“You think you’re tough little girl?” even I knew my voice held no real heat, no wonder she threw herself against me and hid her face in my chest. I’m such a chump that I held her while she sniffled. When she’d caught herself I pulled her head back by fisting her hair and looked into her eyes. “I don’t want you near that guy again. Is this all he did?” I ran my finger over the bruise under her eye.
“Yeah, he tried locking me in his room and when I bit him he struck me and I ran. I hid outside and called Carrie, sorry, I didn’t call you. That’s when he came out and slashed my tires. I don’t know what came over him, why he acted that way. I’ve never given him any idea that I was interested in him in that way. We hadn’t seen each other in years…”
“Where were his parents and his brother while this was going on?”
“They were there but they didn’t do anything I don’t know why.” Maybe because they know their son is an abusive asshole. I didn’t say it out loud but I was thinking I should’ve broken his fucking arm at the very least.
“If you ever find yourself in that kind of situation again you call me, no one else me, do you understand?” She nodded yes and gave into the shakes and tears. “Ssh it’s okay come ‘ere.” I held her as tight as I could without squeezing the breath out of her amazed that we’d gotten through this crisis intact. For a minute there I had seriously given thought to sending her home, I’m not sure that I could’ve broken things off with her but the anger was enough that I was willing to separate us for a few days. Now I was worried that that might’ve sent the wrong message. Fuck it’s like walking a minefield not knowing what was the right thing to do in every situation. Because of my past and hers there were certain things I never wanted to have to navigate, not this soon anyway. I had barely relearned trust in another human being and I’m sure she had some issues there too. I had fashioned myself as sort of a security blanket for her and yet I had been ready to send her away.
Why the fuck was I feeling guilty about this shit? she’s the one who’d fucked up all around. First by going to that dick’s house and then by calling me a stalker. Okay she didn’t exactly call me that shit but it was close enough. “Did mom take care of your eye?” she nodded as I turned her towards the bed to sit, I was suddenly very drained from the day’s fuckery and also from coming close to disrupting my life again.
“Kadyn let’s get a few things straight okay. I’ll forgive you this time but if you ever say anything like that to me again I’m not going to be this understanding. That was a low disgusting blow baby, and before we even go any farther right now I think you should know that I’m going to be the same guy where you’re concerned always. So if you think my actions constitute stalking then you should probably walk now because I’m always gonna want to know where you are and where you’re going.
I’m going to gripe at you about wearing certain things and about who the fuck you talk to because that’s just who the fuck I am. If you can’t deal…no fuck that just learn to fucking deal with it. If that scares you I’m sorry, it’s not meant to but you yourself should know better than anyone how dangerous it is out there and how fucked up human beings can be. When you’re out of my fucking sight you bet your ass I’m going to be calling you to find out where and who. I’ll try not to be too annoying but I don’t really give a fuck about that either. In all the time you’ve been here how many times have you seen Carrie go off somewhere by herself?” I let her think until the realization dawned on her that she’d never seen that shit.
“Your situation is going to be ten times worst you know why? Carrie’s shit was a one-night thing, that guy was out to harm anyone it didn’t matter who. The asshole who’s been after you has been for a long time, not that he’s ever getting near your ass again, I’m not saying that; but I’m always going to be cautious when it comes to your safety. Are we clear on this, you need to get pen and paper and write this shit down for future reference?”
“No I’ve got it, it’s pretty much what Josh told me earlier.”