AllFreeNovel
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“My sister’s dad used to beat me and my mom,” I tell her. “He’s in jail now, but it took a long time. He had to almost kill her first.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“One time, it got really bad, and he beat me until I lost consciousness…and two of my teeth. My dad stepped in, though, and said I was never going back there again—not until that guy was in jail. Don’t you have a dad, Ally?”
“Technically, yes, I have a dad.”
“Where is he? Why can’t he help you?”
“Can I see your phone?” she asks.
I take it from my pocket, unlock it, and hand it to her. She opens the Facebook app and types ‘Adam Hargrove’ into the search bar. I watch her scroll until she gets to a photo of a man with the same dark hair and eyes she has and clicks the picture.
“This is him,” she says, handing it to me. “He left us when I was four, but I know it’s him. When I realized…how it was going to be here…I looked him up on the school computer. I made an account and sent him a DM. He blocked me after he readit. See the shirt?”
Yeah, I do.MY FAVORITE PEOPLE CALL ME DAD.
His wall is private, but the profile pics are visible. There are pictures of him with a blonde woman and two blonde babies who can’t be much older than four and six in the most recent photos. There are pictures of them camping, celebrating birthdays, playing soccer, riding bikes, lined up on a staircase, and…
They all look fucking familiar.
“This is them, isn’t it?” I ask. “These are the people with no faces. It’s your dad and…”
“The kids he wanted,” she finishes. “I tried. He doesn’t care what happens to me. He cares about them, though. And I can’t get them out of my head.”
“Ally, I’m—”
“We should go,” she says. “I’m already going to be much later than I planned.”
She leaves the room, and I push up from the floor, follow her down the staircase, and then to the small bathroom window. She stands on the toilet and starts climbing through, grimacing when she pushes up onto her arms, using them to support her lower body. I reach for her legs and help her through, then follow the same way. She waits in the grass, her left hand holding her right shoulder.
I think of when I’d touched it and the scratches she had on her neck that weekend.
“Hey, Ally…you know, you live pretty close to the school. Why don’t you ever ride your bike? It would probably be faster.”
“What? I don’t have a bike.”
I sigh, deja vu rolling through me. “I parked over on Cypress. I’ll drive us back.”
“…Okay.”
We walk back through the grass to where my car sits parked, about a block down the road from the bus stop. I unlock the doors, and we both get in.
Ally’s eyes dart to the back seat and back up front again.
“What are you doing?” I ask. “Looking for your cum stain?”
“What? No, Devon. Jesus.”
“I’m just saying that’s what it looked like.”
She covers her face and turns toward the window. “Would you just drive?”
“Fine,” I tell her.
We drive in silence for a few minutes—up until I pass the school parking lot.
“What are you doing?” she asks. “Where are we going?”
