Chapter 6 - Wakely

After we cleared our plates, we brought our tray to the conveyor belt that collected used dishes. This was very different than the campus in Seoul. But it was something that I would get used to.

“Is it okay if I drive?” I asked. I didn’t know Cora that well, and honestly, letting someone else drive bothered me. I had control issues, and if I drove, then it would put me at ease.

“Of course!” She skipped next to me as we made our way to my car.

“Holy shit.” She yelled as we neared my vehicle. “You drive a G-Wagon?” She clapped her hands together when I unlocked the vehicle.

My nose crinkled. “Yeah, um…my dad got it for me because he pulled me from my other school.” I wasn’t going to tell her the real reason why he bought it for me.

When I returned home at the end of the semester, he gave me a shiner that took weeks to heal. I couldn’t leave the house until it was one hundred percent gone. He didn’t need anyone spreading rumors about me or him…even though they weren’t rumors because they were true.

I was happy that the bruise on my arm was just a faded yellow mark. I was surprised my father didn’t do a full-body inspection before I left. He was barely there. He had a tendency to disappear for a few days at a time. Even his business partner didn’t know where he was.

But before I left, there was a lovely note on the kitchen counter for me.

Don’t embarrass me.

~Your Father~

No I love you or I’ll miss you while you’re at school. Just a threat that had my hands shaking when I packed up my car and drove away. With each mile that I put between us, I could breathe a little better.

“This is so cool.” Cora pressed every button in my car. Half of them I didn’t even know what they did. It didn’t seem to affect my driving in the least.

We made it to the store and Cora wasn’t lying when she said she loved to shop. She was skipping through the store like a bat out of hell. She was throwing item after item into her cart as I grabbed a pretty light gray bed spread with a darker gray matching sheet set.

The items in my cart were practical. Something to make my room a little more comfortable. I wasn’t going overboard, I was using the black credit card that my father left me. I didn’t dare spend too much money just in case that set him off.

I looked into Cora’s cart and laughed. She had a Care Bear backpack lying on top. “Do you really think you will need this?” I held up the backpack.

“What?” Cora pouted at me. “It’s cute.” She shrugged and charged forward.

I threw a thirty-five-inch television into my cart. I usually didn’t watch too much television, but I liked having it on in the background while I worked. I got in the habit when I was studying for finals, all of the channels at my old school were in Korean so it was like my white noise.

But over the summer, I got absorbed in the Real Housewives of every single city. Totally a guilty pleasure that I was going to enjoy when I had some downtime here.

After darting around the store, following Cora, we both had our carts full. I had everything that I thought I would need to settle into my room. My bathroom was going to be done in aqua.

I loved the color. I always thought it looked so happy, it reminded me of the ocean and it calmed me. At least it calmed me as much as it could.

“Wakely, how does this look?” Cora held up a completely see-through teddy.

“I’m not the best person to ask about lingerie.” I laughed as I watched her hold it against her body.

“I think my boyfriend is going to love it.” She said as she tossed it into her cart.

“Wait, you have a boyfriend?” I couldn’t believe my ears. She was practically drooling over that Waylon guy, and the whole time she had a boyfriend.

“Oh yeah, didn’t I mention him before?”

“No, you didn’t. Tell me about him.”

“His name is Marty, we are high school sweethearts. He is going to MIT. It sucks that we are so far away, but we love each other.” She gave me a beaming smile.

I cocked an eyebrow at her. “What about the whole Waylon Walker thing?”

“I’m only human. I can look, but I can’t touch.” She winked at me as we walked to the check-out counter.

I refused to look at the total. I was already stressed about how much I was spending, but everything in my cart was needed.

I reluctantly handed my card to the cashier, they looked down at it then their eyes widened. “Oh my god.” She looked at me then back down at the credit card. “You’re Wakely Gilford.”

I sighed and nodded at her. “Yeah.”

“What are you doing here? You should be on some sort of yacht drinking champagne.” The cashier gushed. “I’m so jealous. I saw pictures of you with male models on the beach. That must have been fun.”

“Yeah, super fun.” I did my best not to sound annoyed. And I fought the urge to roll my eyes at her.

The whole situation wasn’t fun. It wasn’t fun at all. Pictures were so easy to fabricate and make everyone cheers for the photo, but then behind the scenes, the guys who were there were so full of themselves, and the girls were even worse.

I had to make an appearance because my father was trying to do work with one of their parents. Did I remember who? Hell no. But I had to be there to make my father look good.

A shudder went through my body at the memory. I prayed to the heavens that I didn’t need to worry about my father for the rest of the year.

I don’t think I could live with him looming over my shoulder for the next year. At least in Seoul, I got a break from him. It was harder to track me down, and it would take him hours to even get close to me.

But this was my life now. At least until I graduated. Then I was going to be out. I would be able to go anywhere I wanted, and I wouldn’t look back.

I would finally be free.