Any feelings you want to get off your chest?”

Brittany whips out her phone and begins scrolling.

“Brittany,” Dad mutters. “Put the phone down.”

Brittany tosses the phone on the table. “Fine, whatever.”

“We don’t mean to make you mad,” Tara says.

Brittany shrugs. “I’m not mad.”

“We want to try everyone meeting again,” Dad says. “It doesn’t have to be at Tara’s. We can go to a restaurant.”

I’m on the verge of imploding. Every fibre of my being rages inside and to avoid detonation I spit out, “No. I don’t want to go.”

Dad’s chair screeches as he pushes it back and stands. “Charli, come with me.”

His disappointment is unmistakable.

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