She was passed out beside Lily, one arm stretched protectively toward her daughter. My old t-shirt swallowed her frame, and her blonde hair was still damp, spread across the pillow.
She looked exhausted. But beautiful in a way that made my heart ache.
Looking at her in my bed, in my clothes, with her daughter sleeping peacefully beside her, I felt protectiveness stir in me.
But I forced myself to step back. To close the door gently and walk away before I did something stupid like go in there and—what? Tell her I had been in love with her since we were kids? That I let Jack have her because I was too much of a coward to fight for what I wanted?
No, I couldn’t do that to her. Not now. Not when she was barely keeping it together.
I made it to my bedroom and closed the door behind me, leaning against it like it could somehow keep all these feelings contained.
My mind was already spiraling as memories flooded back to when I first met Paige.
Flashback
The playground was my least favorite place in the world.
I was sitting alone on the swings while other kids ran and screamed and played together like it was the easiest thing in the world. For them, maybe it was. For me, it was torture.
Because every time I tried to talk, the words got stuck. And when they finally did unstick, they came out wrong.
Maybe that’s why my dad hates me.
“Hey, D-D-Derek!”
I looked up to see Tommy and his gang of third-grade jerks approaching. My stomach sank. Tommy was the worst kind of bully, because he was stupid and thought he was hilarious.
“W-W-What’s wrong?” Tommy stuttered, his face twisting to mock me. “C-C-Can’t talk right? My dad says you’re s-s-s-stupid.”
His friends laughed. My face burned hot, and I looked down at my shoes, willing myself to disappear. I tried to say something, anything, but the words wouldn’t come. They never did when I needed them most.
“Leave him alone!”
The voice came out of nowhere, high-pitched and furious. I looked up to see a girl I had never met before marching toward us like a tiny general going into battle.
She wore a yellow sundress covered in daisies, and her blonde hair was pulled into pigtails that bounced with each angry step. She was small and shorter than me, but she moved like she was ten feet tall.
“Who are you?” Tommy said.
“I’m Paige,” she said, planting herself between me and Tommy. “And you’re being mean. Say you’re sorry.”
Tommy laughed. “Or what? You’ll tell the teacher? Go ahead?—”
He didn’t finish the sentence because Paige punched him in the face.
Not a push or a slap but a full-on punch. Her little fist connected with his nose with a crack that made everyone gasp.
Holy crap.
Tommy stumbled backward, clutching his face, and when he pulled his hand away, there was blood. His eyes widened, then filled with tears, as he started crying.
“You hit me, crazy girl. Y-you hit me!”
Paige shook her hand with a wince, but her chin stayed high. “Yeah, and I’ll do it again if you don’t leave him alone!”
Before she could make good on that threat, I grabbed her hand and ran. If I didn’t, she would fight everyone, because she seemed unstoppable.
We didn’t stop until we were two blocks away, both of us breathless and panting in someone’s front yard. Paige bent over, hands on her knees, laughing between gasps for air.
