Skye was in her bedroom and drank the rest of the tart Merlot wine. She placed her wineglass on the table next to her and switched off the lights. Then she positioned herself at the foot of her bed.

Her and Cole had discussed taking their relationship to the next level, so she did not mind using that to lure him back. Today was the best day anyways because tomorrow celebrities, family, and friends would inundate her house. Cameras would be everywhere recording her Being Skye show, including Johnny Sonic running around interviewing everyone.

Yes. Today was the best day.

She removed her soft, fluffy robe and threw it on the floor.

She heard a knock on her door and the handle turned. She laid back in the bed, dizzy from the alcohol and shouted, "Hey, Cole. Come in. I'm ready for you."

"No! You are not!" That familiar woman's shrill terrified her, placing every nerve ending on high alert.

The light turned on and she saw her mother.

Dammit!

"What the hell are you doing?" her mom screamed. She was an older petite woman with shoulder-length dyed-brown hair and dark-blue eyes, wearing black dress pants and a sky-blue blouse.

Skye sat up.

"Who's Cole?! Why are you naked?" Her mom grabbed her by her ear and threw the robe at her. "Put something on!"

Skye covered herself with a robe.

"Is that yours?" She pointed at the bottle.

"That's not mine, mom."

"Don't lie to me." She slapped her face. The slap should have stung, but the alcohol made her senses numb. "I can smell it on your breath."

Her mom grasped her ear lobe and twisted it, which sobered her up. Then her mom forced her to get up and dragged her out of her bedroom. She ran to keep up, fearing she would rip it off. They went down the stairs.

"You are not old enough to drink."

Skye pushed back against her when she realized her mom was taking her outside. She could not resist, and the mad woman powered Skye through the door. The paparazzi surrounded the house. Light bulbs flashed. A helicopter hovered over them.

This was so embarrassing.

"Mom, everyone's gonna see." She held the robe closed to make certain that nobody would get a free show.

"I want everyone to see. Is this what you do when you're with your dad?" she asked, "Where is he? I guarantee that you will not spend one more minute with him."

Marcus stood with the limo door open.

"I was against this from the start," her mom continued.

She passed Cole and Hope. Then her mom threw her into the back of the limousine.

Maria was outside, too. She ran over to Skye.

"Get in the car," Skye's mom said to Maria, "We are leaving for good."

Maria waved at Hope, gave her a thumbs-up, and yelled, "Don't let me down. I believe in you."

Maria entered the vehicle and sat on the other side.

"I'm glad you called me Maria. I'll send someone to pick up your stuff."

More flash bulbs illuminated their spectacle. The door closed and they drove away.

Marcus slammed the limo door shut. Skye sat next to Maria on the black leather seat. The limo had matching black interior.

"Mom, this is so embarrassing. You cannot make me leave. Tomorrow is my birthday!" She closed her robe tighter, shivering. "Everybody came here to celebrate with me this weekend." She gestured outside toward her house, although only blurry shapes were visible through the dark tinted windows.

"I am cancelling everything! No party, no Being Skye, nothing!" Her mother sat next to an overweight older man wearing a gray business suit.

"You can't..." she searched her pockets for her viewer. Her alcoholic buzz returned after her adrenaline wore off. She had been waiting for Cole to arrive. Skye sensed the aroma of alcohol on her body, combined with the leather-polish on the seats. It made her nauseous.

She could not find her viewer in her robe pocket, so she panicked. "Mom, I need to go back to get my viewer. I have to tell Cole that I'm leaving."

Maria moved closer to Skye, massaged her arms, and said, "Oh my gosh! You're freezing."

Marcus drove the vehicle away and said, "There are blankets in storage space." He nodded underneath the area under Maria. The engine hummed, and the car vibrated the passengers. She recognized the familiar distant whirl from the helicopter that now followed them.

Maria reached underneath their seat and grabbed a fluffy, navy colored blanket and placed it on her friend. Then she massaged her shoulders to warm her.

Her mother stated, "Don't worry, I grabbed it before we left." She held her phone in the air. "Although you will never use it again."

Then she rolled down the limousine window and tossed the viewer into a river that they drove next to.

Skye reacted with a guttural growl that turned into screaming, "No! Mom, I hate you!"

"Relax. I will cancel that, too."

Maria looked into Skye's eyes and said, "We need to talk about you and Cole. "

"About what?" Skye asked.

Maria continued, "Everybody agreed it was best for both of your futures that you never see him again."

"Never? That's crazy. I love him," Skye said. "Please send him a text message telling him..."

"No. I know that hearing this hurts, but you need to get help, and Cole can not fix you."

"Also, if you love him and you truly want what's best for him, you will realize that you are hurting him. So much that the only way Cole can recover is if performs perfectly from now until the last day of school. No mistakes and you," she said purposefully and pointed at her, "are the biggest mistake he makes every day."

Maria paused for a few seconds.

What was she talking about? No mistakes? I am not a mistake. She loved being with him. What could be more important than that?

"Also, I told you this before, but Cole is not right for you. When you're with the right person, you should make their lives better, not worse. And you too only get in each other's way. Hope and Cole, when together they challenge each other to become greater, achieve things nobody thought possible, and invent things that have never existed before. They must pass their tests as a team and go to Mars, and you are only thing getting in their way. So, you can never contact him again."

Skye's mother said, "Maria. You've spent way too much time with them, drinking their Kool-Aid. You sounded exactly like Skye's father and his other worshipers."

Maria said, grinning, "Thank you. I see your statement as a compliment."

Skye's mother said, "It does not matter what Skye wants or her best friend, because she will be grounded forever and taken to rehab. She will go nowhere near my husband ever again if I have anything to do with it."

Skye sensed the tension increasing in the limo, and Maria changed the subject and acknowledged the man seated next to Skye's mom. Someone had fastened his suit too tightly to disguise his enormous belly, and the threads were moments away from ripping apart. He unbuttoned his jacket. She said to him, "It's good to see you again. Mr. Mitchell. I saw that they selected you to be the North American Global Coalition Representative. Congratulations!" Maria reached over and shook his hand.

"Thank you. It is a great honor to be chosen to represent the people. I will do my best to help them."

"When do you start?"

"In January, when Representative White retires."

Skye's mother said, interrupting them, "Please give me a minute. I am going to contact my lawyer."

A hologram of an older woman sitting behind a desk appeared at lawyer, "How are you doing today, Ms. Taylor and Representative Mitchell?"

Skye's mother said, "Awful! The entire world just saw my underage daughter drinking alcohol while in the care of Stephen Bettencourt. I am taking my daughter to a 30-day rehab, and I want an emergency hearing to place her in my care, temporarily, and then sue to get full-custody of Skye."