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Her eyes widened from my touch but she nodded her head and said, "That sounds nice"

I rolled off the bed and went in to start the bath water Her eyes trackedat the scars I knew she’d ask me about them soon too And I would have to share my fked up train wreck of a past I didn’t want to The thought of bringing her into that cluster fk went against every instinct I possessed, but still, I wouldn’t ever keep the truth froain That wasn’t an option with Brynne and I’d learned my lesson

I poured in some bath bubbles and adjusted the te into the bathroo toward otten too sli about another round of prehistoric shagging but forced it down so the rational part of h so to the front of the queue and overshadowing everything else The greedy bastard

So I took her hand instead and helped her step into the tub with ot us settled I sat in the back and put her in front of ainstcock I told ine Muriel the street vendor and her acco mustache if he wanted more of Brynne’s divine fanny That did the trick Muriel was hideous, and probably not even a real woman Maybe not even human In fact, I’m sure Muriel is really an alien scout sent here to sell newspapers and learn the language I still craved my Djarums Piles of them

Brynne sniffed the air "Do you s that "But I’ll have to stop it inside the house now that you’re here with me"

"I don’t mind it, Ethan The smell of the spice and the cloves is nice and it doesn’t bother me, but I know it’s bad for you and I don’t like that part"

"I’ to quit" I slidjust at water level "With you here I’ll do better You can be my motivation, okay?"

She took a deep breath and nodded Then she started talking

"I never went back to raduation and I quit My parents were in shock at the change infor theued about what to do, and had very differing opinions I didn’t care I was someplace else in my head and very, very sick It’s hard to admit about myself, but it’s the truth I was destroyed emotionally with no way to escape the demons"

I kissed the back of her head and held on to her a little tighter I knew all about demons, the evil cocksuckers that they were "Can I ask why your parents didn’t try to press assault charges on the three of theet an arrest You were underage and they were adults…and there was videotaped evidence"

"My dad wanted them in prison My mom didn’t want the publicity She asserted that h the ht But again, I didn’t care what anyone did about it I was lost in ottenhell…

"It put e I--I couldn’t deal with any of it My dad didn’t knohat to do about a pregnancy He started talking to the senator My mom scheduled an abortion for me and I simply could not handle any more I didn’t want a baby I didn’t want to kill as inside of me either I just didn’t want to be re and everybody reuess if I’d felt better about s out, but then if I’d felt better about one to that party in the first place and ended up on that pool table"

"I a her to really understand how I truly felt "Listen, baby, you cannot blame yourself for what happened to you" I pressed in close to her ear "You were the victim of a crime and treated abominably It was not your fault, Brynne I hope you know that now" I rubbed up and down her ar the ater up over her skin

She settled more into my body and took a deep breath "I think I do now, for themy place in the world helped too But back then I was done Done with living I couldn’t see another path for me"

All the war Like a train wreck you can’t stop staring at, I had to knohat had happened to her but also didn’t want to know I didn’t want to go to her dark place with her

She shifted in the bath and twirled her fingers in the water as she started speaking again "I’d never felt so calot up and knehat I would do I waited until Daddy went to work I felt bad for doing it at his house but knew thatit at hers I wrote theoodbye letters and set the pills I’d stolen froot in the bathtub, and cut rip and all I could do was hold on to her, feel her war her at the point of taking her life, at such a young age, and feeling she had no other options was very sobering I kne I felt about Brynne but this scared the shit out of ot sleepy and didn’t really cut deep enough to bleed out, or so I was told later The pills I took were the far worse danger Daddy found me in time He came home for lunch to check onand he just cahtly and turned her head a little more to rest her cheek on lad you sucked at it," I whispered "My girl can’t be brill at everything" I tried to lighten theMy role was to listen, so I kissed her hair again and putto thank him," I whispered