Page 15 of Fueled Fury

9

Lainey

“Lainey Jean.” My mom lets out a dramatic gasp as my bedroom door swings open. She’s using my middle name (which is also her first name and still didn’t help me become more like her) so her panties are definitely in a twist.

“Yes, Mom?”

“Did you really do that to your brother?”

“He’s not my brother.” Thank God.

“He is to your brother. You can seriously injure a man by doing that to his … area.”

“Man? That’s using the term loosely.” Boy, man-child, jackass—all words that come to mind with Matt. But man isn’t a word that does.

“What is going on with you? You come home for the weekend out of nowhere and assault your brother.”

“He asked for it.” I give up trying to argue that he’s not my brother. There was a short period of time when I was happy David had kids, thinking I’d have some siblings, but when the twins showed up, I realized there was no return policy for rotten, wretched siblings inherited by marriage.

“Lainey, I expect you to act like a lady. I thought we were past this behavior.”

We’ll never be past it. Even yanking a knot in Madison’s perfect hair on July fourth didn’t stop their antics. Actually, it did for a while, then they retaliated in full force, hence my avoidance of this house during the holidays. “I would be past it if the Terror Twins would fuck off and leave me alone.”

Mom lets out another dramatic gasp, hand clutching her pearl necklace and all. “Young lady, do not use that offensive language. I don’t care how old you are, I will wash your mouth out with soap.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. “Mom, you do realize that offensive words aren’t the worst things that can come out of a person’s mouth, right?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Vindictive, petty words that are only meant to inflict pain, hurt someone, cause damage—those are far worse than the word fuck in my book.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about or what has gotten into you, but it needs to stop,” Mom commands as she spins on her heel to leave my room.

“Must.”

“What?”

“‘It must stop’ is the more formal, ladylike way to say it.”

Pure rage crosses my mom’s face when she realizes I’m correcting her speech like she does to me all the time. Although, I have a feeling the fact that I mentioned her cattiness towards my dad has her more out of sorts than anything else (including the offensive word) I could’ve slung around a few more times.

“I’ll count on an extensive apology for Matt in the morning. He couldn’t even drive home because he was in so much pain.”

Good. “Keep counting on it.”

“And you will apologize to David. It’s bad enough you’d assault our son, but then you send that boy in to finish the job.”

“What?” I ask, knowing she’s talking about Austin. I should’ve known he wouldn’t just leave it be, but I don’t feel bad. Matt deserved whatever he got.

“Lainey, don’t pretend like you didn’t invite that menace here. You know Eli always has an open invitation to join us, but not Austin. He isn’t welcome here after all the trouble he’s caused.”

“I didn’t invite him.” That’s the only thought I manage to mumble out.

“Don’t lie to me.” She huffs, placing her hand on her hip. “I just don’t know what to say to get through to you.”

Rising from my bed, I walk over to stand in front of my mom. I don’t want to do this, but I can’t bite my tongue any longer. “Tell me I’m your daughter and you understand that Matt got exactly what he deserved. Tell me that you’ll side with me for once instead of precious Matt or perky Madison. I know they appear to be perfect on the surface, and I know you wish I were the perfect daughter too.”

“That is not true.”