FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS OF THE CHEATER.FAKER.TROUBLEMAKER SERIES (WATTY'S 2016, FICTION AWARDS 2016, HACHETTE AUDIO 2017), JENNY ROSEN & KRISTEN MAGLONZO.
After bullies, braces, and brutal heartbreak shatters his faith in love, soon-to-be fre...
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CHAPTER 34
Elias
She's here. Really here.
On my doorstep. At the doorway of a home so broken no amount of sun and sand surrounding it's two-story glory could hide the story of what played out here almost a week ago.
What's left of the home my father made is the three of us in the house he'd say he paid for.
Only Mom and Tanner were the ones who paid for it. Because of me.
But, despite how obviously shattered everything is right now, she's still here. With me. For me.
She has been for the last ten minutes, and I can't believe it.
I keep waiting for her to disappear.
It hasn't happened yet.
Lacey's still standing in front of me, holding on to me with the tips of her fingers like she's scared I'll break. She doesn't even know that her touch is tethering me to the world right now.
I've been losing track of myself over the last week. Losing touch with reality. Some days it feels like Friday didn't even happen. With Dad temporarily out of the house and Tanner back from the hospital, it almost feels peaceful.
I'll walk downstairs in the morning and find Mom puttering around the kitchen like she always does, doing her best to make our mess of a house feel like a home. But then she turns around, and her lips are still swollen and marred with tiny cuts that Dad gave her, and I'm forced to realize that no matter how badly I want things to go back to how we were before, nothing will.
Everything's different—especially, Tanner.
Thanks to that Flintstone-hard head of his he managed to walk away with a concussion and a well-hidden set of stitches under his mop top. If it hadn't been for all of his swimming muscle, his ribs would've been broken, not bruised. Mom and I said a thousand thank you's to God that things didn't turn out worse. Physically, Tanner's blessed. More than he knows.
But mentally, he's—not quite my brother anymore.
The doctors sent him home from the hospital with mountains of pain killers, a couple counseling numbers he could call, and told him to rest.
And that's all he's been doing.
Sleeping six hours a day in a room where he insists on Mom keeping the curtains closed so the sun doesn't slip in. Tanner's a California kid through and through. He lives and breathes for the sun, sand, and the ocean.
