Total pages in book: 185
Estimated words: 191421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 957(@200wpm)___ 766(@250wpm)___ 638(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 191421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 957(@200wpm)___ 766(@250wpm)___ 638(@300wpm)
“We don’t want to talk about it,” my mom says while Dad sits there huffing and puffing. “We don’t want to hear about it. You’ve hurt us, Echo. You turned our lives upside down. After everything that we’ve done for you, after everything that your father and I gave you, this is how you repaid us. You repaid us by blowing everything to pieces. By being reckless and stupid and selfish. We could’ve lost our jobs, our livelihoods. You realize that, don’t you? You could’ve cost us everything that we’d ever worked for. Especially when you know your dad’s condition. We trusted you. We depended on you and you stabbed us in the back. Not to mention, you wrecked your own future. You not only lost a good and loving boyfriend, but also all your dreams about going to NYU.”
She is right.
I did that.
I changed everyone’s lives, not just my own. I did stab them in the back. I betrayed them when they trusted me to be good. For the first time ever, my parents had good jobs. They didn’t have to break their backs to provide for me and I threatened all that with my stupid, reckless actions.
“So we don’t want to hear anything from your mouth,” my mom continues, “except one thing and one thing only. We want you to promise us that you will stay away from him, from that boy. You will have no contact with him whatsoever. No contact, Echo.
“You know how he is, don’t you? You know how much of a troublemaker he is. He’s always been a constant source of shame for the Davidson family, a constant source of disappointment. He didn’t even show up for his father’s funeral, Echo. His own father. Mr. Davidson didn’t deserve that. He didn’t deserve to be disrespected like that. He was a good man. And you know this better than anyone, don’t you? He could’ve pressed charges back then but he didn’t. He let you go. He still kept us on. We owe him, Echo. We owe him a lot. Promise us that you will be good. That you won’t jeopardize everything that we’ve worked for, not again.”
My eyes are brimming with tears but I don’t let them fall.
This time I control them. I make them stay put.
I’m not going to act like a victim and cry for this. I don’t deserve to cry for this.
Especially when I’ve already broken the promise that they want me to make.
When I’ve already had contact with him.
And I’m not going to stop.
I can’t.
I have to make it right. I have to fix things.
Not only with Lucas but also with my parents.
Don’t I?
I can’t get into NYU or change the fact that I haven’t graduated yet. But if I get back together with him, maybe my parents will finally forgive me. If I make everything like it used to be, then they will see that I’m still their good daughter and that they can depend on me.
So yeah, I’m going to fix things.
And he’s helping me.
The guy they want me to stay away from. The guy they think seduced me.
He didn’t.
He absolutely did not.
And maybe, just maybe, I can use this opportunity to finally convince them of that. To prove it to them. To make them see that not only did he not seduce me but he’s not the evil, inhuman asshole that they think he is. That even I thought he was.
I know lying is bad but I only do it so I can show them that I’m good.
“I promise.”
I want to do it.
I’ve been wanting to do it for the past two days.
Ever since he gave me this phone.
I’ve been toying with this idea of texting him but I’ve been stopping myself.
For many, many reasons.
The biggest one being the disaster from last time when we had any contact over the phone. Although I know I’m being irrational here. The circumstances are totally different. Before, we were enemies, staunch and forever. Now, not so much.
Now we’re working together and we’ve turned over a new leaf.
Now he makes me feel safe.
Which brings me to the second reason: this phone is only for emergencies.
A work phone, if you will.
And we’re not working right now. The other night, while coming back to campus, Reign told me the next opportunity to see Lucas would be sometime next week, which let me just point out that I’m so relieved about; after two very disastrous encounters with my ex-boyfriend, I need a break. I need to just stay away from him for a little while. So there’s not even a need to switch the phone on.
However.
There’s this big thing.
That my work phone has… reading apps.
Yup.
It has an app for ebooks, something that I love to pieces. Pieces.
I’m actually a fan of both, paperbacks and ebooks, and so I read on both. Which means I read two books at any given time.