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“What are you doing?” I’d asked, temporarily forgetting the reason I’d been sent there to get him in the first place.
“Practicing” was all he’d said, and he stopped after that, going to get his shirt from his bed and slipping it on. “What do you want, kid?” At that, he’d grinned; he knew calling me a kid always made me upset.
It made me upset because I wanted to be like him.
“Mom said dinner’s done,” I’d rattled off, still amazed at what I’d seen him do. “Can you teach me to do that?”
Creed had stopped when he’d stood before me, and he was slow to kneel down in front of me, his dark eyes playful. “Teach you what?” He flicked a thumb over his shoulder, pointing to where he’d been moments ago. “That? Taylor, you don’t need to know how to do any of that. You have me. I’ll protect you. Always.” His voice had changed then, softening up, and he sounded like he really meant it.
“But it looked cool.”
That had gotten him to laugh as he stood and straightened himself out. He towered over me even more back then, but he did offer me his hand. “Maybe once you’re older, I’ll teach you a little bit. Come on,” he’d said. “Let’s get down there before Mom gets mad dinner’s getting cold.”
I’d slipped my small hand into his, letting him lead me out, too happy that he’d agreed to teach me some of the cool moves when I got older.
But… but older never came. At least, not with us together, because not too long after that, his mom died, and he left. Creed never did teach me any of that, and now it was far too late. I could’ve used some of those moves to keep myself safe these last ten years, to keep my dad at bay when he was really drunk.
In the darkness of the night, I reached up to my neck, the skin there faintly burning with the memory of being choked.
I rolled onto my side, hugging my pillow. Was Creed’s mom in security, too? She must’ve been. It had to be a family business—and that fact only made it hurt worse. Creed had abandoned me, left me with Dad, all to come downtown, not even an hour away, and pretend I didn’t exist these last ten years, all to join the family business?
And then he had the gall to act like he’d acted Friday night, when I was only trying to live a little.
Okay, live a little and annoy him like Hailee had annoyed me, but still.
Ugh, I didn’t want to think about Creed right now, and I sure as hell didn’t want to think about what he did Friday night. People pretended things didn’t happen all the time, and yet I didn’t know if I’d be able to. How could we go on? How could we return to the place we were before Friday night rolled around and Creed kissed me and touched me like that?
Like he owned me. Like he could devour me whole and never spit me out.
Needless to say, I did a whole lot more thinking that night, and I hardly got any sleep. I wished I could say it was out of the ordinary, but I didn’t think I’d gotten any solid nights of sleep since Friday.
Time wore on.
After classes the next day, I decided not to go straight back to Creed’s place, instead walking to the Hooting Owl. Still a strange name for a bar if I ever heard one, but I guess it was so unique it buried itself in your mind and you weren’t likely to forget it.
I decided to go there because the apartment was empty, and being in it by myself made me think too much. I could’ve gone to Beth’s dorm, but I didn’t want to do that, either. No. I… I didn’t know what to do, frankly, didn’t know what I could possibly do to set my mind at ease.
So, at around three o’clock in the afternoon, I strolled through the front door to the Hooting Owl. The place looked just as I remembered it from that first night, although there were fewer people. When night fell, I was sure this place was hopping with people wanting to spend their hard-earned cash on some expensive booze.
Personally, I didn’t get the appeal, but all the power to them.
One older guy sat in the far booth in the back of the place, while another pair were playing pool while swigging beer from their glass bottles. I saw that the same guy was working behind the counter—Jeff, I thought his name was—so I headed there.
Jeff was currently wiping something down on the counter as I strolled up. His brown hair slicked back, the same as it had been the other night. He wore a white t-shirt along with a golden chain around his neck, and when his eyes spotted me, he broke out into a smile beneath his goatee.
“Well, hey there, Creed’s little sister,” Jeff spoke, grinning all the while. He stopped wiping the counter and came over to me, leaning on the opposite side.
“It’s Taylor,” I told him, slipping onto one of the stools.
Jeff watched me carefully set my bag full of textbooks onto the stool beside me, waiting a moment to say, “Taylor. I like it. What can I do for you today, Miss Taylor?” I couldn’t tell whether he was being genuinely nice to me in calling me Miss Taylor, or if he was doing it to be funny or something. I didn’t know him enough to differentiate it, yet.
I shrugged.
He bent down and plucked a clean glass from beneath the counter. “It was a coke and grenadine, right?”
“Uh, yeah,” I said, reaching into my pocket to get out the card Creed had given me to pay for it—he’d never told me it was just for emergencies, but I liked to think I could splurge every now and then. It wasn’t like I was going out and spending a thousand dollars on myself each day. Going shopping for clothes and a new laptop had been enough.
“Don’t worry about it,” Jeff said, noticing the card. He started mixing the drink.
