22. Havoc
TWENTY-TWO
HAVOC
I timed our visit for when Marcus was at work. Barring any extremely unlucky circumstances, like him getting fired as soon as he steps into the home improvement store, we should have enough time to get my mother out of here.
I pause at the front door and turn to Seven. “My mom might be weird, okay? Don’t hold it against her. She’s…”
I don’t know what else to say about her. She’s blind to what he’s doing, she’s afraid, she’s worried. None of those words really explain anything.
“She’s like me,” Seven says, and I realize he might not actually be prepared for something as big as this. He must see the look on my face, because he says, “I’m fine. It’s fine.” He takes a deep breath. “We can do this.”
I nod, then knock on the door. “Mamá! It’s me!” I wait, then fumble for my keys. I’m lucky the Step Asshole is too cheap to change the locks, even with his store discount.
The door opens after several moments, and my mother looks at me with a smile on her exhausted-looking face. She looks worse than she had the last time I’d seen her. “Javi,” she says. “I wasn’t expecting you.” Her gaze flicks to Seven, and her smile wobbles. “And who’s this?”
Seven looks at me, and I see him silently debating, silently calculating, though I don’t know what until he says, “Rory, ma’am.”
My throat seizes up. There’s no way I can ever call him that. “Yeah. He’s, um.” I shake my head. I don’t want to have this conversation out on the front steps. “Can we come inside?”
“Of course,” she says, stepping out of the doorway. “You should’ve told me you were coming. I would have cooked.” She surreptitiously pulls at one of her short sleeves, but it does the opposite of what she’d intended and instead draws my attention to the subtle bruising on her arm.
“We just ate,” I say as I head inside. Seven follows closely behind, like he wants to stay in my shadow.
Maybe this is a bad idea.
“Something to drink?” she tries. “We’ll go sit down in the kitchen.” She leads us into the kitchen.
“No, thank you,” Seven says politely, lingering in the doorway instead of immediately sitting down. He looks to me like he’s waiting for instructions, and hell, he probably is.
I wrap my arm around Seven’s shoulder and pull him closer to me.
“Okay, um, so R…” No, I can’t do it. I can’t use that name he hates. I shake my head. “Seven is my boyfriend. I wanted to introduce you. You keep worrying about me finding somebody, so I wanted to let you know that I’ve found somebody already.”
Seven presses closely to my side. I don’t miss his look of relief, either, and I’ll have to ask him what the fuck he was thinking later on.
“Are you sure you don’t want something to drink?” she asks.
“We’re sure,” I say with frustration. “Are you going to say anything about it? That Seven is my boyfriend ? That I’m gay?”
She hesitates, and my stomach twists as she looks between the two of us — where Seven is still practically clinging to me, where I have my arm protectively around him. “Your father isn’t going to like it,” she finally says, and my blood boils.
“He’s not my father!” I snap. “I care what you think, not him.”
Flinching, she goes to the cabinet and gets a glass, her hands trembling as she fills it halfway from the fridge. “I’m sure Rory is a very nice young man, but this is very sudden, Javi.”
Seven tenses when she says his birth name, and I squeeze his shoulder tighter. I still don’t understand why he gave it in the first place.
“It’s only sudden for you,” I answer, then stop myself to take a breath before I say something I’ll regret.
“It doesn’t matter. Look, I came here for another reason.
Come live with me. Right now. My apartment is all set up to take you.
I’ve got a bed and a pullout couch, I’ve stocked the kitchen with all your favorite foods.
The pots and pans are in places you can easily reach.
I even bought the floral bath stuff you like. ”
It’s the same stuff that Marcus had thrown out in a fit once because he’d used some of her soaps and ended up smelling of roses.
“Oh, Javi, I’ve told you, I could never intrude on you,” she demurs. “Especially with your…” She trails off. “Your friend.”
“Seven’s got his own place,” I say immediately. “And once you’re out of here, we’ll work to find you an apartment of your own. I can afford it, don’t worry.”
Well, Caleb can afford it, and my landlady, Caleb’s sister Alice, had kindly said she’d hold a unit open for my mother. I have no idea what she’s getting out of it, and I hate how much I owe the Spades, but I’d rather owe them than let my mother stay under Marcus’s thumb.
“Look at you, doing so well for yourself,” she says, still deflecting. She takes a sip from her glass. “I’m proud of you, Javi.” She sighs. “I know you want to help, but I don’t need to go anywhere. I’m happy here.”
“You aren’t happy here,” I snap. “When’s the last time you did something you wanted to do? Something not for him or even for me?”
Seven shifts uncomfortably next to me.
She looks at him, discomfort in her own expression, and I realize she’s embarrassed. Maybe bringing Seven wasn’t such a good idea after all.
“The hardest thing I ever did was leave,” Seven says softly, his voice shaking.
“I didn’t want to. I loved my… my… I loved her so much.
But she was hurting me, and I couldn’t do it anymore.
I didn’t have someone like Javier to help me, not at first. But he’s been the best thing to ever happen to me.
He protects me. He wants to protect you, too.
So much. He loves you more than anything. ”
The words have her going more and more still, but her eyes flick to mine. “Javi, mijo, what have you been telling him?” she asks, and she sounds so desperate.
“I’ve told him that Marcus belittles you,” I say, trying desperately to keep my voice calm. How the fuck does Caleb manage to sound cold and unaffected all the time? “I told him that Marcus beats you. I told him that Marcus stole your documentation. Is any of that not true?”
“Javi, he doesn’t beat me,” she says, but there are tears in her eyes, and she doesn’t refute the rest.
“Javier saved my life, ma’am,” Seven says, and I can feel his agitation.
“He didn’t tell me these things to hurt you.
He told me because… because I lived them.
Because he knows I lived them, and he doesn’t want you to live them, too.
” He swallows hard. “The world is hard enough without pushing away the people who want to help you.”
I wonder what the fuck Caleb had told him to finally get through to him this much, or if he’s simply saying what he thinks he should say.
“Please, Mamá,” I beg. “Every day, I worry that he’s going to kill you. He’s already broken your arm and your wrist several times. I remember the burns. I remember the time he splashed scalding hot water on you. You don’t deserve that. Nobody deserves that.”
It’s as though she didn’t hear me at all, but her attention is on Seven, and I can see the indecision there. If even one of us can get through to her, it would be enough. That’s all I need.
“You’re very young,” she tells him.
“I’m twenty-one,” he says.
One day I’ll find out whether that’s true or not, but for now, it doesn’t matter.
“But it started when…” He falters, and I look down at him to see him gathering himself. He licks his lips, then glances up at me in silent question.
He’s being so fucking brave. I nod to him. “You can trust her.”
“It’s going to get worse,” Seven says, his voice going strange. “It’ll get better, then every time, it’ll get a little worse. People like that don’t… They don’t get better. They don’t get nicer.”
“Oh, carino,” she whispers. “You’re too young.”
Seven lets out a shaky laugh. “Doesn’t matter how old you are. It still hurts.” He looks at her with desperate eyes. “Please let him help you, like he helped me.”
“I’m tired, mijo,” she says, finally looking back at me. “I’m very, very tired.”
My stomach knots. “Then let me help you,” I echo Seven. “We can pack up the essentials and get out of here right now.” I go over to her and extend my arms.
She takes a long, shuddering breath, then steps into my embrace. I hold her tight while her shoulders shudder.
When she steps back, she wipes her eyes, but I don’t see tears. “My documents—” she begins.
“It’s fine,” I say. “I’ve been talking to a lawyer. We’ll get it sorted. But that’s all for later . The papers don’t help if you aren’t safe.”
“I can’t—” she starts, but this time, she cuts herself off. She looks at Seven. “How?” she asks.
I don’t know what she means, but Seven must because he replies, “I had a chance. I took it. I… I can’t say I haven’t looked back, but I will never, ever go back.”
My mother looks directly at me. “I don’t have much, Javi.”
“That’s okay,” I answer. “Maybe that’s better, even. You can start fresh.” I take a step back, although I’m reluctant to give her space to think. I don’t know if I could handle her backing out again. “We can start in the bedroom.”
She nods, and while her steps are slow, she leads us into the bedroom.
In the end, she really doesn’t have much to call her own, and I inwardly seethe when I see the condition of the clothing she does have. When was the last time she spent money on herself to get anything nice?
Seven tries to help, and even though he mostly ends up getting in the way, I kiss him on the top of the head and let him try. I’m well aware of the fact that we’re working on limited time. If Marcus calls her, or he comes home, I know this is over.
I know it would break me.
I think it would break Seven, too.
When we finish packing and head to the car, she refuses to sit in the front seat, ceding it to Seven instead.
He looks uncomfortable, but I shake my head.
I don’t care where she sits, as long as it’s in that vehicle, which is quickly headed away from that house and in the direction of my own apartment.