26. Sadie #2
"Are you okay?" She pulls back to look at my face, both of her hands on my arms. "Tell me you're okay."
"I'm okay," I say. "I promise. I'm okay."
She looks at me for another second, then nods. The she pulls me further into the kitchen, and I look around at everyone.
"I'm so sorry," she says. "This is… it's not normally like this.
Well…" She pauses. "It's sometimes like this.
But not for…" She stops again. "You shouldn't have been there." If someone wanted to talk in riddles with me, tonight really isn’t the best day for it. I have no idea what she’s talking about.
"I'm glad I was," I say looking over at Miles. "He needed someone," I say simply.
Mason and Declan have come in behind us. A woman stands by the stove. Miles's mother, I’m guessing.
A man I don't know stands near the window. He's not doing anything, just standing, with his hands loose at his sides. The room moves differently around him, not dramatically, just slightly, the way a room adjusts when something with real weight enters it.
Miles walks over to the kitchen counter, his back is partially turned, and his t-shirt is off.
I stop walking. The bruising from the first attack has spread and deepened, he has wide patches of yellow and purple across his left ribs that I can see from here.
But that's not what stops me, along his left side, just below the ribs, there are three cuts. They’re not deep, not wide, but clean lines that have been cleaned and are healing.
A knife, maybe.
I watch Hayden press something clean against the reopened split on his lip and Miles stands completely still, looking at the wall.
"Miles," his mother says, coming from the kitchen doorway. Miles looks toward her. "Are you not going to introduce us?"
He looks across the room at me.
Miles smiles. "Sadie," he says. "This is my mum, my dad.
" He nods at each of them. "And that…" a brief pause, "is Cain.
The scary one by the window." Cain doesn't react to this description, but it makes Mason laugh.
"The woman next to him," Miles continues, "is somehow his girlfriend. And you know everyone else."
"Hi," I say to the room generally, which is all I have.
Miles's mother walks toward me, takes both my hands and looks at my face the same way Lileah did.
"Are you hurt?" she asks.
"No. I'm fine. He…" I glance at Miles. "Miles made sure I wasn’t hurt."
Something moves across her face. She squeezes my hands once and then lets it go, but the look she gives Miles across the room is a look of a mother saying something she's chosen not to put into words.
Hayden finishes what he's doing and steps back.
Cain moves, shifting his weight, and looks at Miles.
"How much does she know?" he asks. The room goes quiet.
"Nothing," Miles says.
“Tell her.” And with that Cain leaves. He isn’t a man of many words.
The kitchen starts to empty, one by one, and Miles stands by the counter, his t-shirt still off, which I wish he would put one on, because it’s very distracting.
Mason walks back into the kitchen and walks over to Miles. “Dad said go home, talk, and Cain wants us at the club at two to talk, Sadie comes with. WE are not leaving anyone alone.”
“The man needs to fucking sleep.” Miles shakes his head, making Mason laugh. “Where are you going now?”
“The Club might as well have some fun. Hayden and Declan will meet us there.” Mason throws the keys to Miles, who catches them mid-air.
He looks back at me, puts his t-shirt back on, and sits on the barstool next to me. I look at him and go to the sink wetting a cloth, walking back to him I place it on his cut. If only it was the first cut I’ve cleaned up.
"You know how to do this?" he asks.
"Dan used to sometimes come home not looking great." I press the cloth carefully against the reopened split on his lip. He doesn't move. "Before he decided it was time to get cleaned up.”
His hand comes up and closes around my wrist. He’s not stopping me, just holding me.
"You can leave," he says. "If you want. After everything tonight, you don't have to…"
"Do you want me to leave?"
Miles stares at me, his eyes reading something in mine, and I’m hoping he can see the answer to his question in them.
"No," he says.
I look at him. "Then I don't want to leave." I hold his gaze. "It’s crazy, even after everything, I still like you."
He smiles, lets go of my hand and pulls the bar stool for me to sit down, and I get ready for whatever he has to tell me.
I look around the house to make sure that we’re alone, and we are. I have no idea where his parents have gone, but I can’t hear anyone in the house.
“I want you to start with your brother.” I pull my hands away from him. I’ve never spoken about my brother and why he’s where he is. “Trust me, I’m going to tell you a lot, but I need you to talk to me.”
I lick my lips, wondering what I want to tell him, but if we’re going to be honest, I have to tell him my past too.
“Do you know about my parents?” He nods, and I’m not even surprised he knows already.
“I think drugs just got too much for them, the debt got bigger, and in the end, they left when Dan was sixteen, and it was just us left.” I stop for a moment trying hard to hold back the tears.
“He was good, but they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and that’s what happened with Dan.
Drugs are the root of all evil, and it got worse and worse to the point I was looking after him.
” I wipe the tears away, before I continue.
“I went to school, got a job, and worked hard on my gymnastics. I knew I wasn’t going to college on my grades, so I needed the scholarship.
I saved money for college, but then Dan stole it and bought drugs, then anything I had left I spent on rehab for him.
Just before I got my place here, I got home after a competition, and…
” I stop again taking in a deep breath, because now I’m crying.
Miles places his hand on my thigh, and I take a deep breath.
“I thought I lost him that night, I’ve never been so scared of losing the only family I had.
” Miles wipes the tears away, and I give him a small smile.
“That night, I told Dan he cleans up or I have to walk away. I wasn't going to… he saw how much I meant it, and he agreed. I found the clinic with some help from my teacher, and your family does a lot to help those who can’t one hundred percent afford it.”
“Yeah, my dad and uncle are very big on helping.” Miles leans closer and wipes the new tears away. “You’re not alone anymore. I’ve got you.”