AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When he is gone, I smile at Rett. “Wanna cause a distraction so I can sneak away?” The smile on his face tells me he’d be thrilled, and I can’t help but laugh. “Figured you would.”
I can’t stay. I don’t want to get a ride from one of Deacon’s men, and I sure as hell don’t want to hear anyone tell me that I’ve fucked up. Besides, even if Deacon doesn’t want to say it, I know I have and the damage I’ve done won’t just be swept under the rug.
Idly, I run a hand along the scar on my stomach, and wonder when my life will get back to normal. It’s already been two years since the accident, and there are still times, like earlier, when I feel like everything is out of control.
I don’t have long to think about it, though, because Rett’s high-pitched scream fills the air a few seconds later.
“BEAR!” He screeches at the top of his lungs from the trees in the distance. “There’s a bear!”
I don’t even know how he got all the way across camp and into the woods in mere minutes since I’d asked him to cause a distraction. I’m not sticking around to ask, either.
While literally every single adult left milling about ran in Rett’s direction, I sneak away. My car isn’t blocked in, thankfully, or I’d be shit out of luck.
On the way home, I stop for tacos. Who in their right mind wouldn’t stop for tacos after the day I had? So, when I get to the speaker and order more food than any normal person can eat in one sitting, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I will be judged, and judged hard for my order. Good thing I don’t care what a teenager thinks about the fact that I’ve ordered two party packs of soft tacos, and ten of the shredded chicken quesadilla melts that I love so much.
“Oh, hey, Miss James.” Henley, one of the first students I taught in sixth grade almost five years before, smiles at me from the drive-thru window, looking nothing at all like the twelve-year-old boy he’d been before. “Are you having a party?”
He stares pointedly at the passenger seat of my car, which is empty.
“Nope,” I snap waspishly as I hand him my debit card. “I’m about to gorge onallthose tacos.”
Henley Moore doesn’t acknowledge the sarcasm dripping from my tone, though. Instead, he leans out the window and offers me a grateful smile while he gives me the receipt and my card back. “Thanks for taking care of my sister this year.” He glances back over his shoulder and then back at me when it is clear my food isn’t there waiting for him. “Ciara told me that Zucker kid tried to cut off her ponytail last week, and I really appreciate you making sure it didn’t happen.”
His words cut through all the self-loathing and depression I’d been falling into just a minute before. I glance at my scraped and swollen knuckles, swallow deeply, and blink back unexpected tears.
“It was nothing,” I sniff.
“Not to Ciara.”
Henley taps on my door until I look back at him. His eyes are soft, shining from within and the smile on his face lights up everything around him.
“To her, and to me, it’s everything, Miss James.”
Unable to stand the praise, I close my eyes and try to pull myself together. I manage to nod, and then open my eyes again when I feel like I’m not about to burst into tears.
“Now, do you want fire sauce with this?”
His sudden shift to business mode has me smiling through the emotions I can’t seem to stop from bursting forth in the Taco Bell drive-thru.
“Yes, please.” I laugh through my sniffles. “And add some mild, too, if you don’t mind.”
I watch as he grabs two large handfuls of sauces and adds them to my bags before handing them to me through the window.
“Have a good night, Miss James. And thanks again.”
Henley waves to me, and as I drive away, I realize that my sour mood has brightened significantly just by talking to him for a few minutes. He’d always been a sweet boy, though, so I’m not surprised by the way he’s gone out of his way to make me feel better.
When I pull into my driveway, I expect silence. More importantly, I expect the house to be empty. Music blasting from the surround sound speakers in the living room proves me wrong, and the pounding that immediately starts behind my eyes tells me that my life is about to be ten times worse. Plus, I have to work in the morning.
The music stops abruptly a few seconds after I slam the front door.
“Good, you’re home,” Chris greets with a cheerful smile on his face as he steps out of the hall that leads to my room and the bathroom. “And you brought food so I don’t have to feed you leftover pizza.”
I open my mouth to tell him to leave. To find somewhere else to stay the night. Before I can find the words, he holds out a bottle of ibuprofen and pulls my favorite blanket out from behind his back.
Six foot six and bald, Chris isn’t someone to be told no. He has just as much muscle on his body as my brother does, and he works harder than anyone else I know to maintain it. Our fridge is full of healthy food, and his prepared meals take up the entire bottom shelf. After work, every single day, he is at the gym. No matter how many times I tell him I am allergic to sweat, he swears he’ll get me into the gym if it kills him. Right then, I feel like stabbing him in the eye with a pencil, so I actually find myself hoping he’ll ask me to go to the gym with him.
Instead, he says the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard come from a man. “I cleaned the house, made your bed, washed your clothes for tomorrow, and got everything ready for school. All you have to do is take the pills, change into pajamas, and wrap yourself in this blanket. I’ll take care of everything else you could possibly need.”
