Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 193(@200wpm)___ 154(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 193(@200wpm)___ 154(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
I reach out and touch her chin so she looks back at me. “I don’t care what anyone told you. I’m telling you that’s not what I’m after. I like you, Lily, and I want to get to know you. Let me take care of you and we can see how things go. Please.”
“Okay.” Her bright blue eyes lock on mine, and I feel a weight lift from my chest.
I take her hand and we walk over to the Jeep. I open the door for her. She’s so short, and my Jeep is lifted, so I have to grab her by the waist and lift her into the cab. She lets out a giggle when I do it, and I promise myself to make her do that more often.
She tells me how to get to her house, and I pull up out front. It’s clean, but smaller than I’d imagined. I don’t say anything about it, because I can see she’s a little wary. We exchange numbers and sit in comfortable silence for a second.
“Thank you for today, Ren. You made it a lot better than I anticipated. I appreciate the ride, too.” She grabs her backpack, and I get out to help her out of the Jeep.
“Thanks for today, too,” I say and hold her hand another minute, reluctant to let it go. “I’ll be here at seven-thirty in the morning.”
“Oh, you don’t have—”
“I’ll be here,” I say, cutting her off. She smiles and nods, and as much as I don’t want to, I let her hand go.
I climb in my Jeep and watch to make sure she gets inside okay before I leave. When I’m far enough away that I know she can’t see, I pull out my cell phone and hit the top saved number.
“Dad, I’m gonna need you to give my girlfriend a job.”
9
Lily
I look around the living room. I finally got the last box unpacked. Each move, we have less and less that we bring with us. Our old life is slowly disappearing. I wonder if the pain will still linger when it’s all gone. Will my father and I be able to stop living in this misery that’s always hanging around us?
When I hear the front door open, I turn to see my father stumble in. He almost trips over his own feet, and I rush over, trying to stop him from falling to the hardwood floor.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” he bellows and thrusts his arm at me.
He pushes me back, and the force causes my feet to tangle. I lose my balance and can’t catch myself in time, and I fall. A sharp point shoots through my back, the corner of a small table. I scream as the blinding pain sears through my body.
“Goddamn it, Lily.” My father bends towards me, his once-dark hair now streaked with gray, the wrinkles around his eyes stark. They’ve doubled over the last few years. He looks worn to the bone. The alcohol, combined with the death of my mother, shows all over his face. His filthy breath fills my lungs as his fingers dig into my arm, and he pulls me to stand. I bite back another yelp, my back now throbbing.
“Sorry,” I say, wanting to look anywhere but at him. He doesn’t release my arm, and I have to look back up at him. He stares down at me, his eyes wild. He doesn’t know where he is, and that knowledge sends terror rushing through me. His hold tightens on my arm, and I don’t know how far he’s about to go. “Dad,” I whimper.
“You look just like her. I can’t stand it.”
With that he releases me with a small shove and heads into the kitchen. I hear him banging around for a minute, then everything goes quiet. I know he’s eating the simple spaghetti with hamburger I made. I left a plate wrapped in plastic for him on the table. I didn’t know when he’d be back. Sometimes he comes right after work, and other times he ends up at a bar until late into the night. If that’s the case, he comes home well after I’m asleep. I prefer him to go to the bar. When he comes home straight from work, I have to watch him slip away drink by drink. At least when he does it there I don’t have to see it.
Slipping away upstairs, I go to my room and put as much distance between him and me as possible. I wish I had a phone or some kind of computer to look up the hardware store Ren told me about, anything to get my mind off what just happened. I look at myself in the mirror, lifting my shirt to see a bright red mark where my back hit the table. That’s going to hurt in the morning.