Charity (Black Mountain Academy) - Rochelle Paige Page 0,3
my bedtime, and I’d been frustrated to be busted by our new maid. But then Marta had thrown me for a loop when she’d handed me a napkin and acted as my lookout so I could make it back to my room without being caught. In a house full of servants who reported every move I made back to my parents, she was a breath of fresh air. Our friendship had only grown from there—much to my parents’ chagrin.
If anyone other than Marta had caught me gawking at the hot guy who had moved in with my neighbors a couple of months ago, I would have been terribly embarrassed. Nobody else knew about my fascination with him, but I didn’t have any secrets from her. “I can’t just go out there.”
She propped a hand on her hip, a sure sign she wasn’t going to let the subject drop no matter how much I wanted her to let it go. “Why not?”
“Standing in the street as he runs past would be super weird.” I lifted a finger to start ticking off all the reasons and didn’t stop until four of them were up. “I’m horribly awkward when talking to boys in normal situations. We probably have nothing in common. And none of that even matters because he’s way out of my league.”
Marta came closer and pressed the last finger I’d raised back down to my palm. “There isn’t a single boy on this planet who is too good for you.”
“You’re only saying that because you love me.” Most people in my world would find it weird that my maid was like family to me, but she was one of only two people in my life who had no problem showing me how much they cared.
“Because you’re so lovable.” She took the binoculars and set them on the table against the wall to the left of my bay window that looked out on the front of my house. Between the length of the front lawn and the gate at the end of the driveway, I couldn’t see the road without a little help. “You’re beautiful, kind, and smart. That boy would be lucky to have you.”
“You and my dad might think I’m pretty, but the rest of the world doesn’t seem to agree with you.”
“That mother of yours,” Marta muttered with a frown. “Your father needs to smack her upside the head for how she treats you.”
The idea of my dad striking my mom, even in jest, was preposterous. He was the kindest person I knew, which she took full advantage of on a regular basis. The way my mother treated him had driven me crazy ever since the day I realized most of my friends’ moms didn’t walk all over their husbands. I didn’t understand what my dad saw in her, and I’d never found the courage to ask him. “We both know that’s not going to happen.”
“You’re probably right”—her lips quirked up at the sides—“but that doesn't mean I’m going to stop hoping that he’ll honor the long-standing tradition of trading her in for a newer model.”
My eyes widened before laughter bubbled up my chest. “My mother can never hear you say something like that. She’d lose her mind, and it wouldn’t matter how much I begged my dad to keep you on staff. You’d be gone so fast both our heads would spin.”
“Your mother isn’t in the house.” She shook her head and sighed. “I learned my lesson last time she tried to fire me.”
“Same here,” I mumbled, my stomach roiling at the memory from five years ago when I got my first period. I’d bled through a pair of white pants in the middle of class, and my teacher sent me to the nurse’s office. The school tried to call my mother to ask her to bring in a change of clothes, but she didn’t answer. My dad was a two-hour drive away at a work meeting, but he picked up the instant he saw the school’s number on his caller ID. Since he couldn’t come rescue me and my mother didn’t answer his call either, he sent Marta in his place.
Seeing how devastated I was, she decided a skip day was in order. When my mom got home from her spa appointment and found me curled up on the couch, eating a box of chocolates while watching a chick flick, she went ballistic. I’d gotten a lecture about sucking it up when things didn’t go my way—as