AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“My mom beat the shit out of me.”
My head snapped back.
“Cap, you don’t?—”
He looked down at me. “I gave myself the name Julien Jackson, Raye. No one knows the name I was born with, except Roam, and no one ever will. This could be something, you and me. We could go the distance. And you will never know that name because it’s meaningless. It’s ash. It’s gone.”
I nodded to indicate I got him.
The significance of his statement cut through me like a razor.
But I got him.
He carried on.
“Julien for Jules, that friend I told you about, a social worker who worked at the runaway shelter where me and Roam, and our buddy, Park, used to hang. Jules. Juliet Lawler, now Crowe. She loved us,fuck, Raye.” His hand still at my neck, tightened. “She loved us. It was the first time I’d ever felt love like that from a female. The first time someone took care of me, looked after me, wanted with everything that was her that I would thrive, and she knocked herself out to make that so. Until Shirleen, my adoptive mom. Her last name is Jackson.”
So that was why his name didn’t fit him, but it still did.
“That is so incredibly cool you got to claim the good things you were given that way,” I said.
“Absolutely,” he replied.
“I hate that your mom?—”
He shook his head on my pillow and gave me another squeeze to quiet me. “It wasn’t the beatings. They sucked and she was a bitch, and at the time, I hated her. There was nothing good about her. My dad left before I was old enough to put two thoughts together, and I don’t know what her deal was. If she was bitter or if she took her anger out on me that she had to look after me when she didn’t want to be saddled with raising a kid. I don’t know. I don’t care. She hated me too, and she didn’t hide it. There was nothing between us. No connection. Definitely no love. So it wasn’t about that. It was that she brought men home and most of them weren’t okay, they were just assholes. But one of them woke me up in the middle of the night, touching me.”
Oh no!
I pressed tight and whispered, “Cap.”
“I pushed him off, ran out of my room, to her?—”
“Honey.”
“And the bitch said, ‘What’s your problem? Suck it up. I do.’”
“Oh my fucking God,” I breathed.
“Yeah. That night, grabbed some of my shit and got out and never went back, and then I met Park and?—”
“Oh my fucking God,” I repeated.
But the way I did, Cleo popped onto her feet and woofed.
“Raye.”
I tore from his hold to sit up so I could screech, “Oh my fucking God! Seriously?”
Cleo woofed louder.
Cap sat up too and put both hands to my neck. “Baby, it was a long time ago. I barely even remember what she looks like. Honestly.”
“Holy shit, that’s fuckinglunacy.”
“Calm down, Raye, look at me. I’m okay. I’m good. I got a good life. A big family.”
“Okay, butstill,” I snapped.
