AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sensing me, he turns around, chest heaving, rain quickly soaking his hair and plastering it to his pale cheeks. He’s chattering, but it’s not cold. It’s mid-fucking July. The height of summer.
And yet, I feel it—that pervading chill that burrows down deep, calcifying our bones to the point of splintering.
“Fuck you,” he grits through clenched teeth, fists clenched at his side. His neck tendons are pulled taut enough to jump out through his too-pale skin.
Eyes burning, all I can do is storm toward him, chasing each backward step of his with big, forceful strides.
My cheek where he slapped me tingles hotly under the splash of rain. He got me good. Good enough that I hope it swells. Bruises. It’s the least I fucking deserve.
“Fuck you,” he spits again.
His entire body trembles—he’s a shivering wraith in the thin darkness.
When I reach him, he shoves me as hard as he can. I stumble back a step, but I don’t let it stop me. Again, I go to grab him, and he shoves me. Over and over, he shoves me, slaps at me…futilely fighting me off as I bring him into my arms.
And all I can do is close my eyes, whisper, “It’s okay,” and take it.
Even when an elbow nails me in the rib…
Even when his fist grazes off my chin…
Even when he twists and squirms and claws at the arms I bracket around him in a bear-like vice…
I take it all.
Accepting his violence for the precious gift it is.
Because as far as I’m concerned, there’s no one else in the world who deserves to unleash as much as Jeremy Montgomery.
And right now, there’s no one more deserving of his wrath than me.
“It’s okay,” I say to deaf ears.
Another slap.
Another rough shove.
I’m vaguely aware of several sets of eyes taking us in from the porch, but surprisingly they keep their distance. Letting us work it out amongst ourselves.
Bending my knees, I grip him tight, and slowly ease us down to the wet chipped pavement.
Fingers bite into my arms, blunt nails digging into my skin.
“It’s okay.”
And Jeremy screams.
The most heart wrenching scream I’ve ever fucking heard in my life. It rings out into the night, broken and savage and filled with more pain than words could ever do justice. More than I think any human is capable of carrying, much less storing inside for as long as he has.
It seems to rip out of him from the deepest, unventured part of him—somewhere no one, not even him, I suspect, has trekked.
And I realize it’s not just the loss of his other half finally hitting him, after months of holding it in, displaying hardly any emotion whatsoever.
It’s everything.
A culmination of years’ worth of bullying and anxiety and struggling to accept himself.
Tonight was just the tipping point.
