“Do you remember when I told you my mom took off the day I turned fifteen?”
“Yeah leaving you with your grandmother, but that all was a lie, wasn’t it?”
“No, well the leaving me with my grandmother is because she died when I was two,” she admitted making his brow tick up a bit higher. “I’ve been on my own, completely on my own since I was fifteen, the day I turned fifteen actually, and the only person who knows the whole story is Tate.”
“What?” Jordan asked, his anger leaving him when he read the truth on her face. He crossed the room and sat down in the chair beside her.
“My mom was a really lousy mother; she’d go off leaving me alone for days. She said goodnight to me before I went to bed,an oddity in itself that I should have picked up on, and in the morning, she was gone. That is the complete and utter truth Jordan. I was scared and alone, and I did the only thing I could think of—I called Tate. He came over and stayed with me for a few nights and when we knew she wasn’t coming back, I had nowhere to go.”
“You’re telling me no one knows other than Tate and now me?” he asked, worry and fury racing through him at what her mother did to her, how the men she’d been around looked at her, how Tracks treated her even more knowing what he did now.
“Yeah, if the school found out I’d be shipped off into the foster system, and I couldn’t do that. I mean look at me. I’m the same size as I was then in every way. I really have been fighting off advances since I was fifteen and everyone always assumed that I was older.”
“So you went out and got a job?” he questioned, unable to see how people didn’t question it. He hadn’t but only because he’d taken others at their words when he’d looked into her work history, had believed she was almost twenty-one even if she looked a bit young still.
“At first Tate and I would hit up the bars in town hustling for money but one night a couple of people weren’t too happy about being hustled by a girl and we both knew it had to stop. I was barely managing to hold onto the apartment. I knew I could move in with Tate and his parents but that would mean telling them the truth and risking everything if social services got involved. I figured the only way to get through would be to get a job, so I did.”
“When was that?”
“The beginning of summer after my freshman year. I’d been working for Henry for almost a year and a half when you showed up for that meeting. I’d gotten a fake internship in order to get out of classes, took a bit of convincing but I managed.”
“Damn it Mel, what the hell am I supposed to do now?”
“Please don’t say anything until October, Jordan. Once I’m eighteen they can’t force me into the system. I won’t make it in there even if it’s just for five months.”
“How are you supposed to live Mel? Go to school...college…”
“I was hoping you wouldn’t find out until this time next year,” she said lowering her face from him. “I didn’t like lying to you I just…I couldn’t think of losing Tate. He’s the only person who’s ever been there for me through everything. The first time my heart was broke, the first time my mom forgot my birthday, the first time I was attacked…”
“What? Mel,” he said as her voice cracked slightly making his heart ache for her, for what she’d been through, the damage others had done to her.
“I was waiting for the bus when an older classman grabbed me and tried to pull me into the bushes. I was fourteen and they wanted to see if I was like my mother.”
“God Mel,” he said wrapping his arms around her and holding her tightly. “Shh, it’s okay. It’ll all be okay.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do,” he stated wiping her tears away. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“How?”
“I’m going to find your mother.”
“That’s not going to help. She’s not going to stay,” she said between laughs of swallowed tears.
“Yes it will. Mel, do you trust me?” he asked gently, stroking her hair from her face, calming her enough to stop crying and laughing as hysteria tried to take over her.
“Considering I just told you the truth, yeah.”
“I’m going to find your mom and I’m going to have her sign a paper giving us permission to get married.”
“What?!” Mel shouted jumping up and taking a step back away from him in shock, certain she’d misheard him.
“Nothing will change Mel except you can live anywhere you want. We get married, you get to keep your job. You can stay in school, be there more if you want. I won’t force you to give up Tate.”
“But we’ll be married?” She couldn’t quite imagine it, and she blinked shaking her head as she tried to get her mind wrapped around the idea.
“I’m not going to make it a real marriage Mel, just something on paper that keeps you safe. We can find a new apartment—house, somewhere inside your school zone so you can remain there and we’ll be roommates.”
