AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 41
LAURA
Icould kick myself. Why did I ever come back here with him? I should have kept him far away from my personal space because now I must make up some kind of story about who was here that night.
There is no way in hell I can tell him about Adonis. How would that look? He will realize I’m playing him at his own game, and it would end immediately.
I’m not ready for that and yet I can almost reach out and touch the secrets that are creating a wall between us.
We are both playing a game and there appear to be no rules.
I follow him to the car, careful to lock up, and I wonder if I’ll return. Troy probably would buy me an apartment, just to get rid of me, but if he discovers I knew all the time that he’s using me, he may just toss me back where I came from.
Then there’s the phone call. Something bad has happened, and it concerns his family. It makes me wonder about mine. I haven’t called home in a week which isn’t unusual. Mom and dad aren’t the type of parents who expect a daily bulletin and yet that saddens me because it’s as if they don’t really care.
As we travel back to Troy’s home, I think about my life with them. I had a happy childhood. I wanted for nothing but therewere never any cuddles or kisses between us. We got on. I don’t believe we’ve ever had an argument and I’m not sure if that’s normal or not.
Now I see the full picture, it was obvious they were just the caretakers. Not the parents that you see on the television or in the movies. Polite strangers who got me through life and now that I’ve flown the nest, they are free.
I don’t want to think of them in this way and brush a tear away. I need to hope they love me, want me, and are concerned about me because without them, I have nothing.
“Why are you crying?”
Troy rests his hand on mine and squeezes it, and after the past thirty minutes, it’s good to have some kind of support.
“I was thinking about my parents.”
“What about them?” He says it softly, but I detect an edge to his voice.
“I was remembering your story, about your father, and the close bond you have with your family. I don’t have that. It’s just me, mom and dad and we don’t talk much.”
“That’s not so bad.” He smiles gently. “You have the whole of them; you don’t have to share.”
“I want to share.”
It brings back many memories of watching other kids talk about their brothers and sisters, and I sigh.
“I was the kid at school who went home to an orderly life with no one to play with. I had friends, but they weren’t there when it would have been nice to have someone my own age to talk to. My home life was spent with adults, and they never played at all.”
“It sounds kind of lonely.”
He kisses my hand and I nod. “It was. Don’t get me wrong, I had a happy childhood, but it was as if something was missing.”
I don’t miss that he tenses slightly, and I say impulsively, “I prayed for a brother and a sister. We would get on, us againstthe world, you know the kind of thing. I used to imagine them sometimes when I was angry at something my parents said. I’d picture us at the dinner table, making faces behind our parent’s backs and kicking one another under the table.”
I laugh at the memory. “I imagined a dog too. Mr. Funwuffle.”
“You’re not serious.” He laughs out loud, and I giggle.
“I’m not. He was a huge white German Shepherd that would attack on command. I pictured him a lot when I was bullied by Trevor Grimes in the playground.”
Troy says quickly, “Do you want me to find him and make him pay because I will?”
It makes me laugh. “No need. He died during High School in a car wreck. It was a terrible time.”
“That’s sad.” Troy shakes his head. “Nobody deserves that.”
“No, they don’t. The whole school got counseling because of it, and it made me consider the fragility of life. I want to live my life, Troy. To the extreme, which is why I agreed to this in the first place. I’m done with normal; I want to fly, and this is my launchpad.”
