“Of course, they are.”
“Go hide in a safe spot.”
“I’m not hiding. Plus, the baby is asleep upstairs.”
“Go upstairs.”
“Hayes, this is ridiculous. I was too embarrassed to call Malec, and now you’re freaking me out.”
“You called me for a reason, Liv.”
“It was a mistake.” I shrug as if he can see me, pacing back and forth behind the couch.
“Nothing between us is ever a mistake.”
I can’t respond, and my silence is heavy between us as his engine revs in the background.
I know I should hang up, but a part of me wants to keep him on the line until Thea and Jesse get home.
Even after all this time and everything we’ve been through, I can’t cut off the only connection I have to him. I’ve never been able to.
But I’m also not the girl I used to be.
“Listen, I shouldn’t have called. I’m fine. The porch light probably needs a new bulb, and–” I’m already staring at the door as the brass doorknob twists ever so slowly.
“New bulb? What are you–” I gasp, cutting him off, not hearing the rest as my phone clatters to the floor.
Chapter Six
Hayes
Fourteen years ago…
“Just leave her alone! Go to bed, you’re drunk!” I slam the storm door, roaring in frustration as I stomp down our rickety wooden porch.
Another night, another disgusting display by my father. He’s a loser.
The first beer gets cracked open when his eyelids do, and he doesn’t stop until he’s belligerent. Somehow, he still manages to go to work and pay the bills on this shitty trailer so he can hold that over my mom’s head. And mine, not that I asked to be put on this earth.
He’s belittled my mom for so long that she hardly ever speaks, and when she does, she merely whispers. I can’t stand to be around them.
I hate my dad, but I love my mom. I hate watching her stay around a man who treats her that way.
If I could get out of this hellhole, I’d get her out of this damn trailer park.
I won’t have to stare at this sad neighborhood playground covered in spray paint. I’ll buy her a house where the grass isalways green, and she never has to tiptoe around. My father can rot by himself in his recliner.
“Fucking, loser!” I yell into the sky, kicking the rusted swing.
The hinges squeak painfully until I grab the chains, halting them. Something shuffles across the playground, and I see her retreating form on the other side of the slide.
“Liv?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t want to intrude.”
“No, you don’t have to go. I’m just pissed at my dad.”
She stops walking and turns towards me. She has her backpack on and has a laptop folded up against her chest.
