By the time the sun dipped, my parents were already long gone. They hadn't left without leaving their mark, though, oh no. They'd left with my ears ringing from what might've been the longest lecture of my life.
A boyfriend, Maeve? Already? What about your studies, Maeve? This is exactly the kind of distraction we worried about, Maeve.Why didn't you ever tell us? The same refrain over and over, until I could practically feel the words scratched into my bones.
I'd mumbled apologies, made vague promises, and kept my eyes on the ground until they finally got into their car and drove away, leaving me standing there with my stomach in knots.
The whole time, I'd been thinking about how much worse it could've gone, what if they'd known the truth? Not just that I was dating someone (which I wasn't), but that their daughter wasn't even fully human anymore. That she had a voice inside her head that wasn't hers. That she'd nearly died, and in the process become… something else entirely.
