Chapter One // The Morning Before
[FONT='Garamond','serif']The Morning Before, Schuyler stood in her living room with her best friend, Todd Martin. Her hands pressed against her deep, troubled blue eyes, she didn’t want to believe her mother had just walked out. Again.
“It’s okay,” Todd told her, though he didn’t sound convinced. Janet Fanning had walked out twice that week already, the first time after Harold Star had burned her wedding dress (which had belonged to Janet’s grandmother and mother, and in which they had both been married in as well) simply because she’d married her first husband in it. The man she loved more than Harold. The second time she’d walked out was when she found his wedding ring in the toilet.
“Come on,” Todd whispered to Schuyler, pulling her hands away from her eyes. Her eyes weren’t wet, but glowed with a fury. “Come on, sweetie, it’s fine. She’ll be back. She will, I promise. I promise and you don’t have to worry, Schuyly.”
Schuyler stared at him, her eyes dead. “No.” Her voice was hollow. Todd held her hands tightly as she shook her head. “No, Todd. She won’t be back. Do you know why? She always does come back.” Todd didn’t understand, and Schuyler knew it. “She’s not coming back, Todd, because she’s tired of it. I know it. I know my mother. If I were her, I wouldn’t have come back the first time. All those years ago, when I was really little, you know? But she always did, because I was here. But now she knows, I have you. I can always go with you, to your place. Dad won’t get me there. She’s not coming back.”
Schuyler sat down slowly on the couch. Todd, sitting with her, said, “She was right. You ever need a place, you have me, you know that.” He kissed her hand, smiling sadly at her. “You know you have me, always and forever.”
Schuyler smiled and threw her arms around Todd. “You are the most amazing person, the best, and absolute best friend anyone could ever ask for.”
Todd laughed in to her blond hair. “I know.” Schuyler pulled away.[/FONT]
[FONT='Garamond','serif']“Oh my, aren’t we arrogant today?” She smiled, laying her head on his chest.
“Just a bit.”
Schuyler sighed and closed her eyes. Her thoughts flashed…
Harold was storming through the house, his plump face purpling. He threw the door to her office open angrily and pulled the closet door open. There it was, white and gorgeous, with sparkling diamonds. Schuyler screamed, and her mother scrabbled at the dress, trying to get it out of his hands, her eyes flaming. She screamed, “No, noooo please, don’t!” Schuyler’s heart raced. No. Not her mother’s wedding dress, not her mother’s wedding dress…Harold pushed past them and back into the front hall, and three sets of feet clacking on the marble flooring. The fire was raging in the fireplace, and Janet’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. She screamed louder than ever, a shriek so horrible Schuyler felt as if she’d been deafened. Then the dress was…burning. Schuyler screamed and felt her mother falling onto the floor, her fingers singed by the flames as she tried to get her dress. Harold pulled her away and his eyes glowed manically. Schuyler pulled her phone out, hardly noticing what she was doing as she instinctively speed-dialed Todd and he picked up, heard the screams, and it seemed next moment he was holding her as she tried to get at Harold, to get the dress, to save it, to save her mother, to save everything…
Schuyler whimpered and clung to Todd’s chest.
“Schuyler, no, no, don’t think about it all,” he murmured. “Don’t do it, Schuyler. He’s a git, she’s gone to somewhere safe, and you’re coming with me. It’s fine, everything’s going to be alright. I promise.” But Schuyler herself wasn’t so sure.
“No,” she whispered, suddenly terrified. “No, Todd, no, she’s going to come back. She is. I know it, I can…I can feel it, she’s coming back. She’s coming back and he’s going to hurt her again. I know it. Oh, Todd,” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears, “why can’t I do anything? Anything, at all?”
“You’ve done your part, Schuyler,” he told her. “You’ve done your bit to save her, and there’s nothing you can do now. I know she won’t come back, she’ll be fine –” But his words were cut off by a horrible, bull-like bellow.
“What is this?” Harold’s voice echoed through the almost-empty mansion horribly. The two teens jumped to their feet, knowing her father was going to at least throw some nasty words their way. “What is this? Schutney, I told you explicitly – you are not to have boys in this house!”
“Well, sorry, Dad,” Schuyler snarled, “that just proves my point that you are, in fact, the biggest, filthiest hypocrite the world hath ever seen.”
Harold’s nostrils flared. “You…” he could hardly seem to speak. Then he turned to Todd. “You, get out of my house, boy!”
Defiantly, Todd shook his head, his hand on the small of Schuyler’s back. “No.” Schuyler thought Harold’s head was going to explode.
“What,” he whispered furiously, his voice quavering with anger, “did you just say to me?”
Todd smirked. “I just said ‘no’. N-O. No. I will not get out of your house and leave Schuyler alone here, with a jerk like you.”
Harold looked horribly furious. “You little…!” He stepped toward Schuyler, his hands outstretched toward her. “What have I told you about bringing home insolent boys with no common sense?”
“Well, considering you’ve told me not to bring home any boys at all,” Schuyler said, shrugging, “I suppose…”
Harold threw his hands up in the air angrily and stormed away.[/FONT]
Lets have so more!
