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ALL I DO. { irl }
it took a while for niola to calm herself down. but once she did, she asked matt if she could stay the night at his house. of course, matt agreed and drove her and rayne to his house.
the ride was silent for the most part. niola sat in the passenger's seat with rayne in her lap. rayne didn't exactly understand why her big sister was so upset, but she knew better than to ask.
matt did too. he looked over at them every few seconds, making sure they were both okay. he felt like he would be too scared to let niola out of his sight ever again.t he sound of her screams, the feeling of her crying in his arms, the sight of someone holding her at knifepoint. it would haunt him for the rest of his life.
rayne was the one to break the silence when she said, "why are you so sad?"
matt decided to just keep his eyes on the road, not wanting to seem nosey (but he was definitely listening when niola answered).
"what are you talking about?" niola asked with a laugh, her voice hoarse from crying. "i'm fine."
"was it daddy?" rayne's voice was small and timid when she spoke. "did he do something to you again? like he always does to momma."
"no." niola lied, shaking her head. "no, he was just stressed out. that's all."
"but he burned you."
what does she mean by burned? like with a lighter? matt looked over at them when rayne said that. niola's eyes were filled with tears again, like she was struggling not to break down again. she brushed the hair back from rayne's face with a bittersweet smile.
"i'm okay, ray." niola said, but rayne didn't believe her. she might be young, but she knows better than anyone when her sister is in pain.
"he picked me up from miss posey's house." rayne said. "she didn't want to give me to him, but he took me anyway. why does everyone hate him? is it because he hurts you?"
"he's not a good man." niola said, trying to sugarcoat the truth without blatantly lying.
it's a delicate situation to do what niola's doing. rayne should be able to think whatever she wants of their father – she should be able to form her own opinions on the man – so niola doesn't want to force her opinions onto rayne. but when rayne is this young and asking tons of questions, it's hard to hide the truth.
"when miss posey didn't want to give me to him, daddy slapped her."
matt suddenly remembered the handprint he saw on her face earlier. his hands tightened around the steering wheel, feeling another sense of anger bubble in his stomach. for some reason, it really pissed him off to know that someone hurt miss posey.
she raised niola like a mother. she also helped matt get into niola's house. without her, niola would be dead.
"he slapped her?" niola asked, sounding just as angry as matt.
"mhm," rayne nodded. "even after he hit her, she tried to take me back from him. but he left before she could."
matt looked at niola and saw that she was just a angry as him. he looked back at the road and saw a gas station a few blocks ahead.
"how about this," he said, "it seems like you've both had a really long night. i'll buy you guys some candy from the gas station up there. you can pick out anything you want – you've got no budget."
he gestured to the little building and rayne smiled, "yes! yes! yes!"
"you don't have to do that." niola told him.
"it's the least i could do." he said. "you've been through a lot of shit and all i can offer is some candy."
when matt and niola entered the gas station with rayne, they got a ton of weird stares from elderly people thinking they were teen parents. but neither of them noticed – or cared.
rayne excitedly ran up and down the isles, grabbing handful after handful of candy bars and bags. after grabbing some candy, she ran back to matt and made him hold it all so she could get some more.
"so," matt muttered after grabbing a basket to hold the candy in. "do you want to talk about what happened?"
niola didn't look at him. "it's hard to talk about."
"you don't have to say anything if you don't feel comfortable." matt said. "i was just asking in case you wanted to get it off your chest."
"i do want to talk about it, but i don't know if this is the best place." niola told him, gesturing around them at the old people eavesdropping on their conversation.
"that's true." matt said with a chuckle.
after a few minutes of talking about something different to get their minds off of niola's father, rayne came running up to them with about fifty chocolate bars stuffed in her shirt. she was smiling and on the verge of dropping all of the bars.
"okay, okay," niola stopped her from leaving to grab more. "i think you have enough candy."
rayne pouted, but knew that niola was right. but knowing she was right wasn't the reason why she didn't argue. rayne didn't talk back or complain because she feels bad for her big sister. she doesn't know what happened, but she knows it wasn't good. and she doesn't want to cause any more problems for her.
