Episode 617: Perfect

Adria had stopped - well more like she swayed in one spot - when she literally stumbled upon the scene as she’d tried to locate the food table. It surprised her very much that lightening didn’t strike her father. There was no way he wasn’t blackmailing Bassie. Phillip Marques blackmailed everyone as surely as other humans breathed.

"Sebastian’s just talking nonsense. The boy has clearly had too much to drink," Phillip insisted, "haven’t you, son?"

When Adria’s brother nodded his agreement, fireworks averted, Adria decided to move on, not intending to move straight into her mother’s clutches, but there Katherine Marques stood.

"Adria, I’d like you to meet Shane Austen."

A perfectly coiffed dark-haired preppy born to wear a suit.

"No, thanks." Adria simply turned and walked away from her mother.

Katherine Marques, however, caught up with her youngest because lawns, heels, and alcohol were not a good mix for her daughter.

"Adria, I saw your test results. I know you failed that class. He failed you." Her mom sounded particularly incredulous over that one, as if Ryley was just supposed to give her a free pass or something and not have the integrity Adria had loved from their first morning after. "I thought perhaps you could use a fresh start with someone else. I thought it would do you some good to feel as if you were succeeding in some area."

"I am succeeding at totally screwing up everything," Adria snapped. "I don’t know what I’m doing, my heart’s pulling me one way and my head’s pulling me the other, so here I am, just stuck, just torn thinking if by some miracle I can ever pull it together enough to please you and daddy, well, naturally, that makes me good enough for Ryley. But Ryley doesn’t want me to be anything but me, which is way less than what you and daddy will accept. So I don’t know what to do other than just drink so much at this party that I can’t even think about it anymore."

Episode 618: Who Knew