They Made My Life A Joke For 18 Years, I Stopped Laughing Chapter 02

They Made My Life A Joke For 18 Years, I Stopped Laughing Chapter 02

Ethan was the first to lose it, slapping his thigh as he laughed.

“You don’t like it? You used to laugh harder than anyone.”

I clenched my fists.

Years of swallowed hurt broke loose all at once.

When I was little, I was terrified they’d leave me out. So no matter what they did to me, I’d trail after them, laughing along like I was in on the joke.

When I was eight, they talked me into hiking into the woods to look for wild ginseng they swore would cure Mom’s cold.

Then they snuck back down the trail without me and spent the cash in my backpack on candy and toys.

By the time park rangers found me, I’d spent the entire night alone in the woods, freezing, starving, and barely conscious.

But when I finally opened my eyes, the first thing I did was smile at them. “It was fun. Really. Just… next time, could you not leave me behind?”

The memory hit like it had happened yesterday.

Tears slipped down my face, but Ethan and Sienna only laughed harder.

Gavin only looked annoyed. “What are you crying about now?”

“You’ve never known how to take a joke. Everyone else is having fun, and you’re the only one sulking like somebody’s bullying you.”

Just then, Dad pulled up even though he was supposed to be away on a business trip.

He lowered the window and looked past me to Sienna. “Get in. It’s move-in day. I’ll show you around LA.”

I pointed at my heavy suitcase. “But I haven’t dropped my stuff off yet.”

He frowned.

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

“There’s not enough room in the back for three people.”

I stared at him for two seconds.

“I’m kidding!”

Dad pushed his sunglasses up his nose. “You’re my daughter. Of course I’m not leaving you behind.”

“Leave your suitcase with security. Hurry.”

I wrestled the suitcase into the security office as fast as I could.

My knee banged into the corner of a desk, but I didn’t even stop long enough to feel it.

One last time.

I told myself that if this wasn’t another prank, if Mom and Dad really meant to spend the day with me this time…

…then I’d forgive them.

When I came back out, they were gone.

My phone buzzed with a message from Sienna.

“LOL. You fell for it again.”

“This one wasn’t even my idea. It was Ethan’s.”

“He said you’re basically a robot. Tell you what to do and you’ll do it. I didn’t think he’d actually be right.”

Then she sent me a video.

In it, Sienna had one arm around my parents, Ethan had one around her, and Gavin played big brother to the whole group, carrying their bags and buying everyone ice cream.

They were at the exact ice cream place I’d saved on my list.

“Nice.”

I sent back the same agreeable little reply I always did, then turned and walked straight to the Registrar’s Office.

“Hi. I need to withdraw.”

The woman behind the desk looked up in shock and adjusted her glasses.

For a second, she looked sure she’d misheard me.

“Sorry?”

I said it again. “I’d like to withdraw.”

Before I walked in, I’d already opened my email and accepted the full-ride merit scholarship Eastbridge University had offered me two weeks earlier.

My parents had always said Boston was too far away. They didn’t want me living across the country.

Ethan and Sienna had begged me to stay at PCU with them too.

So I’d never seriously considered anywhere else.

But now, the four of them had made a family with no room for me.

And the three of them had a friendship that didn’t need me either.

So there was no reason for me to keep waiting around where I wasn’t wanted.