“Hi.” She beams, pressing up onto her tiptoes.
“Hey, butterfly, how was school?”
“Boring.” She frowns, holding her notebook tightly to her chest. I paid three dollars for it at the Dollar Store, but she treats it like it’s worth a million bucks.
“Yeah, school sucks, but keeping up your grades will help you get a good job later.”
She blinks slowly. “Did you have good grades in school?”
Fuck, no. I didn’t even graduate.
“They could have been better.”
“But you got a good job. I mean, you drive a nice car now, and you always buy me stuff.”
I withhold a laugh. She has no idea about the things I have to do, the blood spilled, or the broken bones. It’s not my job that is good, it’s me that’s good at my job, and there is a difference.
“My work is hard, and I would never want you to do what I do. Speaking of buying you stuff. I got you that chocolate bar you like.”
I reach into my jacket pocket and pull out the candy bar I grabbed at the gas station. I try to bring her stuff I know she likes because I know what it feels like to have nothing. I know how something as simple as a chocolate bar can brighten your entire day.
Her emerald green eyes light up, and she reaches for it eagerly. As she grabs it from my hand, her sleeve rides up above her wrist. My blood runs cold as I take in the black and blue marks along her pale skin.
“What the fuck?” I reach to grab her arm but stop myself, not wanting to hurt her more. Claire pulls her hand away as if I just burned her. The candy bar falls to the floor, but neither one of us reaches to pick it up.
“I-It’s nothing. I fell,” she stutters and stumbles back.
“Claire, don’t lie to me. What happened?” I take a step toward her, but she only retreats more. For the first time since we met, she is looking at me with fear flickering in her eyes, and that look feels like a sucker punch to the chest.
“Nothing happened! I just fell. It was my own fault,” she tells me, but her voice breaks at the end. She spins around and heads for her house.
“Claire…” I call after her, but she is already running through her back door, slamming it shut behind her.
I start walking after her, determined to figure out what happened when my phone buzzes in my pocket. Cruising under my breath, I take it out and look at the screen.
Markus: Meet me in ten minutes, corner of 10th and Williams St.
Shit.
I have to go, but I’m not going to let this go. I’m going to figure out who put their hands on Claire, and I will make them pay.
4
Claire
I stare down at the sidewalk as I trudge down the street and toward our neighborhood. The hole at the top of my shoe has gotten bigger, and I can now see my big toe poking out the top with each step I take.
Maybe I can convince Dad to go to Goodwill and get me a new pair of shoes? That is if he didn’t already spend his entire check. I try not to frown, even though I want to. I want new shoes and better clothes, but Dad is always telling me we can’t afford them. Sometimes, I wonder if what he really means is that he doesn’t want to buy it for me.
I look up as I come to the end of the sidewalk and enter the crosswalk. At the same time, a car pulls up beside me. I know better than to talk to strangers, but this isn’t a stranger. The car is a blacked-out SUV, and I only know one person with a car like this.
The passenger side window rolls down, and Lucca’s face greets me. “Hey! Get in. I’ll drive you home.”
I’m tempted to take him up on his offer, but then I remember his face when he saw my bruises. He’s going to ask questions. I know he won’t let this go, just like the counselor at school.
“I’m fine. I always walk home.” I don’t slow my steps, and Lucca keeps driving slowly beside me.
“Claire, get in. You ran away the other day without answering me. Now, you don’t have an option. I’m not leaving you alone until you tell me what happened to your arm.”
I knew it.
“I told you, I fell.”
“Claire, get it,” he commands, his voice dark. The intensity of it makes me shiver.
“No.” I shake my head and tighten my grip on the strap of my backpack. I don’t say anything else as I make a sharp turn into the park and away from the road.
“Claire!” Lucca yells after me, which only makes my feet move faster.
I can’t let him get to me. I can’t let him find out what’s going on. It will only make things worse. My dad might actually kill me this time. He’s worried about Lucca, who he is, and what he’s doing. He doesn’t want me talking to him or being near him, and I don’t want to get beat again, so I’m going to do what I’m told. Like I should’ve done from the beginning.
I’m so caught up in my head that I don’t even pay attention to where I’m going or who I’m running into. All I care about at the moment is getting away from Lucca.
Too late, I realize my mistake.
“Look who came to hang out with us boys. Little Red,” someone snickers. I turn my head to where the voice is coming from, and my eyes connect with Daniel’s dark gaze.
Daniel live in my neighborhood and goes to high school. I think he is old enough to graduate but got held back a few years. The guys he is surrounding himself with are younger, but they all have one thing in common. They are bad news.
They are known as the troublemakers around school, and right now, that’s exactly what they look like, trouble. I count five of them, and immediately, I feel even more helpless. Five to one. As if one of them couldn’t easily overpower me.
Circling me like sharks, they surround me in seconds. My heart starts beating so loudly, I’m sure everyone in the park can hear it slamming against my ribcage.
“I need to get home; my dad is waiting for me,” I lie.
“Sure, he is. By home, you mean under the bridge?” Everyone chuckles, and Daniel grins mischievously. “Is he going to take you to the mall and buy you some new clothes?”
The group starts laughing, the sound hitting me like a wave of nausea.
“Maybe he’ll take her to the homeless shelter, where they eat the food that we threw out last night,” one of the guys says.
Ignoring their verbal assaults, I try to leave. Ducking in between two of them, I move quickly, but they cut off my way.
“Why are you trying to go so soon? It’s not like you have any place to be. We could buy you some clothes and food, you know?” Daniel suggests.
“Yes, we’ll take you to the store and let you pick whatever you want. You just have to do some stuff for us.”
“No,” I shake my head. I don’t even want to know what kind of stuff they would expect me to do.
“Why not? Don’t you want a new pair of shoes?”
“Let me go.” I try to leave again, just to be cut off a second time. Hoping to catch them by surprise, I spin around and run the other way. Unfortunately, I don’t get far. Someone grabs my wrist and pulls me back.
“Stop!” I try to pull out of his hold, but his grip is like an iron shackle. Someone else grabs my other arm, and they both start to pull me away from the park’s path.