Itching his nose, Jacob stared me down. “I heard what he was doing to you.”
Grabbing a rock, I chucked it into the bushes. “You followed me home?” My cheeks were on fire, my belly in a knot that couldn't be undone. “You're an idiot, Jacob. What if he had seen you?” And how much did you see? I was too scared to ask.
Hopping down onto the grass, he eyeballed me. “I was careful, Kite. He didn't see me, and I swear I didn't peek inside. Please don't be embarrassed, I just want to help.”
I was burning with shame. “You can't,” I spat. Another rock flew into the woods. “Forget what you heard.”
Jacob's eyes warmed. I hated his pity. “I can't forget. And I won't.”
Bile rose up and burned my throat. “Just try to.”
He waited until I was looking at him. Then he spoke, soft and cryptic. “Can you forget what he's doing to you?”
Images ripped through my mind. Awful things, dark and twisted and full of cruel words and sweat.
No, of course I couldn't forget.
I'd tried since the beginning, I'd struggled in every way to make what was happening bearable. The result was a brittle boy who flinched and ran and hid from everyone.
“Kite,” he said gently, putting a hand on my arm. I jerked away, but he kept right on talking. “Your uncle is hurting you. You need to tell someone.”
I shoved past him. Rage was turning my muscles into weapons, I wanted to kick and punch everything around me. “I tried telling people! You don't think I did?” Scowling sharply, I jammed my heel into a log and sent it tumbling. “No one cares! No one around here gives a shit what happens to me.”
He hovered by the fence, staying back like I'd attack him next. “Who did you tell?”
“My fourth grade teacher.” Snatching up a branch, I shattered it over a knobby knee. “Know what he did? He visited my house, and my uncle smoothed it over with beer and money. That night, he was worse than ever.” Through my anger, the hot pricks of disgust made me shiver. Another stick snapped violently. “I tried to run away, once. The cops brought me back. He'll never let me escape and there's no proof but my word. Everyone always think I'm lying. Jacob, there's nothing I can do!”
Stepping my way, my new friend—my only friend—studied me with something strange in his blue eyes. He looked... thoughtful. The face of someone with an idea. “He's been doing this to you for a long time, then. Touching you—”
I whirled on him. “Not out loud!”
Jacob was stunned. He looked me up and down. “It isn't your fault! What he's doing is on him, not you.”
Hugging myself, I sat down heavily. Leaves rustled under me in the mild sun. “This stuff isn't supposed to happen. Not in real life.”
Jacob crouched beside me. His attention went up to the sky. “Real life is terrible. I kind of hate it.” He watched me from the corner of one eye. “But right now, I hate your uncle the most. Lots of people deserve to live. He isn't one of them.”
My heart stalled. “What do you mean?”
He lowered his tone, soothing and calm. “If no one else will save you, I will.”
Adrenaline began to seep into me. I've heard people brag before.
Sitting beside Jacob, a kid no different than me, I believed his every word.
“How?” I asked in a dazed whisper. “How will you do it?”
Jacob put his chin in his hands. He didn't look like a young boy, he was too calculating. In a way that had been subconscious since the start, I felt myself idolizing him. This kid, this smart, strange kid...
He was really going to save me.
“If we do this,” he said. “It will change everything. You understand that, right?”
I spoke with hardly a tremor. “We're going to kill him. Aren't we?”
Jacob nodded, fast and brief. “Yeah. But only if you're sure. Once we do this, you won't be hurt by him ever again, but we'll lose everything here. Both of us.”
Both of us.
“I have nothing to lose.” My cheeks were wet. The possibility of getting rid of the man who had been touching me in ways no one ever should, it was pushing relief into my body. I wiped at the tears, they kept coming. “What could be worse than this?”
Jacob didn't smile. All he offered me was a hand. “There'll be no going back. No summers here, no anything here. We'll end up on the streets. It might not be a better life.”
The seriousness in his stare, the odd patience in his eyes, it was meant to give gravity to the situation. Jacob was offering me a deal; he'd help save me—help rid the world of my putrid uncle—but doing so would change our lives.
He'd told me about his little brother, and what had happened to his dad. Jacob had said he had no family besides his sweet, but senile, Gram. Neither of us had anything to lose. Not really.
Maybe he expected me to think longer.
Years of sexual abuse had readied the answer on my tongue.
Gripping his fingers, I took his hand and squeezed. “Tell me what we need to do.”