Page 20 of Give Me Perfect Love

Like shit I look.I giggle at my Yoda attempt. Happy that I can feel the alcohol buzzing.

“Something funny to you?” the guy asks me. I look at him in the mirror.

“No, not really,” I reply, remembering that none of this is funny. None of it at all.

“Let me buy you another drink,” he says.

“I can buy my own drinks,” I say, unenthused.

“Damn.” He moves from the barstool. “Have it your way.”

I turn to him. “What other way do you think I should have it?” I ask mockingly. “You think I should have it your way? You think I should let you buy me a drink or two so you can get me drunk, possibly increasing your chances of fucking me in that shitty bathroom?” I roll my eyes and look back in front of me. “Fuck off.”

In the mirror I can see the guy give me an eat shit look before he walks away, mumbling, “Crazy bitch.”

I lift a finger at the bartender. “Another, please.”

ChapterSix

Bryce

Two hours have passed. Two hours! My mind replays the scene from yesterday. I told her I loved her. I’ve never told anyone outside of my family that, and she walked away from me.

She walked away.

And here I am sitting in my car, staring out the window waiting on her.

I don’t even know who I am anymore. What the fuck happened?

I look down at my arm, seeing the telltale sign of sticking a needle into my vein. The rush of pure warm bliss, the uncontrollable sickness that followed.

It was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve done some pretty dumb shit.

Growing up on Grant Ranch was like being released from prison to me.

I was given freedom.

But with freedom comes hard lessons.

I felt like I was finally able to be a teenager, and I took full advantage of it.

Pops gave me the option to make my own choices. He understood where I came from. He knew I was in charge of my brother, and he told me I didn’t have to carry that weight by myself anymore.

I didn’t have an easy time with that at first. Constantly, I worried about Jace. But as the weeks passed, I noticed something.

Jace was…happy. He was the happiest I’d ever seen him. Emily and Lee took us in instantly, easily.

And I’m not sure why, but it pissed me off.

I thought,why couldn’t our parents do this for us?

Why couldn’t they get right and be good for us?

I became confused and angry. Bitter about my past life and so focused in on it that I didn’t see what was happening before me.

Jace finally had the family he deserved. He finally got what I was trying to give him in that small apartment.

We both did.

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