All the power and bravery I’d been feeling deflated like a popped balloon. My body twitched out of my control, making me feel even more like the freak she’d labeled me. I lowered my face to hide the tears pricking my eyes.
Brandt didn’t abandon me and leave with her, though. He said, “Actually, yeah. I’d much rather hang out with Sarah any day of the week than the school’s rudest skank whore who can’t seem to keep her tits out of my face. Now if you’ll excuse us...” He grasped my shoulder and turned my wheelchair, steering me down the hall away from Chloe. “We have class to get to.”
And right on cue, the first bell of the day rang.
I barely heard it, though. I was too busy gazing up at my new hero in awe as he kept moving us along with no idea where he was going.
He sent me a rueful grin and leaned in closer to admit, “I can’t stand bullies.”
My nostrils flared as I inhaled his woodsy scent. Then my head went woozy with joy as I stuttered, “I...I can’t either.”
His expression exploded into the most amazing grin ever. “Then we’ll get along just fine.” Lifting his gaze, he took in the students around us. “Where the fuck are we going, anyway?”
I laughed. Chloe Hilliard had just called me the school freak, yet I couldn’t seem to care. Brandt had chosen me over her.
Life was amazing.
“The other way completely,” I instructed, making him jerk my chair to an abrupt halt.
“Shit, sorry. Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
As he wheeled me around to go back the way we’d just come, I could only smile. There was a lot I hadn’t told Brandt in that moment, like the fact I’d just fallen flat irreversibly in love with him.
BRANDT
AGE 14
Colton was having nightmares. About our mom.
It’d been almost a year to the day since Noel had arrived at our trailer house and moved us all to Illinois with him and his now-wife Aspen. Ergo, it’d almost been a year since we’d last seen Daisy. She hadn’t once tried to contact any of us in all that time.
So why in the ever-loving fuck was Colton still dreaming about her?
It worried me.
I mean, what if she’d done the same thing to him that she’d done to me? Just thinking about it made me want to hyperventilate with fear and see red with rage all at the same time. But seriously...not Colton. Not my innocent, nine-year-old baby brother. I would hunt the bitch down and snap her neck if she’d touched him.
Problem was, I didn’t know how to find out the truth without outing myself. The very last thing I ever wanted to happen was for anyone to find out what she’d done to me. I would rather die. I hadn’t even confided in Sarah about it, and I told her everything. It was just too...yeah, I didn’t even like thinking about it.
Blocking it out and forgetting it had ever happened was totally the best plan of action.
Except there was Colton.
Since I didn’t have the balls to just come right out and ask, Hey, did Mom molest you too? the guilt ate at me. Every time he woke up in the night, gasping for breath, I broke. I couldn’t deal with it, so I pushed him away whenever he tried to climb into bed with me, seeking solace. He was usually forced to go to Caroline’s room for comfort.
It still felt odd not sharing a bed with him any longer, or a room with Caroline, for that matter. But I had to admit, all the new space I had to myself was nice, especially on those nights when I woke drenched in sweat and shaking from my own nightmare. No one had any idea anything haunted me too because I didn’t want them to. I pretended my life was fine. Better than ever, because honestly, it was. I loved living here.
Noel and Aspen took care of all the shit I never should’ve had to deal with before. I was free to be a kid and live my life without worrying about anyone else. I could actually think about the future, and I started to believe I might actually get some of the things I wanted these days. I wasn’t about to let one little incident from my past mess with the awesomeness that was my existence now.
But if something had happened to Colton too, and he needed help, like professional help, could I actually confess my own demons to get him that help? I wasn’t sure. I was the only person on the planet who knew about me, and I wanted to keep it that way. Hell, not even Daisy remembered what she’d done, I don’t think. The next time I’d seen her after, she’d returned to ignoring me as if I didn’t exist.