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He didn’t seem at all annoyed when he found me waiting in the living room at the clubhouse today and informed me that he’d be the one to accompany me to the shelter. Honestly, none of the guys who have been bringing me here daily have seemed to have a problem with it, not even when I asked to come on the weekend.
Something lit a fire under Brielle, and she has been working very hard to finish her classes. She has to have a graduation date before she can apply for many of the scholarships she’s interested in. Although it will require a lot of hard work, she could possibly have the credits needed to graduate by the Christmas holiday, making her eligible to start college for the spring semester.
She hasn’t applied for federal grants, and explained why when I asked her.
Brielle refuses to put her name into any database that she feels like her stepfather or stepbrother could find her in. She doesn’t feel like they’d know to search the scholarship database, but she also hasn’t pulled the trigger on submitting any either, in fear that she would be listed as a winner online and they’d come looking for her.
My mind has run me exhausted thinking about the possibility of what might’ve happened to her, but I haven’t asked. I’ll listen if she wants to tell me, but I’m not certain I really want the details. I’ve fought against the way it makes me feel because it also makes me want to put some distance between her and me so as to avoid the conversation if she feels as if she wants to share.
I’ve always been the type of woman to want all the serotonin that comes with the feel-good stuff in life. I have always opted more for pleasure than any level of pain, and I know her story has to hurt.
I’ve discovered that the majority of the women here in Farmington aren’t even from this town. In an effort to provide a new start, most of the women are from other states, meaning there’s an increased level of safety when they get jobs because they’re less likely to run into someone they know, including their abusers.
Despite it not being the SUV he took me to lunch in last week, I grow excited when a car pulls up alongside Max. I can’t see the guy’s face, but it turns out it isn’t Derrick when the car pulls away seconds later. Max watches the car disappear down the street before looking back in my direction. He simply waves his finger, giving me a motion that reads to close the curtain and step back. Even with as many questions as it leaves me, I obey.
I take a few deep breaths, a painstaking effort to calm down.
It doesn’t take much for my brain to jump to all sorts of off-the-wall conclusions.
“You okay?”
I jump what feels like a mile high at the sound of Brielle’s voice.
“Fine,” I gasp.
She narrows her eyes at me, and when they go to my throat, I know she can see the thrum of my pulse on the side. I wouldn’t even know that was possible if I hadn’t asked Derrick why he watches that part of my neck sometimes.
“Seems like it. What did you see out there?”
“We’re meant to be working on that final physics test,” I remind her, stepping in her path when she reaches for the curtain. “The end is in sight. Let’s not get distracted now.”
Thankfully, she turns and starts to walk back to her computer station.
Most of the other kids are on an outing to the park. I know there are several of the guys, including Kincaid, who are supervising that field trip.
“If you don’t want to be here, then you should just leave,” Brielle snaps as she drops down into her computer chair.
“What makes you think I don’t want to be here?” I ask, pulling up another chair to sit beside her since she’s the only student using her weekend time to work on schoolwork.
“You’ve looked out the window a million times today as if you’re hoping someone will come rescue you.”
“I don’t need rescuing.”
“Say it louder for the people in the back,” she mutters.
I frown in her direction but change it to a smile as quickly as I can manage. I can’t tell if she’s been trying to goad me into asking questions about her history because she wants to talk about it with me, or if she’s just being hateful.
“Anyway,” she says, waving her arm toward the computer. “It kicked me out again.”
I pull in a deep breath, my frustration a little closer to the surface after the way Max acted just moments ago. I hate not knowing what’s going on. I sort of feel like a sitting duck here in this house if there was an issue with the man who pulled up earlier.
