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Chapter 4

Author: Lucky Bloom
"What did you just say?" Evan stared at me, stunned.

I had no interest in arguing anymore, so I got up and went to my room.

I started packing, and I'd just gotten my suitcase closed when Cameron walked in without knocking.

"Evan says the two of you got into it over Tessa."

"We did." I looked up at him.

He scoffed. "You applied to the same school as Tessa because you wanted to stick to them.

"And now you're saying all this just to make her feel awful."

I stared at him, not following.

Then he said, "Tessa heard about your fight. She's been crying at the hospital.

"To smooth things over, Mom and Dad decided the whole family's taking a trip to the Pineglass Highlands as soon as she's discharged."

My mind went blank.

The Pineglass Highlands. Wasn't that where I was supposed to die?

I'd already dropped the whole thing about my acceptance letter. Why were they still dragging me on this trip?

My hands started shaking, and my voice came out unsteady.

"I'm not going.

"That area gets a lot of rain. There'll be mudslides."

My parents walked in just in time to hear it.

Mom glared at me. "Willa, what on earth is wrong with you?

"You've been off since yesterday, and now you're talking nonsense. Are you trying to pick a fight with us?"

"It isn't nonsense."

I looked at her and finally asked the question I'd been holding in.

"If there really were a mudslide, and Tessa and I were both in danger, which one of us would you save first?"

Mom answered without thinking. "Tessa, obviously."

The second it was out, she froze. Guilt flickered in her eyes, and then she doubled down.

"Tessa's health is poor. What's wrong with saving her first?

"And the weather's fine. What's the point of inventing questions like that except to start something?"

By the end she had a hand pressed to her chest, furious.

Cameron stepped in to steady her and jabbed a finger at me.

"Willa, you get into college and suddenly you're too big to listen to anybody?

"You're inventing excuses because you want to make life difficult for us.

"Let me be clear. Tessa wants this trip to patch things up with you, so you're going whether you like it or not."

Dad sighed too. "Willa, why are you being so difficult lately?

"You and Tessa are going to be living together for the next four years. Do you really want it to be like this?"

I stood there and felt myself go cold all the way through.

Even in a hypothetical, they picked Tessa outright. They wouldn't even bother lying to spare me.

The tears came and wouldn't stop.

Cameron looked disgusted. "You're the one who caused this. Don't try to cry your way out of it."

Then he walked Mom out.

Dad glanced at me once and followed.

From the living room I heard Cameron griping.

"There's something wrong with her head. If we were actually in danger, does she think we'd just leave her?"

But the truth was that the second Tessa was involved, they'd leave me behind without a second thought.

And why should I hand over my life just to keep Tessa in a good mood?

For the next several days I mostly stayed in my room.

They were all at the hospital with her and couldn't be bothered with me.

I cleared out everything in that house that was mine.

The night Tessa was discharged, Evan stopped by long enough to say one thing.

"Pack your stuff. We leave for the Pineglass Highlands tomorrow morning."

Then he was gone.

He never saw the ticket on my phone, the first train to Northgate the next morning.

Before sunrise, I left the promissory note and the no-contact declaration under the lamp on my desk.

Fifteen thousand dollars.

Everything they'd spent on me in three years, allowance included.

I took my suitcase, called a car to the station, scanned my ticket, and got on the train.

The moment it started moving, the weight I'd been carrying finally set down.

No trip to cheer Tessa up. No dying out there.

Right then, a message came in from Cameron.

[Where are you? Mom and Dad are waiting.]

[Use this trip to make up with Tessa. Then you'll have someone looking out for you in the dorm.]

I typed back: [Not going. I'm going to Aldercrest.]

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  • Done Waiting to Be Seen   Chapter 10

    I never noticed when the two of them left.After that day, neither Evan nor anyone in the Carver family came looking for me again.After my bachelor's, I was accepted into Aldercrest's fully funded graduate research track.Seven years went by, and I became Dr. Fenwick's most accomplished student.I traveled with her regularly, city to city, for research partnerships and academic exchanges.I ran into Evan and Tessa again on a trip back to Maplehurst for a project.Once the meetings were done, I wandered over to my old high school and found the two of them arguing on the sidewalk."He's still a baby. Can't you pay attention to him for five minutes?"Why are you on your phone the whole time?"It was Evan going at Tessa. They'd clearly gotten married.I didn't want to run into them and had already turned to go when someone called out."Willa?"I had to hand it to Evan. Mid-argument and he still spotted me.I turned around and answered flatly. "It's been a while."Seven years

  • Done Waiting to Be Seen   Chapter 9

    I got one week of quiet.The next weekend, Cameron and Evan turned up.Seeing them made me want to roll my eyes.At least Cameron hadn't come to apologize.He came at me furious the second he saw me."Willa, you really do think you're above all of us now."Mom and Dad came all this way, and you upset them badly enough to make them sick."You're coming home with me. Right now."He grabbed my wrist hard enough that I thought the bones might give.I wrenched free and slapped him across the face.He clapped a hand to his cheek and stared at me."I'm your brother! Have you lost your mind? You actually hit me?"I shook out my wrist. "You're exactly who I meant to hit."I cut ties with all of you and I paid back every dollar. What gives you the right to keep coming after me?"Cameron was shaking with anger."You think fifteen thousand dollars buys you out of a family? You're a Carver."I looked at him coldly, my voice low and every word clear."I didn't want fifteen thousand

  • Done Waiting to Be Seen   Chapter 8

    My parents were waiting for me at a coffee shop.Just the two of them, sitting side by side, glancing toward the entrance every few seconds.Watching for me, apparently.A few months, and they looked ten years older.Mom had always been meticulous about her appearance, and now there were lines at the corners of her eyes.A lot of Dad's hair had gone gray.They both stood when I came through the door.Mom's eyes went red. She hurried over and grabbed my hands."Willa, you finally came."I've missed you so much."Her voice cracked, and the tears kept coming.I pulled my hands free. "Let's just sit down."She blinked, then produced a stiff smile."Right. Right. Let's sit."We'd barely settled before she started crying again."Willa, your father and I know we were wrong. Please don't cut us out of your life."We've done a lot of thinking these last few months."We were greedy as parents. Tessa isn't ours by blood, but we raised her from a baby, and we wanted to keep her cl

  • Done Waiting to Be Seen   Chapter 7

    Willa's POVOnce Aldercrest's first-year orientation wrapped up, I didn't go home for fall break either.My parents, Cameron, and Evan all tried to see me.I turned every one of them down and blamed my orientation schedule.When they couldn't reach me, they started transferring money into my account.I sent all of it back.Once I'd decided to draw a line, I wasn't going to keep taking their money.By the same logic, I meant to pay back the fifteen thousand I owed them as fast as I could.So I got a part-time job.Back at the house, Cameron and Evan used to practice conversational English with Tessa to bring her grades up.I picked up a lot just listening.My spoken English was strong enough to get me hired at a publicly traded tutoring company.Whenever I didn't have class, I taught English to the handful of elementary schoolers assigned to me.I'd only just saved up fifteen hundred dollars when my faculty adviser found out about the job.Once she understood my situation,

  • Done Waiting to Be Seen   Chapter 6

    Third-Person POVNeither of them had imagined that the biological daughter they'd never paid attention to could do something like this.She'd gotten into Aldercrest.Mom's hands wouldn't stop shaking."She scored that high. Why wouldn't she tell us?"Why would she hide it?"Cameron said nothing.Tessa had gone quiet the moment she learned Aldercrest had taken Willa and that Willa was already gone.Evan's voice came out hoarse."Because not one of us cared enough to ask."Mom opened her mouth, but her throat had closed up, and nothing came out.Then she remembered.Once the acceptance letters started arriving, every one of them had orbited Tessa.The moment Maplehurst State took Tessa, close to home, they'd happily booked a celebration dinner.Not a single person asked where Willa had applied.They'd all assumed she'd end up somewhere near Tessa and told her to put Maplehurst State down too.The same program, too, so she'd be positioned to look after Tessa.Every one of

  • Done Waiting to Be Seen   Chapter 5

    The moment I sent it, I blocked him.Then I blocked everyone else in the family.Cameron stood in the living room staring at his phone, disbelief all over his face."Aldercrest?"Willa's grades were never as good as Tessa's. There's no way Aldercrest took her."Mom was hauling luggage toward the door. His words stopped her mid-step.Then, impatient, "Just call her and tell her to get home. She's been gone since dawn."Cameron dialed Willa's number.All he got was a recording telling him the call couldn't go through.He didn't believe it and sent a message instead. Only a gray check mark was there.He stood there a long moment before it finally sank in that something was wrong.He pushed open Willa's bedroom door again.Only then did he notice how bare the room was.He stepped inside and looked around.His eyes landed on two sheets of paper pinned under the desk lamp.He walked over, picked them up, read them, and stopped breathing."Mom! Dad!"He made it back to the li

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