Boy Window Chapter 12: The Bigger Non-Reveal

Last time in Boy Window...potentially the biggest non-reveal in the book happened. Liam calls Amber an Angel because he thinks she is a kaiju...or heaven sent, but I like my answer better.

Chapter 12

“We must have fallen asleep because I woke up with Liam wrapped all over me.”

That seems odd considering they were fiercely making out just before she fell asleep. What, did she over exert herself?

It's the same waking up song and dance we have seen four times before only this time she thinks he is cute instead of annoying.

“'But I'm going to miss you,' he whined...”

Maui's fishhook Liam, you're going to see her in an hour. I would call this cute, but he does it anytime she walks away from him for longer than a minute. Co-dependent much?

Liam walks Amber to his front door. The parents say their goodbyes.

“Pat smirked at me over the back of the sofa. 'Bye, Amber. Did you guys have fun?' she asked, winking at me knowingly.”

 This is Liam's mom giving her the wink and nod because she thinks her eighteen year old son had sex with his sixteen year old girlfriend.

Amber makes it the few feet to her house safely.

“As I stepped over the threshold of my house, I saw Jake sitting on the sofa. The TV wasn't on, he was just sat there...”

I have to pause in this quote to point out that “he was just sat there” was not my typo. That is how it is written.

“...in the silence, clutching his phone in his hand tightly. He looked up, his eyes alight with anger.”

RUN, AMBER! RUN!

“'Where have you been? I've been worried! You could have left a note or something'”

Let's be real for a moment. Jake comes home from work to find his sister is not home. His first instinct is not to call her to see if maybe she went to get food, or call his best friend who drove her home, or to call any of her friends to see if maybe she is with them. No, his first instinct is to sit in the lounge clutching his phone in quiet fury because she didn't call or leave a note. This is some crazy shit. Even if Jake is not an obsessive creep, and this is just supposed to be concern, why is he making no effort to find her? This is the behavior of an abuser whose victim has stepped out of line. He is waiting for her to come home and realize that she has displeased him. This is insane.

Anyway...

Amber tells Jake that Liam's parents invited her over for dinner so she wouldn't have to eat alone.

“'I love Pat's dinner!'” he moaned, his angry expression leaving his face to be replaced by a jealous one.”

From clutching phone angrily to whining about missing food in one sentence.

Anyway...

Jake drops the bomb that their dad has gotten in contact with their mom.

“'He wants to see us, apparently, and make amends for what he did,' he spat through his teeth, his sadness turning to blind rage.”

I will forgive Jake moment of instability at the start of this scene because this officially makes their mom is the

Congratulations! I'm sure she worked extra hard to get this far.

She knows that he raped her daughter for 8 years. She knows that he beat her and her children for 8 years. It didn't make any sense for him to actually stay away for 3 years, because an abuser feels entitled to their victims, but this makes no sense and it makes me hate their mom even more. I can't wrap my head around not turning him into the police. Even if Amber didn't want to come forward about the sexual abuse, why wouldn't they want to turn him in, or at least get a restraining order.

“I couldn't breathe. My lungs just refused to work. My heart was beating way too fast as my body started to shake. He was coming back...”

I'm not going to type the full paragraph but it is actually extremely well done, and is by far most well written part of the book thus far. There is actual tension and I feel like Amber is having a panic attack.

But...then she has to ruin it with neck kisses.

Han Xiangzi's dizi why can't that plot point just go the fuck away. It just makes me more mad every time I see it come up. I even talked to my psychiatrist friend and asked how realistic this is. This was her response.

Dr. T, I love you.

“Jake was sitting on the sofa staring at me, clearly shocked. His mouth was agape his eyes wide.”

I'm with Jake on this one. The whole time Amber was having her panic attack, Jake was trying to get her medical attention, but Liam was all “bro, I got this. I just need to nuzzle her.” If I was Jake, I would shocked that Liam's method worked.

Jake hugs Amber and Amber freaks out because she thinks Liam has left her.

“He was my safety, the one I needed, the one that would keep me sane through all of this.”

I hate to be an asshole, but where was his protection for the 8 years her dad raped her? Liam knew what was going on and he did nothing. Yes, he was 7 when it started, but he was 15 when he beat up the dad. And the only reason he and Jake beat the dad up was because they walked in on the dad trying to rape Amber. He did nothing until he absolutely had to. I'm not saying that 7 year old Liam should have tried to take on a full grown man, but Liam could have told another adult at any point in time between the ages of 7 and 15. There may have been a chance that someone would not believe him, but he did even try. No one in Amber's life tried to protect her when it mattered the most and I hate that this is completely ignored.

Anyway...

Amber's panic attack starts up again, Liam to the rescue.

“Jake made an angry growling sound in the back of his throat as I looked over at him. 'What the fuck? You two are together, aren't you?' he roared.”

But Jake's rage is quelled by Liam insisting they take care of Amber first. As much as this is giving me whiplash, at least there is some conflict going on. I'm only half way through the book so obviously Jake isn't going to accept this yet.

Jake agree to focus on the dad issue. He apologizes for bringing it up but thought she should know. He vows to never let douche bag dad touch her and they drop the subject so they can go back to Jake not approving of their relationship. I happy for some conflict and all, but the dad possibly coming back into their lives is pretty important. Jake says he is sorry about bringing it up. Amber says she is sorry freaking out. And the conversation is over. There should be more than a few paragraphs dedicated to this. But that just shows what Moseley thinks is important.

“Not only was my abusive father coming back, but my brother was now going to beat the crap out of my boyfriend.”

Not only is she comparing 8 years of trauma to her brother's disapproval of her relationship, but she is emphasizing that the latter is worse with her sentence structure.

Jake fumes but asks how neck kisses calmed her down. Liam says

“'I don't know. It's just something that calms her down, that's all. I've always done it'”

And then they tell Jake about being secret snuggle buddies.

“Jake jumped up with his fists clenched.”

“His eyes were tight as he glared at Liam.”

“Jake's eyes flashed before his face calmed […] Jake cleared his throat and nodded. 'Right, well, I'm going to bed.'”

We were so close to actual consequences!

I will be honest and say that the ellipsis cut out half a page, but nothing happened. Liam stands in front of Amber to protect her from Jake and instead of anyone considering how this means that Liam thinks that Jake will hit Amber, Jake is impressed that Liam would want to protect Amber. Don't you just love that in this simple act everyone agrees that Jake would beat his sister for having a boyfriend.

“'Wow, that was easier than I thought,' [Liam] mused”

You are telling me. So that thing that we have spent the past 60 pages worrying about amounted to a red herring? It would only have hurt if it surprised me.

Liam tells Amber he came over because Jake called him when she started to freak out. This raises more questions. Why did Jake call Liam and not emergency services. Why was Jake yelling at Liam to do just that when his phone obviously worked? Why was he wasting time by calling someone else over, who has no medical experience, when his sister was obviously in need of help? How useless are the people in Amber's life? Questions aside, Liam is happy about using the front door for once. Amber has a moment of introspection before bed.

“It was weird, but when Jake had pulled me away from Liam tonight, I'd felt strange, like I'd left my heart behind. I didn't realise up until then, how strongly I was connected to him. He literally was everything to me.”

I don't think he is “literally” everything to you, but that is a common enough use of the word that I will let it slide. If I wasn't so frustrated with everything else I probably would not have minded it at all. As it stands, I am annoyed by her co-dependence.