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"I’onna be friends"
"Um, I don’t really do friends, either," I replied quietly, as I glanced back up at hih my opinion on the subject was completely irrelevant
"Don’t look so worried," he reassured me, "I’m a fierce friend to have in your corner" He turned toward the gy past hi the door behind me, I chuckedmy arm over my eyes I’d had more human interaction in the last couple of days than I’d had in the last sixwithout fear of reprisal, was hard I wasn’t a natural conversationalist, and any confidence I one As hard as today had been, though, and as much of a fool as I’d made of myself, I’d loved the work It was prettyOnce the door to Danny’s office had closed, I’d lostoutside of that office ceased to exist The scariest part was those five minutes with O’Connell I’d been attracted to boys like Noah when I was younger, but once the abuse started, I was sure that part of me had died Five minutes with the full force of O’Connell’s char about hieous s with e But I couldn’t becoirl O’Connell was used to in a week, and I was pretty sure that’s how long it would take for him to realise that I wasn’t worth the effort
I SQUEEZED MY EYES SHUT TIGHT and pretended that he’d knockedin and out toIt felt like he’d broken a rib I had no idea whether he usually stopped beatingso Where was the fun without the fear? As always, Mum was my Achilles’ heel As soon as I ca on her, I intervened Not that I thought I’d stop him, just deflect the punishment and hope that he didn’t kill us both She’d never done the same for me, she’d always run and hid when it wasover uy to beg for forgiveness and plead re The arsehole took pride in his work I felt his big sweaty hand squeezereflex to keep pretending It wouldn’t be long now before the beatings turned to rape As e in hi my cheek, I opened my eyes and sat up with a start
My cracked ribs, like allwasn’t so easy anylass of water to calet another one soon because the drea much more frequent lately It was like he could sense that I was beginning to live again, and he was lettingas the sick fuck was still in my head, I’d never really be free
"HEY, EM ARE YOU STILL rocking the herht rested on one hip, held out her food tray and waited for my reply
"Feel free" I s , I couldn’t help but ask her about it
"How corinned back at me
"God has blessed me with a fast aining weight Plus, I have low blood sugar, so if I go et Incredible Hulk cranky"
"Hello, baby I see you saved a seat forburly bear of a man dumped his tray down next to Nikki’s and landed a kiss on her head as he reached over to pinch her apple
"What gave you the impression that I saved a seat for you, arsehat? And are you so hard up for money that you have to come and steal my food?" she retorted, sarcastically
"Ah," he teased, "don’t be soyou don’t love uessed this was banter that they’d shared before, and it was kind of a was futile, and with a roll of her eyes, she relinquished her fruit A couple more trays landed on our table with a clatter that made me jump, and two more bears joined the company of the first I ate ale that today by team