Straightjacket by Meredith Towbin Read Free Book Online

consequences.”
    “I should have done it! Then I wouldn’t have had to be around you two anymore!” It felt good to shout back, like revenge. Her mother couldn’t hide her initial shock, but she regained her composure quickly.
    “Lower your voice, Anna. Everybody’s looking.”
    Anna surveyed the room herself and saw that her mother was right. Everyone was staring. Even Caleb.
    But there was something different about him. His jaw was locked tightly. He was gritting his teeth. His mouth was locked in a scowl. There was no mistake—he was furious.
    “Let’s just calm down.” The fake sweetness in her mother’s voice drew her attention away from Caleb. “You’ll get the help you need here. There’s no reason to hate us.”
    But I do hate you; every part of my body tells me so . But she wouldn’t dare say it out loud. Her heart was thumping so hard that her body jerked with every beat.
    “Anna, everything we’ve ever done was for you.” Her mother couldn’t disguise her disgust any longer. Contempt seeped out of every word. “We sent you to the best schools, gave you every opportunity. You never wanted for anything, and this is how you treat us?” She was on a roll. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, putting us through this. So I called you a slut. Big deal. That’s no reason to threaten to shove twenty pills down your throat.”
    The memory of that last day before they took her here came rushing back. The boy had leaned across the front seat and given Anna a good-bye kiss—her first kiss. She had made her way up the front walk to her house, giddy for the first time in months.
    She had no idea her mother had been watching it all from the window.
    Then came the screaming. And the threats. And the beating from her father.
    She couldn’t bear to relive it. Anna squeezed her eyes shut, trying to forget.
    “My mother called me worse, and I never treated her the way you’ve treated me.” She was relentless.
    Anna watched, frozen, as her mother smoothed her hair and took a deep breath. “You know,” she said, as if she had just had an epiphany, “you really owe us an apology.” And in an instant she had worked herself up into a frenzy again. “Putting us through all this. Yes, I think you owe me an apology.”
    Anna pursed her lips so tightly that they turned white from the pressure.
    “I said to apologize to me, Anna.” She spoke each word slowly. “You apologize this instant or don’t expect to have a car when you come home.”
    Anna didn’t know which was worse—the fact that she’d be without a car she could use to escape, or that someday soon she’d be going back to that house. She started to breathe unevenly, feeling the panic taking root in her belly.
    “I’m sorry,” she blurted out, hoping to cut off the sick feeling before it could spread.
    “That’s more like it,” her mother said, satisfied.
    Anna couldn’t bear to be next to her for another second. She whipped her head around, searching for something—anything—that might help her escape from this moment. It was business as usual for everyone else in the common area. They’d all lost interest in the family drama playing out in the corner. All of them except one.
    As Anna’s eyes met Caleb’s, her thoughts raced. Had he been listening this entire time? The surface of her cheeks started to burn, but she couldn’t stop it. Caleb was a witness to her humiliation. It was all so embarrassing—her being here, her parents, this argument. But most of all she was ashamed of herself. She was nothing more than a trained dog, too timid to go against her masters who held all the power over her.
    Yet…what was it that he was doing? He had zeroed in on her parents with a glare full of nothing less than loathing. His hands formed two fists, and it looked like he was about to leap up out of his seat and charge across the room toward them. His cheeks were flushed a deep red. When he turned his attention to Anna, holding her gaze for