Their laughter simmered down as they looked at each other. The tallest boy, seemingly the leader, sucked his teeth and gave a dismissive wave of his hand before turning to walk away. The rest followed behind.
“I’ll uh… bring something for your knee,” the quiet girl offered.
“Thanks, Lily,” she muttered, wiping a quickly fallen tear.
“Can you stand up?” he asked her once they were alone.
“I can try.”
“Here.” With little effort, Draco picked her up and carried her onto the porch. After sitting her in one of the chairs, he asked, “What’s your name?”
“Cordova. What’s your name?”
“Dra—” His mouth snapped shut. For some reason, he wanted to tell her his real name. “I’m Him.”
Her head tilted, brows wrinkled, and mouth opened slightly. The innocence of her confusion made him smile for the first time that day.
“Your name is Him?” she confirmed softly, sweetly.
“Yeah. Everyone calls me Draco or by my last name though.”
“Can I call you Him?”
Draco shrugged, biting back a smile. “You can call me whatever you want. I’m yours.”
Her hand covered her mouth as she sniggled. Lily returned with hydrogen peroxide, a towel, and a box of Band-Aids.
“Megan said to tell you she’s sorry and not to tell Mama.”
Cordova nodded as Draco accepted the items and immediately got to work on her cut up knee.
“It’s okay. Tell her I accept her apology.”
Draco wanted to tell her not to acceptshit, but he remained silent until Lily went back inside.
“You the youngest child or something? Why they picking on you?”
“Technically, yes, but—ah!” She hissed and jerked her leg back when he poured the hydrogen peroxide on it.
“I know that didn’t hurt, Cordova. Probably just cold.”
Her puppy dog eyes made him soften toward her, so he lowered and blew the sizzling liquid until it settled.
“I’m the youngest, but they aren’t my siblings. They’re my cousins. They don’t like me. Well, Lily does.”
His movements stopped at the sound of her saying they didn’t like her. “How could anyone not like you?”
While Draco didn’t know a thing about her, his spirit told him she was good people. He listened intently as Cordova told him that her parents died in a car accident four years ago when she was eleven. Since then, she’d been living with her aunt and uncle and their kids. While her aunt and uncle treated her like she was their own, she only got along with one of her cousins—Lily. Megan treated her like her worst enemy, and Cam and Brandon only tolerated her unless they were teasing and fighting with her.
The more she talked, the more he realized they had a lot in common. Families who felt like anything but. And by the time Draco had finished cleaning her cut, he realized he wasn’t just hers… but she was his now too.
Thirteen Years Later
The only reason I’d stopped by my pops’ house was because it was next to Cordova’s, and she was riding with me to the funeral. Her bitch ass cousins had beentreating her like the redheaded stepchild for damn near twenty years now and refused to let her ride with the family to the funeral… as if losing her aunt wasn’t just as hard for her as it had been for them. She’d already lost her parents and her uncle, and now, her aunt was gone too.
Brenda was the last person in her family besides Lily that truly fucked with Cordova, and now my girl felt like she had no one. She literally said that shit when the doctors came out and told them Brenda had passed. Cordova released the most gut-wrenching sob and straight up said, “All my help and love is gone.”
A part of me felt some kind of way about that shit because we’d been best friends since day one, but I understood where she was coming from. We weren’t family, and her aunt had raised her since she was eleven. That was an emotional moment for her, so I brushed it off and didn’t take it personally so I could be there for her.
