TOO GOOD - surviving summer (baxter radic)

prologue

I SIGHED, defeated and crushed that Margot was forcing me to decline the offer. It shouldn't have been such a shocker to me, yet here I was, my hands trembling with an anger I have never felt before. I was sending the email to the executive editor. The email telling her that I was declining the opportunity that I had fought so hard for. Just like that, all of my future opportunities with this company were flushed down the toilet. It felt like my dreams were being crushed.

All of my hard work, it meant nothing to Mom. She was letting Summer pursue her new passion while I was being forced to drop everything for her, drop the one thing I truly cared about for years. Summer finally found something she cared about and it meant more than what I cared about. She wanted to look like a good mother. After defending her my whole life, completely blinded by my love for her, my eyes finally cleared and suddenly I had no compassion for her. Only anger. Oh, and how I was angry.

I had just finished packing my bags, but my hands continued to shake, my mind consumed with words and feelings I wasn't used to hearing: worthless, failure, selfish.

Was I being selfish? Or was it that Mom didn't seem to care about how I spent my entire summer with my friend in New York last year while she was halfway across the world and she didn't care, but this summer it was all we need to spend time together, summer needs her older sister, Summer this, Summer that. What about what Penelope needed? It seemed like no one cared about that.