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Yeah I know Stubborn as hell "All right Call et so day"

"Sleep? Are you shitting me?" He chuckles and I end the call

I lay my cell on my chest and rub my eyes with the heels of ain, trying to push me away I don’t knoanywhere

If uilt)to be able to make me leave either I’ht noant to be wherever she is I want to touch her and know she’s okay

Shit There is no way I’ anytime soon I throw the blanket back and pad out to the tiny living room Maybe I can tire my mind with some TV

The remote isn’t where I left it--which is beside the television Hope gets so irritated when I put it there because "the whole point of a re those lines

As I’ flashes, illuht of the old Bel Air for just a es in my chest with a kick of adrenaline

Iit open Hope’s sitting on the one step thatI’hbors are up, they can deal with my boxers I step out on the slick concrete and scoop her up into

"What are you doing? Why are you sitting in the rain?" I kick the door closed behind me and take her into the closet I call the bathrooe of the sink "Iteeth

My chest tightens with her words It’s the first ti like that Hope’s always claimed to hate her mom for all the messed up shit she did to her as a kid But hell, I miss my messed up mom too

"I miss the ti layers of clothing off her I start with her hoodie, dropping it heavily to the floor I pull her shoes off next and she sighs

"It wasn’t very often, but she would make the best pancakes and ould race to see who could eat them the fastest"

I rub her frozen toes for aover her face

"Whatever would make her happy--make her act like a normal person…it would usually disappear by the ti"

I start to take her shirt off and she pulls back quickly, pushing my hands away "Don’t," shethe obvious "You can wear one of my shirts"

She looks away and shakes her head And then I realize I know exactly why she doesn’t want to take her shirt off in front ofyou fair warning, so there’ll be noers over the heehair "No judglossy when I lean back She lifts her arms and I slide the shirt off slowly, afraid to see what’s waiting underneath I don’t see anything on the front except her pale, smooth skin She shifts uncomfortably and I catch a streak of purple skin in the ue to keep myself in check "What happened?" I ask carefully

"Therapy wasn’t very fun"

I clench ers curl into fists "What happened?" I repeat The tension in h I try to hide it

She slips off the counter, pressing into ertips overto distract h of Hope, but I can still see the bruise across her back

As weird as it ht now

I hold her face in between both of my palms and kiss her softly "Tell aze before finally reaching up to wrap her hands around my wrists "I don’t like Veronica"

Veronica That’s the therapist "Okay," I say "Fill the gap between the time you decided Veronica was a bitch to the moment you ended up at les out of her jeans I take the towel off the shower rod and wrap it around her She shrugs

"I don’t know if I can do this, Mason It’s too hard"

I don’t knohat the right thing is to say here She has to do this She has to get healthy But I know better than to tell her she has to do anything That is one of the s about Hope It’s also one of the best things She makes up her own mind, the hell hat anybody else thinks

I brush my mouth over her neck and pull her into ht I’ll just hold her

"It’s after ainst her ear "Happy birthday"

4

Hope

Mason cooes well The plan is to tell everyone I’ forward to the actual telling part, but I can’t wait to spend the night within his ar away our plates, I decide to help her--soften her up for the boe and hands me a handful of forks "I have candles," she says I can tell she’s watchinger with the fahs and turns to face me "I can’t believe you’re an adult I know you’re not uard and I feel ood at these things But Jenny knows this

She turns back to the counter and busies herself placing the sically on h tihtly Ever since Mason’s mom called her and told her--told her that I hurt myself--Jenny’s had this haunted look in her eyes every time she looks at me It’s part of the reason I want out of here

"How can you be proud of aze "It took a lot of courage for you to go to therapy yesterday I knoas hard, but you did it"

Yes, but you have no clue what I did after