“Where will that trust get me if he constantly avoids me?”
“Then make it so he can’t avoid you.” I blink, surprised by her advice. “I have to go now but I’ll be in touch with you later. Love you!”
“Love you, too,” I reply but I still feel in sort of shock.
As the phone disconnects and I drive the rest of the way to community college I can’t help but think of what she said.
She’s right.
He’ll be in my town today. He won’t be able to easily avoid me.
And when I see him because I know I will I’ll ask him the question everyone else has been answering for him.
But first I have to ace these final exams.
Oak
Hollows Point is a town that no one gives a shit about and it shows.
From the buildings down to the pavement it’s easy to see that this town isn’t cared for.
Not to mention the corrupt cops and how the law chooses to abide only to certain people.
This town reeks of desperation, lost dreams, despair and darkness.
On every corner you either see someone propositioning a person with their body or one getting high out of their mind.
This a town where criminals thrive and the innocents die.
It’s hard to believe that anything good can come from it.
But there are a few diamonds in the rough. Ones who managed to break the cycle of the society they were born into.
Snake is one of them. No doubt this town tainted him but he’s a good man. A loyal one with a black heart that bleeds for the people he loves.
Alice is another. She lived a life of tragedy yet still held onto hope. After everything that has happened to her it hasn’t tainted her soul.
And then there’s the one who I have been actively avoiding. The one who I can’t let get too close because if I do I’ll ruin her before this town ever has the chance to.
I’m hoping that I don’t run into her today. Not after I have been working so hard to make sure that our paths haven’t crossed in the past month.
She has been coming up every weekend with her little brother who might as well be her son.
There’s a guilt I feel heavy in my chest when I know it’s not only her I’m avoiding.
The boy is eleven years old but he has a pure heart of gold. Even in the short time I’ve spent with him he’s managed to crack through my barriers. Ones that I have stacked so fucking high I don’t know how anyone can possibly bring them down.
I think it’s because he reminds me of a younger me. A young boy filled with dreams and a heart that is still intact. There’s hope in his eyes. Hope that I used to have before that day. Before I couldn’t get that hope back.
He’s also a curious little guy. He would ask me question after question about anything and everything. He made me feel like I had all the answers in life when in reality I have no idea what the fuck I am doing anymore.
But it’s his older sister, the one who I have been avoiding, Gracie Mae, it’s her who has done more than cracked my walls.
She’s got inside my head. Infested my thoughts. Sneaked her way inside my dreams. She made me forget the shit going on inside my head when she was around.
And I know what you all are thinking. If she has done so much good why in the hell are you pushing her away?
Because you don’t bring people to a war that is already lost.
