By the time I’d read through all those articles, I actually felt hope surge through my veins.
Maybe I can do this after all.
My stomach growling pulled me from my trance, so I slipped my phone back into my pocket. I gathered my things and walked back the same way I came, then slipped into the grocery store. Rae’s grocery store. The one where all this bullshit started in the first place. I made my way to the deli and picked up a couple of sandwiches. Some fries. Even grabbed an energy drink from the machine. I felt people staring at me as I went through the line. The line Rae usually worked.
Only it wasn’t Rae behind the register.
And I found that I didn’t really like that.
You miss her.
I shook the thought away and walked my ass outside. I sat down on a bench near the front doors and tore into the food I’d bought. I wondered what Cecilia was doing. If she was worried about me. I wondered what she was thinking. If she was worried about the status of her marriage with my father. In my eyes? She needed to be more hellbent on taking care of herself. Finding a safe haven to run toward. Finding a way out of this hellhole. Because I knew my father would bring down hell on us all once he got out of that hospital.
She needed to take care of her own safety.
She’s staying behind for you.
I growled to myself. The last thing I needed was yet another innocent woman going to bat for me. Rae tried it, and it almost got her hurt. And I didn’t have the energy to push another good woman away. Cecilia had been a godsend. An adult who showed me what it really meant for a parent to care about a fucking child. I didn’t want to push her away. The easy route would be for her to pack her shit and leave me behind. I knew how to deal with that. I knew how to write people off the moment they abandoned me. Mostly. Kind of.
Except your own mother.
Holy shit, I was a fucked-up human being.
I finished my food and tried not to give my thoughts any more energy to grow. Now I needed to concentrate on getting home. Even though cooler temperatures were falling over the city, that didn’t stop the sun from beating down against our backs. Sweating me to my fucking core as I sat on the bench beside the sliding doors of the grocery store. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the time. Fucking hell, it was almost three o’clock.
You’ll need a ride to get home on time.
I searched for the taxi companies in the area before calling one up. I didn’t want to make an Uber account and have to use it or anything. Because if I did, Dad would know I hadn’t been in school. He’d see that charge to the credit card and flip his fucking nozzle. As if he didn’t already do that, anyway. The last thing I needed was any more of a reason for my father to want me dead. Because I’d done enough to warrant him killing me.
I found myself dreading the moment that he got home from that hospital.
I ordered the taxi, and thirty minutes later it showed up. I rattled off my address and the man drove me home. And I just gave him the thirty bucks I still had left over from lunch. I didn’t care how much the trip cost. I didn’t care how much I was overpaying him by. The only thing I cared about was whether or not Dad was home. Whether or not I’d open this door and feel his wrath beating against my body.
Literally.
Until I bled to death.
I drew in a deep breath. As the taxi pulled away, I started for the front door. I opened it up and walked inside, bracing for my father’s voice. But when I heard Cecilia yelp, I whipped my head up.
“What? What’s wrong?”
Her hand pressed against her chest. “You scared the living daylights out of me, Clint.”
I closed the door. “I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s just me.”
I saw her book on the floor. She scrambled for it, trying to right herself on the couch again. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes wide from the shock. My heart ached for her. How scared she was for my father to come home. But, when she lifted her eyes to meet mine again, the fear melted away. And replacing it was this cool sort of strength I’d come to learn she possessed.
A trait I envied quite a bit.
“How was your day?”
Her voice ripped me from my thoughts. “Uh, good.”
“Did you make it to school?”
I nodded slowly. “Yep. I did.”
“Are you sure about that?”