Juliet Immortal

up. “And you might too. Do you get that? Do you understand how serious this is? You might not graduate.”
    “I’ll graduate.” It’s only three months until graduation, and Ariel’s grades—with the exception of public speaking—are excellent. There’s no way she’ll be kicked out of school because of
one
mistake,
one
in four years of being a perfect, invisible, low-maintenance student.
    “Ariel, don’t you dare act like you haven’t messed up bigtime,” Melanie snaps. “We’ve got a meeting with the principal
and
the superintendent tomorrow morning to talk about what happened, and it doesn’t look good for you. Fighting on school grounds is a big deal. You’re
absolutely
going to get suspended. You might even get expelled.”
    “What? But I wasn’t fighting. I was just—”
    “Don’t act surprised. You’re not that stupid.” Melanie jerks the wheel to the right and the car sloshes down El Camino, where standing water covers everything but the middle of the road. “What did you think would happen when you and your boyfriend attacked Dylan and then ditched school right in front of—”
    “We didn’t attack anyone,” I say, not wasting time debating whether Ben is my boyfriend. It seems Romeo’s revenge has already begun. He certainly didn’t waste any time. “Dylan attacked me. Ben saw him and—”
    “That’s not what I was told. The principal said—”
    “The principal wasn’t there.” I shift to face her as she pulls into the carport. “And all she knows is whatever Dylan told her. Which isn’t the truth. He’s a liar, and—”
    “He’s not the one who ran off into the woods, Ariel.”
    “So what?” I ask, struggling to keep my volume down. “I was upset. Haven’t you ever been upset?”
    “Sure I have,” she says, shutting off the car with an angry twist of her wrist. “I’m upset right now, but I’m not running away from my responsibilities.”
    “Well, maybe you should have,” I snap back. “If your responsibilities are so awful.”
    “Don’t you dare try to turn this around on me.” She reaches back to grab her purse from behind my seat, jerking it into her lap the way she used to jerk Ariel from the playground. Angrily. Resentfully. “You’re the one who messed up, and—”
    “And you’re the one who messed up when you got pregnant when you were nineteen.” They aren’t words Ariel would use out loud, but I don’t try to stop them from coming. I don’t know how much longer I have in this body, and it’s time someone told the truth that’s been festering unspoken between them for far too long.
    “No, it wasn’t easy having you by myself,” she says. “I had no one to help me.
No one
. I had barely started my life and—”
    “And then I messed it up.” The accusation in Melanie’s tone makes mine harsh, cutting. It’s impossible to sit here and listen to this woman ask me to feel pity for her. I had enough of that from my own mother, enough of the guilt and the feeling that my very birth was something I should apologize for.
    “Ariel, please, I never—”
    “And then I messed it up again when I got in your way in the kitchen.” A part of me knows I’m taking this too far, but I can’t help myself. “And you’ve never let me forget it.”
    Melanie pales, her lips going white beneath the flecks oflipstick still clinging to her mouth. “How … I …” She swallows. “That’s not fair.”
    “You know what’s not fair?” I ask, my voice a liquid whisper. “It’s not fair that you tell me I’m too ugly to go outside without makeup. It’s not fair that you act like no one will hire me because of my face.”
    She clutches her purse tight to her stomach. “I never said that. That’s not what—”
    “It’s not fair that you think I’ll never have a boyfriend because I’m so hideous.” I push on, ignoring the tears streaming down my cheeks. I don’t know who I’m crying for—myself, Ariel, or all the mothers and daughters who can’t find a way to love each other. All I know is that this feels more important than just another borrowed moment in someone else’s skin. “But I’m not hideous, Mom. You’re the only one who sees me that way.”
    “I do not, I—”
    “Some people think I look just fine. Some people even think I’m pretty.”
    People like Ben. Ben, who wiped the blood from Ariel’s face without hesitation. Ben, who kissed her thin lips as if they were magical, sacred. Ben, who might very