93. Promise For Sure

[LIZZY]

“This is awkward,” Laura mumbles under her breath, but maybe not so quietly to herself because I end up hearing every single word of it.

“You don’t say,” I shrug, and I watch as the corner of her mouth twitches.

She looks away and sighs, as if what we’re doing seems to be physically affecting her. I can’t really blame her, can I? When Xavier and Hazel showed up this morning, wanting Joey and me to come with them so they could see off this woman who pretended to have our best interests for five long years, I didn’t have many noble thoughts about it. Definitely not kind enough to think she deserved a heartfelt goodbye.

But that would be the mean and hurtful side of me talking. Because if it weren’t for her, Joey would still be wandering around, scratching his head and trying to figure out how Vector suddenly turned out to be his father—the man he couldn’t share me with at all, the man he wanted to punish for making me cry alone.

“I didn’t mean any of the things I said to you, if