Son of a bitch. “What the hell is going on?”
“Checking to see if you’re salvageable,” answers John. “And good thing for you, you kept that temper in check. Otherwise, your ass would be out of my gym.”
“Did you really break up with her because your dad would pay her tuition?” Kaden asks.
All three of them stare at me in silence and I keep my fists tight in case they don’t agree with my decision. “Yeah, but by showing here I’ve negated the deal.”
“She wouldn’t have accepted the money,” says Jax. “Haley has more class than that.”
She has more class than to be with me. Jax may not have thrown a physical hit, but he landed a blow full of guilt. “I know that now.”
“Does this look like the YMCA, girls?” asks John. “We’ve got a week until the fight.”
Jax straps on his gear and I angle my body so John knows I’m talking to him alone, but I have no doubt Jax and Kaden are listening. “I don’t deserve her forgiveness, but when this is done...tell Haley I kept my word and she’s worth fighting for.”
John pats my shoulder as he enters the ring. “That she is. Now get changed and get your ass on my floor.”
Haley
I have never envied anyone in my life like I envy Maggie. Lying next to me, Maggie’s arms are flung over her head. One socked foot hangs off the bed; the other sockless foot has broken free of the blankets. Only her middle is covered. She breathes lightly, rhythmically and I wish I could share such deep, dreamless sleep.
When I sleep, I dream of West: of his smile, his laughter, his hands on me. We kiss and we touch and when our bodies are intertwined, West whispers he loves me and every time...I wake up feeling cold and alone and with tears.
Tonight, maybe I won’t sleep. Insomnia sounds like a wonderful habit.
For once, sleep isn’t a problem for my father. He’s turned away from me, tucked tightly in a ball on the other bed. Maybe this will mean he’s on some sort of road to recovery. Unfortunately, I’m pretty numb on hope.
“I don’t know, Dad...” Mom dragged the phone with her into the bathroom. She’s called John every night since we left and each night she emerges with red, puffy eyes. After John’s car broke down, we spent almost a week at my mother’s cousin’s house. Now, we’re back on the road. The door to the bathroom clicks open and a ray of light floods the cramped room.
“Haley,” whispers Mom. “Kaden wants to talk to you.”
I slide off the bed and Mom squeezes out of the bathroom as I slip in.
“Are you sure?” I ask. Kaden avoids conversation in person. He loathes phones.
Her answer is the closed door. Limited on options, I sit on the edge of the tub and press the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“You need to come home, Hays. It’s West. He’s taking the fight.”
*
West Young broke up with me in a deal he made with his father. He was to leave the life he built behind and his dad would have paid for my college tuition. I briefly close my eyes. Stupid boy. Stupid, insanely sweet, going to get his ass kicked by me, stupid boy and I’m in love with him and West lied to me knowing I’d never agree.
He’s right. I wouldn’t have and I wonder how he thought I would have accepted the money, but none of that matters now.
Sitting on a bench outside the bus station, I grip the backpack hanging between my bouncing knees. It’s full of my clothes and the few precious items I won’t be separated with. When our house foreclosed, I had boxes and boxes of stuff I claimed as important. Funny how priorities change.
In the space in front of me, the bus’s motor purrs. Mom and I left a half hour ago, leaving a note for Dad. Maggie’s curled up on the bench beside mine, sound asleep and cradling her American Girl doll. The early morning air nips at my skin and I rub at the forming goose bumps.
Mom exits the office, sits on the bench next to me and lays the ticket on my lap. “Tell your grandfather I’m now trusting him with over half of my heart. It was hard enough to leave Kaden and Jax behind. Now the scale is completely imbalanced.”
Guilt eats at me as I handle the ticket. It was cheap, but it’s still money we don’t have. But Mom agreed. Returning for me is necessary. My knees continue to bounce as a chaotic ticker crosses my mind: I’m leaving my parents... I’m leaving my mom.
“Will you promise me something?” she asks.
“Sure.” Anything.
“Don’t listen to the lie in your head keeping you from discussing what happened with you and Matt. Speaking out takes courage, but fear can make a compelling argument. I’m not saying it will be easy, but telling the truth gives you power...It sets you free.”
I nod, unable to say anything back. I can’t imagine saying the words out loud, but I can’t imagine living like this forever.
“Are you going back for West?” she asks.
“Yes... No...” The answer is both, but I say the simple truth. “I’m doing this for me.”
Take Me On
Katie McGarry's books
- Bella Summer Takes a Chance
- Cowboy Take Me Away
- High Stakes Gamble
- Taken (Erin Bowman)
- A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked
- A Summer to Remember
- A Time to Heal
- Aerogrammes and Other Stories
- All in Good Time (The Gilded Legacy)
- American Elsewhere
- American Tropic
- Bad Games
- Binding Agreement
- Bite Me, Your Grace
- Bring Me Home for Christmas
- Come and Find Me A Novel of Suspense
- Dare Me
- Date Me (The Keatyn Chronicles)
- Death Warmed Over (Dan Shamble, Zombie PI #1)
- Fifteenth Summer
- Four Summers
- Game Over
- Life Times Stories
- Learn Me Gooder
- Leave Me Breathless
- Little Women and Me
- Midsummer's Eve
- Miss Me When I'm Gone
- Naked Came the Stranger
- Omega Days (Volume 1)
- Parlor Games A Novel
- Someday, Someday, Maybe A Novel
- Sometime Soon
- The Adjustment
- The Emerald Key
- The Game (Tom Wood)
- The Gentlemen's Hour (Boone Daniels #2)
- The Informer (Sabotage Group BB)
- The Remembered
- The Redeemed
- The Summer He Came Home
- The Summer I Became a Nerd
- The Summer I Learned to Dive
- The Summer Man
- The Summer We Came to Life
- The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat
- The Time in Between A Novel
- Three Times a Lady
- Touching Melody
- Wind Chime Point
- Blameless
- Blood Memories
- Brains:A Zombie Memoir
- Brief-Interviews-with-Hideous-Men
- Full Measures
- Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children
- Shame on Him
- Shame on Me
- Shame on You
- The Geography of You and Me
- A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
- A Vision of Loveliness
- Abdication A Novel
- Already Gone
- Armageddon
- Blood Gorgons
- Bonnie of Evidence
- Buried (A Bone Secrets Novel)
- Confessions of a Call Center Gal
- Conservation of Shadows
- Constance A Novel
- Deadly Deception
- Death on a Pale Horse
- Death on the Pont Noir
- Diamond Girl
- Domination (A C.H.A.O.S. Novel)
- Dragon's Moon
- Elimination Night
- Every Contact Leaves a Trace
- Extinction Machine
- Fight Song A Novel
- Fire Stones
- Gideon's Corpse
- Gone to the Forest A Novel
- Harvest Moon
- Hitman Damnation
- Honey Pie (Cupcake Club)
- Honor Student
- Honor Thy Teacher (Honor Series)
- Honor Thy Thug
- Invasion Colorado
- Kind One
- Light on Lucrezia
- Lionheart A Novel
- Montaro Caine A Novel
- Moon Burning
- Moon Underfoot (A Jake Crosby Thriller)
- On Dublin Street
- Once Upon a River