She's Broken

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The next few days with my mother were awkward. She was back to creeping around me, trying not to upset me. It was almost as if she thought I woud crack if she pushed me too hard.

When she went like that, I tended to miss my dad and wish that he never walked out on us. I didn't exactly blame Dad for leaving us, he was just trying to be a decent father to Finn, but he was the levelheaded parent, the one that dealt with problems. My mum was the fun parent, the one that enjoyed riding. The one that stuck with me.

"Can we please get rid of this atmosphere?" she asked at last. I smiled with a nod, sitting down on the porch swing next to her. She looked at me out of the corner of her eye before turning in my direcion, placing her hands on her knees.

"I'm sorry. I know that what you're going through is hard, I just want to help," she said through a breathy sigh.

"I know, Mum. I really do. I just want to leave it where it is, in the past," I admitted, brushing my thumbs against each other absentmindedly.

"You can't do that if you don't let go." Her constant pushing was what had caused our last arguement, I didn't want it to create another.

"I need to do this on my own. You need to understand that I don't want to sit in a cramped room with a therapist, have him look at me the way everybody else does. All I want to do is sit with Harley and let the past, stay in the past." She opened her mouth to say something else but then closed it again, obviously thinking better of it.

"Okay, Kat. Okay." That wasn't her defeated voice, I didn't think that she'd even begun to give up.

When Finn had first been arrested, they made me see a therapist for people who have suffered a trauma. She wasn't on the same page as me, none of the three that I saw were. They just looked, gave a sympathetic smile and then wrote something down. Apparently, what they wrote was confidential, that was what made me hate it so much. At least at school you could hear what people actually thought of you.

"That boy is nice." My mum's voice snapped me out of my daze and I noticed that she was looking towards the field where Eli was working.

"He's alright," I said, accompanied by a shrug. My mum shot me a look, turning her nose up.

"He's cute as well," she pushed. I smiled, leaning back against the pillow and raising an eyebrow towards her.

"If you like him so much, ask him out," I teased and she laughed, shaking her head. Her light laugh echoing around us, settling and creating a happier atmosphere. For the first time in months, she seemed relatively relaxed.

"I was thinking more along the lines of you, believe it or not," she replied, leaning her head on the pillow and looking at me, the familiar light back in her dark eyes.

"Aw, c'mon, you could use a toy boy." She let out another laugh, my own joining hers a few moments after.

"In all seriousness, though, he is sweet," she added, causing me to sigh. Eli was sweet and he was nice. He also didn't seem to care about my rape at all, which was why it must've been some kind of joke or a bet.

"He's alright, I guess." Mum let the conversation drop after that. I'd never had a boyfriend before and we both knew the reason why, bringing it up would only spark another argument. I'd had a nearly-boyfriend once, but Finn soon managed to chase him off. After that, I'd given up on boys altogether.

My mum decided to go inside and cook up some food, leaving me on the swing alone. Eli looked over and caught my eye, his dark fringe getting caught in his eyelashes. I smiled and he waved me over, gesturing towards Tempest.