“Dad, please,” I beg, my voice shaking as my body shivers from the fear.
My mom was right. He’s a bad man, and I wish I’d never talked her into letting me spend the summer with him.
I kneel on his kitchen floor, shaking, with my hands tied behind my back. The itchy rope bites into my skin.
“Are you begging, you little pussy?” he snarls, and the strap whips my back again.
I squeeze my eyes shut, wincing, as fire spreads across my shoulder blades. Closing my mouth, I try not to make any noise as I breathe through my nose until the burning fades away. The skin on my lips feels stretched and swollen, and the slippery metallic taste of blood fills my mouth.
Tate.
Her face flashes in my mind, and I crawl back into my head where she is. Where we are together. Her sunshine hair floats on the wind as we climb the rocks around the fish pond. I always climb behind her in case she stumbles. Her stormy blue eyes smile down at me.
But my father breaks through. “You don’t beg! You don’t apologize! That’s what I get for letting that cunt raise you all these years. Nothing but a coward now. That’s what you are.”
My head jerks back and my scalp stings as he yanks me by my hair to meet his eyes. My stomach rolls when I smell the beer and cigarettes on his breath.
“At least Jax listens,” he grits out, and my stomach shakes from the nausea. “Isn’t that right, Jax?” he yells over his shoulder.
My father releases me and walks over to the deep freezer in the corner of the kitchen and pounds twice on the lid. “You still alive in there?”
Every nerve in my face fires with pain as I try to hold back tears. I don’t want to cry or scream, but Jax, my father’s other son, has been in the freezer for almost ten minutes. Ten whole minutes and not making a sound!
Why is my father doing this? Why is he punishing Jax when he’s mad at me?
But I stay quiet, because that’s how he likes his kids. If he gets what he wants, maybe he’ll let my brother out. He has to be freezing in there, and I don’t know if he has enough air. How long can someone survive in a freezer? Maybe he’s already dead.
God, he’s just a little kid! I blink back the tears. Please, please, please…
“So…” My father walks over to his girlfriend Sherilynn, a crazy-haired crack head, and his friend Gordon, a fucking creepy ass lowlife who looks at me weird.
Both sit at the kitchen table enjoying whatever drug is on the menu today, not paying any attention to what is going on with the two helpless kids in the room.
“What do y’all think?” My father puts a hand on each of their shoulders. “How are we gonna teach my boy to be a man?”
I jerked awake, my pulse pounding in my neck and head. A drop of sweat glided over my shoulder, and I blinked, seeing my own room and walls come into view.
It’s okay. I breathed hard. They’re not here. It was just a dream.
I was in my own house. My father wasn’t here. Gordon and Sherilynn were long gone.
Everything’s okay.
But I always had to make sure.
My eyelids were heavy as fuck, but I sat up and hurriedly scanned the room. The morning light blared through my window like an air horn, and I brought my hand up to shield my eyes from the painful rays.
The shit on my dresser had been shoved to the floor, but it wasn’t unusual for me to make a mess when I was wasted. Other than some disarray, the room was quiet and safe.
I let out a long breath and inhaled again, trying to slow down my heart as I continued looking left to right. It wasn’t until I’d made a full circle that my eyes finally rested on the lump next to me under the covers. Ignoring the ache between my eyes from the alcohol the night before, I peeled the blanket back to see who I was dumb enough—or drunk enough—to let spend the whole night at my house.
Great.
Another fucking blonde.
What the hell was I thinking?
Blondes weren’t my thing. They always looked like good girls. Not exotic or even remotely interesting. Too pure.
They looked like the girl-next-door type.
And who really wanted that?
But the last few days—when the nightmares had started again—all I’d wanted were blondes. It was like I had some sick pull to self-destruct over the one blonde I loved to hate.
But…I had to admit, the girl was hot. Her skin looked smooth, and she had nice tits. I think she’d said something about being home for the summer from Purdue. I don’t think I told her about me being sixteen and still in high school. Maybe I’d spring that on her when she woke up. Just for kicks.
I leaned my head back, in too much pain to even smile at the image of her freak out.
“Jared?” My mother knocked, and I jerked my head up, cringing.
My head throbbed like someone had stuck a fork in it all night, and I did not want to deal with her right now. But I hopped off the bed anyway and headed for the door before the girl next to me stirred. Opening it just a little, I eyed my mother with as much patience as I could muster.
She was wearing pink sweatpants and a long-sleeved fitted T-shirt—nice for a Sunday, actually—but from the neck up, it was a mess as usual. She had her hair stuffed into a bun, and her makeup from the day before was smudged under her eyes.
Her hangover probably rivaled mine. The only way she was up and moving around was because her body was a hell of a lot more used to it.
When she cleaned up, though, you could see how young she really was. When most of my friends first got a look at her they thought she was my sister.
“What do you want?” I asked.
I thought she was waiting for me to let her in, but that wasn’t going to happen.
“Tate’s leaving.” Her voice was soft.
My heart started thumping in my chest.
Was that today?
And suddenly it was like an invisible hand prying open my stomach, and I flinched at the pain. I didn’t know if it was the hangover or the reminder of her leaving, but I clenched my teeth to force down the bile.
“So?” I mumbled, overloading on attitude.
She rolled her eyes at me. “So I thought you might get off your ass and say goodbye. She’ll be gone for a whole year, Jared. You were friends once.”
Yeah, up until two years ago…The summer before freshman year, I’d gone to visit my father and came home to realize that I was on my own. My mother was weak, my father was a monster, and Tate wasn’t a friend, after all.
I just shook my head before shutting the door in my mom’s face.
Yeah, like I was going to go outside and give Tate a hug goodbye. I didn’t care, and I was happy to be rid of her.
But there was a lump in my throat, and I couldn’t swallow.
I slumped back against the door, feeling the weight of a thousand bricks fall on my shoulders. I’d forgotten that she was leaving today. I’d been pretty much drunk non-stop since the Beckman party two days ago.
Shit.
I could hear car doors slamming outside, and I told myself to stay where I was. I didn’t need to see her.
Let her go study abroad in France. Her leaving was the best damn thing that could happen.
“Jared!” I tensed up when my mother called from downstairs. “The dog got out. You better go get him.”
Great.