AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I—I didn’t mean to cross a line,” she soothes hurriedly.
Whatever lines remain in our relationship, I have a feeling that we have slowly crossed over them all. Where we are, I have no idea, but something feels so safe about this that I have no complaints.
“You don’t have to apologize, mostly because you’re right. The last time I laughed this hard was about ten years ago.”
Her eyes widen beautifully with her shock.
“Bunny was fifteen, and he was learning to ride a bike. He badly wanted to take the training wheels off. I wouldn’t let him do it, but Donatello got so sick of his whining that he yanked off the training wheels and made Bunny get on the bike.”
“Oh,” she said knowingly.
“Bunny toppled over and hurt his legs, and Donatello was so scared of what I would do that he got bandages for himself too. He said that Bunny fell into a ditch, and he jumped in to save him.”
She laughs. “Did you buy it?”
I grin. “It was so creative that I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I watched the whole thing from inside the house. But I laughed myself to sleep that night.”
We laugh together, and it feels good.
“You practically raised your brothers. That’s cool.”
“Is it?”
She nods. “My mom has been sick since my sister was little. I was only nine, but I found myself becoming a mother. You did that for two humans. That’s brave, and you were only a kid.”
A lump rises in my throat. “I wasn’t much of a kid. I was eighteen. That’s practically an adult.”
She shakes her head. “An eighteen-year-old is still a kid. You barely know anything about the world and how it works at that age.”
“What about an eighteen-year-old who already has his first kill? What do you think about that eighteen-year-old?”
She sighs. “I killed a man too—I was fourteen, I think.”
I stop and slowly look at her.
“My father owed him some money, and he grew impatient. Broke into our home, beat the shit out of my father, and tried to have his way with my mother while we watched.”
She swallowed. “I grabbed a lamp, hit him from behind, and when he fell to the floor, I hit him again and again until he stopped moving.”
She sighs and follows it with awkward laughter. “I don’t regret anything I did to him. He was a piece of garbage, and I would do it over again.”
I sit silently for a moment, pondering how many similarities there are between our lives. On the surface, it doesn’t look like we have anything in common, but these kinds of memories are very familiar to me.
She turns to me. “The first person you killed; would you do it over again?”
“He kidnapped Bunny. I would do it over again in a heartbeat.”
She nods. “Life can be dangerous. Sometimes brave people have to do hard things for the ones that they love.”
Our eyes meet and lock. Before I can stop myself, my hands move into her hair, and I run my fingers through it.
“I have a confession,” she says suddenly.
I pause.
“You—you haven’t touched me in so long that I think I miss—I miss the feel of your hands.”
I look down at her face, and happiness fills my heart. “You have no fucking idea,” I whisper as my eyes fall on her lips.
