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Hudson and I came to an agreement that I would stay with him until Saturday. The past few days have been really good, honestly. I appreciate him letting me stay, even after that conversation about what happened before he flew down here. But, now it's Saturday. Here I am, sitting in Hudson's car. I glance over at him, watching the wind blow through his dark hair. As though he knew I was looking, he turns his head and smiles. "You can stay longer if you want."
I shake my head. "I've already overstayed my welcome. Plus, it should be safe now. If I'm lucky, he was just passing through."
"If that's not the case, I'm only a call away. I'll run all the way here if I have to."
"You don't mean that," I can't help but laugh at the image of him running across the beach, all the way to my doorstep.
He grins. "I mean it wholeheartedly. Do you want me to get your stuff?"
I shake my head again and get out. Hudson opens the trunk and I grab my bag. My next stop is the driver's side door. "I'll text you later, okay?"
"I'll be waiting," he teases.
And with that, I go inside and watch from the window as he pulls out of the driveway. The easy part is over with. During the time I spent at Hudson's house, I came to a realization. One that I should have reached a long time ago, but one that felt so unlikely at the time. I need to cut Selene off. I've been enabling her for too long, and it's time to put an end to it.
Speak of the devil and she appears. Selene comes down the stairs, stopping in front of them when she notices me. "Look what the cat dragged in. It's about time you came home."
So this is how we're doing this. Alright. "We need to talk, Selene."
"Yeah, you're right. There's a lot we need to talk about...specifically about Mick."
Suddenly, kicking her out is the least of my concerns. It's moved to the very bottom of the list. "What about him?"
"He, uh," she sighs. "He's back in town. For a while. He said that he's going to come back today so that I can go with him to see his friends. I know you're scared of him, so I wanted to warn you in advance...he seemed pretty pissed off that you weren't here...threw a vase at me and screamed until I made him leave."
Mick's cruelty has never been much of a surprise to me. I never thought his anger would extend to her. She always seemed like an angel in his eyes, which was part of her problem now. For every time I enabled her, he'd do it two times over. Even so, she's still got to go. I appreciate her warning, and I'm going to take it to heart. But her parents still have their house in town, she crashes there from time to time when she doesn't want to bring her hookups here, she can just as easily stay there until she gets back on her feet.
"While I appreciate the heads up, you need to leave. Like...soon. I'll give you time to pack, but I want you out as soon as possible. Tell Mick you're gonna meet him at your parent's house, but just don't stay here. And don't bring him back over here either."
I'm proud of my followthrough until I see her face. She stares at me for ages...until she bursts out in laughter. "Dove, you're kidding, right?"
A little voice in the back of the head is telling me to say that it's a joke, encouraging me to take it all back. But I can't. I won't. Not when I've already done the hard part. Now all I have to do is make sure she knows I'm serious.
" I mean it," I say, steadying my voice so it doesn't quake. "I want you out. Today. I don't care if you have to answer your plans, I just need you to go and not come back."
Selene shakes her head and smiles menacingly. "Oh, I get it. Little Miss Dove gets recognized by a cracked-out playboy and thinks she's the shit. You start running with a new crowd and suddenly, you're too good for me, you conniving bitch. As if you didn't beg me to stay in your shitty house to protect you from Mick."
Scratch what I said earlier about the hard part being done. This is going to be the most challenging part of all of this. One of her favorite manipulation methods is to degrade the person until they do what she wants. Well, I refuse to give her that satisfaction. Not today. I've come too far to let her rip it all out from under me now.
"Yeah, I did beg you to move in with me. Now I'm begging you to go upstairs and pack your shit. I was trying to do this nicely, but if I need to go get an eviction notice, I'm not above doing that."
She walks over to me until she's in my face. "Make me."
"I'm not going to do anything to you. Like I said, you need to leave. I have no issue getting the cops involved if you're going to act like a dolt about the whole situation. You have other housing options, you only want to stay here cause it's your only access to Hudson where you can freely throw your ass in his face," I scoff.
"You need me, Dove."
"I don't. Not anymore. I'm perfectly safe within my own home."
"For now."
I raise an eyebrow. "Is that a threat?"
She rolls her eyes. "Simply an observation."
"Whatever. I don't care what you do or how long you take, as long as you get out," I push past her but she reaches out and grabs me by the wrist, digging her nails into my arm.
"Let me make sure I've got this straight," she glares at me. "Just cause you're getting dicked down by Hudson Whittaker you think you're gonna make it out of fuckin' South Carolina? Bitch, you're always gonna be stuck here, no matter if you're in the backwoods or the big city. You're still gonna be stuck in that goddamn Walmart parking lot, getting sliced to shit by my brother."
There it is. The last fucking straw. I can take a lot, but I refuse to have her use my trauma against me, and for what? So she can continue to torment me and try to sleep with Hudson on the side? No. That's not what's going to happen. I may have let it go on like this before, but it ends right here, right now. It's so unbelievably frustrating knowing someone like her. But I don't want to know her, not anymore. I don't even want to think about her after today.
"Get. The fuck. Out of my goddamn house, Selene."
"This is unbelievable," she mutters, letting go of my wrist.
I shrug. "You've only got yourself to blame."
This entire situation is pure bullshit. Selene is full of shit, and so is her psychotic brother, Mick. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm at my wit's end. I've had it. She's had every opportunity afforded to her to get her shit together, but she's thrown it away every single time. All of this started because she had some diluted fantasy that she'd meet Hudson, he'd fall for her, they'd get married and run off into the sunset together. Her stupid daydream of being a Hollywood wife ruined a friendship that was already on the verge of crumbling. I thought she would change, but she's never going to. It's an unrealistic dream because I couldn't stand the idea of letting go of the only friend I had left. But now, I have people who I know care about me and want to raise me up instead of tear me down. I'd take that any day over what she's put me through.
Up until now, I never realized how similar she and Mick are. Not even how similar they look. Sand colored hair and the same intensity burning in the depths of their eyes. They're basically the same person, just a few slight differences. But not by much.
Just as I turn to leave, the doorbell rings. Selene never did say how long it would be until Mick got here. And something tells me...he's just arrived.
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