Page 87 of The Lucky One
“Can I come with you?”
“You can come anywhere with me.” Jon stroked my cheek. “Except for hell, because you’re going to heaven.” He laughed and leaned down to pick a little white daisy from the side of the path.
“You know I don’t believe in that.”
“Then what do you believe in?” He tucked the daisy behind my ear, and I shivered as his knuckles caressed my cheek.
“That in the after, we’re with whoever we want to be, forever.”
“Forever is a long time,” he said, pressing me against his chest.
“Not when you’ve found the one person that makes you the luckiest.”
Jon’s eyes shone, and he leaned down to give me the most tender kiss I had ever received. It was longing, soft yet passionate, and my heart overflowed with love for this boy.
Opened Envelope
Kiki
I had finished wiping off the last traces of my cherry-red lipstick when a sudden scream echoed from downstairs. I hurried down the steps, dressed in my old pajamas, which I used to adore for their cell biology pattern—nucleus, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus...
“Mom, is everything okay?” I asked as I turned the corner into the kitchen.
“Katherine,” she gushed. An open envelope was in her hands, the distinguished Yale seal on it.
“I found it!” My dad emerged from the basement, cradling an old, dusty bottle.
My heart crashed dangerously hard against my sternum. “Why is Dad bringing out my college acceptance champagne?”
With a proud smile, Mom handed me the envelope. “You remember my friend who works at Yale, right? She sent you this. Your official letter is coming in a few days!”
I looked. The torn-open envelope was addressed to me, not her. “You opened my mail?”
Mom waved it off as if it were a trivial matter. “Sorry, hon, I thought you were sleeping. C’mon, read it!”
I was already furious with her for bribing Jon to stay away from me. It was her doing, not Dad’s, I knew. I’d decided against bringing it up so I could finally close that chapter of my life. But now my body betrayed me. I crushed my fist around the envelope. “You already opened it, I can’t!”
“Honey, careful, you’re crumpling the paper!”
“So what?!” I stamped my foot and threw the envelope to the ground. I had dreamed about this moment for years. How it would feel to read the message that I had finally made it. “You fucking took this from me!”
My mom gasped into her cashmere sleeve.
“Katherine, don’t talk to your mother like that?” my father said, his words more a plea than a command. He was a brilliant surgeon, but when it came to human relationships he hid behind my mother. She had trained him to speak exactly how and when she wanted him to.
“I studied for this for twelve years! Can’t you see how messed up this is?” The tears came. Tears of relief or tears of anger, I wasn’t sure.
My mom took a step back, clearly caught off guard. “Look, sweetheart, I didn’t mean to upset you,” she said, smoothing down her skirt. “I was excited and I thought I could share the good news with you, that’s all.”
“Share,” I repeated. “You invaded my privacy, Mom! This was supposed to be my moment, my achievement. Not yours!”
Her face softened, and she approached me cautiously. “I made a mistake and I’m sorry. But can’t we still be happy about it together? You’re going to Yale! Your dream!”
“It was your dream, not mine!” I sobbed. “Just like it was your dream to get Jon out of my life by bribing him. Congratulations. You got both.”
I ran out of the kitchen and grabbed my car keys in the entry, ignoring my parents’ calls for me to come back.
I drove aimlessly around town. I had left my phone in my room in my haste so I was clueless about where to go. Anyway, I couldn’t go anywhere in public dressed like I’d gotten into elementary school instead of college. And my friends... they didn’t know how hard I had fought for this. Nobody understood what it meant to me—except for that one person who understood so well, he respected my wishes by staying away.