AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“At first, because my parents were well liked. Mom and Dad were good people. But not everyone felt the same. The kids started hassling us. Some of the adults started threatening our parents.”
Chris stared out the windshield again, hearing resentment in his own voice. Michael had gotten the worst of it, back then. He’d wanted to fight back—their parents wouldn’t hear of it.
“Give it time,” Dad had said. “Arrogance and aggression come from insecurity.”
Michael hadn’t liked that. Talk about aggression—Chris could still remember the fights his oldest brother had had with their father.
Not unlike, Chris realized with a start, the ones Michael had with Gabriel now.
“My parents put up with it. I mean, they were caught between a rock and a hard place—as long as it was threats and stuff, no one was killing Michael. I think they wanted to leave, but they were scared, you know? If we left, would our former neighbors send the Guides after us? This went on for months.” He shook his head. “Years.”
“But why didn’t they just call the Guides? Why do all the threats?”
“You know how when someone’s hassling you at school, and you tell the teacher, and the teacher yells at the person causing the problem?”
She hesitated, staring out the window. “Sure.”
Something in her voice caught him. He’d forgotten about that note from Dunleavy. That guy was a complete tool—had she taken it personally?
“What are you looking at?” She hunched down in the seat and crossed her arms over her chest.
He snapped his eyes to the road. Christ, now she probably thought he was a complete lech. “Well—when the Guides come, they don’t just look at the accused. They look at the accusers, too.”
“They were afraid to turn you in.”
“Yeah. And when we started school, Tyler and Seth and the rest of them started ragging on us.” He glanced over. “It sucked. So then we started fighting back, and then we got in trouble for fighting back, and we hated them more—”
“I get it.”
She didn’t get it. Not really. She’d seen one fight. What did she know about feeling powerless?
She saved your ass.
He ran a hand through his hair, pushing the wet strands out of his eyes again. “My parents offered them a deal. The others would swear to never call the Guides. And my parents would swear to keep us from causing harm.”
“They agreed.”
He nodded. “My parents were smart. Because once the others made that bargain, it gave my parents leverage. The others could get in just as much trouble for keeping us hidden so long.”
She shivered again, then twisted in the seat and began fishing in the back for something. It put her shoulder against his, just for an instant, then the curve of her side. He could feel every drop of water on her skin.
His breath almost caught, but he shifted away.
“I just want my pullover,” she said.
He nodded.
She pulled a fleece over her head and dropped back into the bucket seat. “So everyone was happy.”
Chris shrugged, resisting the urge to clear his throat again. “You’d think so. But no. The parents were fine—it was the kids. They treated us like shit.”
“All of them?”
He thought back, remembering. “No. Not all of them. Tyler’s older sister, Emily, was in Michael’s class.”
“Yeah?”
There was hope in her voice. He should shut up, before he crushed it. “She was nice, I guess. She didn’t hassle him—any of us, really. I think he liked her, but they were juniors in high school, and basically on opposing sides of a long-standing fight. I mean, it’s not like he asked her out or anything.”
