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“I didn’t ask him for this”

“You did soet it”

“That’s ridiculous”

She looks me up and down “Really? Because you were just his type”

“Erin!” I shout because the idea is not only gross but absolutely ridiculous And offensive

“What? It’s true” She nudges a beer bottle, watching it roll and hit the wall “I was around your age when I started dating him Maybe a few years older Not so hard to believe, huh? Maybe you seduced him”

“I never touched him, and he never touched me”

“I don’t believe you” So sinister flashes across her face, and then she’s prowling toward me in slow, steady steps “If you never touched him and you didn’t ask Ronnie for the money, why not leave it to me?”

I force myself not to back up when she closes in onscent of booze and sex on her “I don’t knohy he gave me the money, Erin”

She sags, looking a foot s to do?”

It feels like I’ sucker punched as I watch her

Erin can be difficult, but she’s had it rough With her shoulders sluer It reirl who lost her parents and put her own dreams aside to take care of me Erin hasn’t always been the woman she is now

It’s why I still put up with this new version of her

“Don’t worry I’ll take care of you” The moment I say the words, she visibly stiffens “Do you think I’d leave you with nothing?”

She took care of me for years, best she could

Does she think so little of me?

Instead of reassuring her, she rears up at my promise “I don’t need you to take care of me”

“I know you don’t Consider it a thank you for everything you did for me”

And I mean it

Although she’s ate that she took me in That she once tried her best to be there That, in truth, she saved me

“You’ll give ive it to in with”

“Yes”

She worries her lip at my answer, then nods “It’s the least you can do foryou”