I catch sight of Grey, who's looking at my father's hands on me, nostrils flared, wide eyed, and I know they're right. So to spare my father from getting the shit beat out of him, I shake off his hands and nod. Then meet Grey's eyes again.
"Meet me at home!" I yell.
"Go," Cass says flatly. "I'll make sure he knows."
Against every instinct, I leave. Every step gets harder.
Don't look back. Don't look back.
I look back.
They're still holding Grey back, the guy on the ground clutching his face. There's blood. A crowd. Phones out. Everyone not staring at them is staring at me, whispering starting. My parents flank me, marching me to the car. The doors unlock.
"Get in," he says.
Doors slam. I'm sitting in the backseat like a child. The silence is immediate, suffocating. My eyes are locked beyond the window on the crowd. I don't know what's happening. I don't know if he's okay.
The engine turns over, and Dad's backing out, jerky, angry.
That's as long as the silence lasts before he breaks it.
"What the hell was that?" His voice is flat, controlled. Somehow, it's worse than if he yelled.
Mom's half-turned in her seat, face pale, hands twisting in her lap. She doesn't say anything, looking at me like she's never met me.
"You heard what they said." It's automatic, the way I stand up for him. "He was defending me. He tried to walk away--"
"That wasviolent," Dad says, his fists white knuckle on the wheel. "He…I've never seen someone…and in front of children," He shakes his head. "He should be arrested, do you understand that? He assaulted someone."
"They were saying horrible things--" The pitch and volume of my voice rises with my emotion. "Lies about us, about--"
"I think he broke that man's jaw. He could end up in the hospital." Dad's eyes meet mine in the rearview, hard, disappointed. Then I watch them wince. He sucks in a breath, squeezes his left bicep.
Mom watches him, somehow even more worried. "Are you--"
"I'm fine," he says. Wejustwatched him attack a man at a town function. He didn't just throw a punch, he dove at him. It took four men to hold him back.Four."
The sight of him flashes through my mind--Grey's face bent with rage, teeth bared, roar on his lips, trying to break out of the hands that held him.
"He was protecting me." Even I hear how weak it sounds.
"By losing complete control of himself? What happens whenyoumake him angry?"
"He wouldnever,"I snap, knowing that in my bones.
"You can't know that."
"This is what we were afraid of." Mom starts to cry,actuallycrying. "Older man, too much experience, too much--"
"Baggage."
There's no way to explain just how gentle he is., not to them, not right now The connection between that Grey and the one I just saw is stretched so thin, I can barely see it.
"And the things that man said," Dad continues, his voice shaking now. "Is…is that true? Did you…do that?"
The air kicks out of my lungs. "Dad!Oh my god. Of course it's not true, I can't believe you'd--"
"What the hell are we supposed to think? I don't recognize you at all."
