“Stevie, get out of here. Now,” Nora says under her breath, but she’s still sitting frozen, squeezing my arm.
I wriggle out from her grasp, swallowing the vomit sitting at the top of my throat, then somehow manage to pull my underwear back on and button up my shirt enough to cover myself. Finally Nora snaps back to reality, pulling her sports bra on and her shorts, keeping her eyes locked on her mom the entire time. Maybe I should say something.
“Mrs. Martin, this is all my fault. I—”
Suddenly Mrs. Martin unfreezes and lunges forward. She clamps her hand around Nora’s jaw, forcing a high-pitched cry out of her throat.
“I always knew there was something wrong with you.” She squeezes even harder.
“Mom…,” Nora squeaks out. “Please. I’m sorry.” Her face turns beet red as tears roll down her cheeks and over her mom’s hand.
Mrs. Martin jerks Nora forward until their noses are practically touching.
“You’re dead to me. Do you hear me? You aredeadto me.” She spits into Nora’s face and then all at once throws her sideways. Her head crashes into the heavy wooden dresser.
“Nora!” I cry, taking a step back. But as Mrs. Martin moves toward her again, I throw myself forward until I’m right in between them. The edges of my vision turn black as Mrs. Martin catches me by the arm. She drags me up onto my feet and pushes me so that I stumble backward into the bed.
She points her finger at Nora, curled up in a ball, covering herself protectively. “You get yourshitand you get the fuck out of my house,” she says, then storms out of the room.
I hurry over to Nora, but her eyes are looking past me somewhere. I grab her face in my hands. “We have to go,” I tell her.
She doesn’t say anything, but she gets up onto her feet, her whole body shaking against me. I pull a duffel bag from the top shelf of her closet and set it on the bed in front of her. She stands there, staring at it for a few seconds, before she finally starts darting around her room, grabbing handfuls of clothes and stuffing them inside. The last thing she grabs is a small box from under her bed that she tucks into the bag before zipping it up.
With the rest of my clothes back on, we both head downstairs toward the front door, but Nora stops short.
“Mom?” she says, looking into the living room, but her mom has her back turned to us and she doesn’t move a muscle, doesn’t say a single word.
“Come on.” I take Nora’s hand and tug her toward the door.
We step outside into the pouring rain, and both of us are instantly drenched from head to toe. Nora pulls her hand out of mine and I turn around to find her stopped dead on the front walk.
“What am I going to do? What was she even doing home?” she asks over the rain falling around us. “Oh my God. What the fuck just happened?” She crouches down, dropping her head into her hands.
I lean over her, my head still reeling from what I just saw, from seeing the girl I love thrown into a dresser by her own mom.
“Nora, you can stay with me,” I tell her.
“And tell your parents what?” she asks, turning to look at me.
The second she turns and her eyes meet mine, I know exactly what I want to do. I know what Ihaveto do. I have to protect her. I have to be with her. And I’ll do anything to make that happen.
“Listen to me. I’ve been thinking about it a lot and… I’ll tell my mom the truth. Okay? She loves me. She’ll be okay with it. And my dad is barely around anyway. We’ll figure it out.”
“Stevie…” Nora shakes her head.
“Come on.” I pull her up onto her feet and toward my caras a heavier wave of rain comes down on us. “I’ll tell her right now. I’ll tell her I’m gay. I’ll tell her I’m inlovewith you and that you need our help.”
“Stevie, juststop!” She rips her hand out of mine.
Why is she being like this?
“It’ll be fine. She…”
“You already told her!” she yells, then looks down at my feet.
“What?” I ask, confused. “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”
“Stevie…” She meets my eyes again. “You already came out to her.” Her voice is softer now, barely audible over the rain. I shake my head.
