Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“Dr. Pierce!” she called out for a man who wasn’t even there. “Get him out! Get him out of here right now!”
“He’s not your doctor! He’s your husband! We’re your family!” I heaved, struggling to breathe in and out. To hold on to whatever I had left of her.
“Jackson, you can’t do this. It’s not good for her,” one of the nurses ordered, grabbing ahold of me. Prying me off her. “You have to go.”
“Fuck you! She’s my mother!”
“Not right now she’s not. You’re making matters worse!”
Tears flooded my eyes, spilling over and rolling down the sides of my face. “How can they get any worse than her not knowing who I am?!”
“I’m sorry, son, but you have to go.”
My fingers held onto anything I could, snatching the heart necklace from my mom’s neck. It was the only thing she had left from her childhood, belonging to her mother before she left her behind too.
“Don’t take me away from her! Please don’t take me away from her!”
I had no control over my emotions, not one.
“Keep him away from me! Keep him away from me!” she repeated in a tone that would forever haunt me. “I hate you! Do you understand me?! I. Hate. You!”
“Son, calm down!” I heard the nurse say over the ringing in my ears.
She hates me.
My mother hates me.
I stopped fighting, the wind knocked out of me. Every ounce of strength, of willpower, of love I had for her...
Was gone.
I watched her lose her mind.
Lose herself.
There was nothing left for me to do.
She was gone.
Again...
But for how long?
“I hate him! I never want to see him again! Don’t let him come back! Please! Just keep him away from me!”
The look on her face.
The sound of her voice.
The way she was rejecting me.
It was all too much to take, too much to handle, too much to live through. Because in the back of my mind, all I could think, all I could see, all I could feel, was her not remembering me.
Out of everyone in her life...
She forgot me first.
And all I could think about was...
How much time, how many years, how much longer did I have...
Until I lost my mind too.
Chapter 9
<>Harley<>
“Jackson doesn’t look like he’s in the best mood right now, Harley. Maybe it’s not a good time to bring this up,” Shiloh stated while we were at my daddy’s Sunday MC barbeque.
Cash, Shiloh, and I were hangin’ in the shed away from everyone else. I needed to be alone with my best friends at a time like this. We needed to talk about the atomic bomb that was dropped on me two days ago by Memaw when she picked us up from school.
I’d be lyin’ if I said I wasn’t surprised Jackson and Jagger were there in the first place. Especially after the stunt Jackson pulled in class. They’d come with Uncle Noah and Aunt Skyler, and it was the first time in what felt like months since they stepped foot on the compound.
Though Shiloh was right, Jackson looked like he’d seen better days. I’d spent the entire weekend thinkin’ about what Memaw said. I couldn’t help it. I wanted to rub it in Pierce’s ugly face. I finally knew the truth behind his wicked ways.
He liked me.
Maybe even loved me.
“It’s ridiculous you’re even feedin’ into that gibberish,” Cash chimed in, pullin’ my attention over to his eyes. “Is this why you’re all gussied up? For him?”
“What?” I replied, taken back. “I ain’t gussied up.”
“You’re as pretty as a peach today, Harley.”
I smiled. “Really?”
“I knew it!”
I rolled my eyes, shakin’ my head. “Cash, I always look good. It’s just how I roll.”
“You never wear makeup.”
“I ain’t wearin’ makeup.”
He stepped toward me and swiped his thumb over my lips, showin’ me the pink residue left on his skin.
“That ain’t lipstick. I ate a cherry popsicle earlier.”
“Harley, you ain’t foolin’ anyone but yourself.”
“I just wanna embarrass him like he embarrassed me.”
“I think there’s more to it than that.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, Harley. You tell me.”
“I did tell you. What more do ya want me to say?”
“The truth.”
“Which is?”
“I don’t know, Harley. You tell me,” he repeated in a much different tone.
“What’s with the ‘tude?”
“I don’t like seein’ you fussin’ over a jackass. He ain’t worth it.”
“I ain’t fussin’ over him.”
“He’s all you’ve talked ‘bout all weekend.”
“That’s only cuz he pissed me off.”
“He always pisses you off, but you never talk ‘bout him this much.”
“Cash, my whole literature class thinks I got my period Friday. It’s a little traumatizin’, don’t ya think?”
“Since when do ya care what people think ‘bout you?”
“Since they think I was bleedin’ out of my fruity tooty!”
Shiloh started laughin’.
“It ain’t funny, girl.”
“You’re right. It wasn’t funny then, but it’s kinda funny now.”
“Oh really? Was it funny when Trigger was sniffin’ around your fruity tooty?”
“Ugh, gross. I can’t stand him.”