True for You(7)

Aunt Helen stares at me with vacant eyes as she opens the door. “You’re sixteen. Old enough to earn your keep.”

“You told me I was hired to clean his house,” I scream.

“Don’t you back talk your aunt.” Uncle Brian grabs my shoulder and throws me outside. I land in the dirt, air rushing from my body in a painful whoosh.

The frame of my glasses is painfully tight against my now-raw skin. Lifting my head, I blink and can barely see a thing. The gravel I landed on has scratched the crap out of them.

“I’ll have to give that bastard his money back, you worthless little bitch. Knowing him, he’ll want his pound of flesh, too, and he ain’t getting it from Helen or me.”

I spit out a mouthful of grass and taste blood. Fear courses through me, and my stomach turns. I can’t go back there. I just can’t. I’d rather slit my wrists than go back.

“Here’s what’s going to happen next: I’m going inside to finish my breakfast, and then make a phone call. In the meantime, I expect you to get your ass back inside and shower, put on the dress Helen bought you, and be ready to go back.”

“I’m never going back,” I say through gritted teeth.

Brian’s face grows dark and, before I can move, he’s outside with me, fingers digging painfully into my skin. “If I have to hog-tie you, I will, Bliss. You ain’t got anywhere to go, no family to speak of, and no place to live. Do you really think anyone cares about you? You’re nothing.”

Call us Uncle and Aunt they’d said the first day I’d been dropped off. We’re going to take care of you like you’re one of our own. LIARS. “I hate you.”

His hand draws back and, before I can brace myself for what’s coming, he slaps me across the face. My glasses go flying.



A hand lands on my shoulder, and I scream.

“What the hell?”

“Please,” I whimper, screwing my eyes shut. I hate how helpless I sound, how helpless I feel in this moment.

“Bliss, hey, hey… it’s me—it’s me. It’s Jackson,” he says, his voice still rough from sleep and his hangover. “Are you okay?”

No, I’m not okay. I want a hole to open so I can drop in it, and float away. Let the darkness eat me, until nothing’s left.

“Bliss!”

I try to say something, but I can’t. My lips won’t move, and my throat feels like it’s full of marbles.

“Talk to me, baby doll,” he pleads, sounding nothing like he had when he’d first woken up this morning. “You’re scaring the hell out of me.”

Turning my head a little, I stare at him, though dry eyes.

I stopped crying four years ago.



*** *** ***



Jackson

I take Bliss into my arms, settling back against the headboard of the bed. She’s shaking like crazy, and I have no idea what made her so scared or what to do about it.

All I know is the sound of her scream made my hair stand on end.

“I-I… I’m sorry. I thought I saw a snake on the floor, and I’m scared to death of those things,” Bliss says, her voice whisper thin.

Snakes? In April? “I’m not trying to call you out, but you were completely inside your head before I even tried to touch you. I said your name at least five times, and you didn’t say anything.”

“Oh.” Her nose touches my chest as she turns into me. I hold her tighter, trying to ignore the softness of her skin against mine, while I run my hand up and down her back. “Memories.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“No.”

I close my eyes. “Fine.” Eventually, I’ll get the truth out of her.

“I’m exhausted,” she says. “Can we talk later?”

“Yeah, sure. I’m exhausted, too.” Not just physically, from not being able to sleep for the past couple of days, but because I’m done. Done with love, with doing the right thing, and being a hero for a happily ever after in which the princess wanted the lowly farm boy and not the prince. Yeah, my ego is shot to hell. “We can stay like this, if you want.”

“I want.”

So do I. It worries me, though, because after I’d made my decision to help Cole and Violet, I’d made up my mind to be free. Free from contracts, from relationships, from my so-called family… from everything that made no sense.

Only being with Bliss makes complete sense, and it scares the hell out of me. This feeling of falling is familiar, but I know what happens when you stop falling. You hit the ground. Hard. And you’re never the same again, too damaged to be good for anyone else.

I open my eyes. “Bliss?”

“Yes?”