Page 41 of Ruin

I grab a pen and open my pad.

“You know ASL?”

I look up at the voice.

“I’m sorry, I’m Patricia’s father.” He walks over to the table, and I stand up to shake his hand.

“Nice to meet you, sir. I’m Declan Crawford. We’re partners for our English assignment.” I look over his shoulder at Robert. He’s watching me as if he wants to kick me out of here right now.

What the hell is his problem?

“Crawford, where do I know that name from?” he asks, I choose not to answer him. It will come to him. “The rehab clinic, is it your family?”

“It is.” I smile at him, and he looks at Trixie.

“Did you have a good day at school?”

It was amazing, the best day of my life. Everyone is so nice, but I wish I could kill a few people. No, all the people-

“Okay, you know I don’t know what you’re saying.” Her dad puts his hands up, almost begging her to stop what she’s saying.

But I’m more interested in knowing why her father hasn’t learned to talk to his daughter. If that was any of my family, it would be the first thing I would learn.

“She said school was good, and she needs to get working on this piece of work.” Trixie shakes her head and looks down at her work, but I continue to watch the two men watching her. Her dad watches her, waiting for her to explode or something, and the asshole, I don’t know, but there is something off about him.

“That’s good. Do you still want the sewing machine?” Trixie’s head snaps up and I see the faintest smile, but it’s soon too gone, and I look back over at her dad and see her mom’s there.

“You know she’s not allowed to have it. She has to pass school first,” her mom snaps, and Trixie taps on her phone, and her dad’s phone beeps, but before he can look at the message, Trixie’s mom takes it from him, and starts laughing. “You don’t get your inheritance, because you’re failing math, and you’ll only get it when I want you to have it.”

You are a fucking bitch, and I want to rip your head off and put it on a stick as a souvenir in my bedroom, you fake plastic bimbo.

“She’s falling behind a little in math, but I’m tutoring her. With my help, she should pass with no trouble.” If it means I can get under her skin, then I’m going to take every chance I can get.

I don’t need your help, and I’m not fucking failing. Just a little behind.

“We can start tomorrow. After hockey practice, we can go back to mine, and we can start.” She sticks her middle finger up at me, which makes me laugh.

“Thank you Declan, she can be a little bit of a handful if she wants to be. Patricia, are you going to kickboxing tonight?” her dad asks.

Kickboxing? Well, that answers a few of her bruises she has on her body now. If she’s good, she’s going to get some hits thrown at her. Trixie doesn’t answer him, and gets back to writing in an English book.

“It would be nice if you could come back in time for dinner.” Again she ignores her dad, and this time he walks away knowing very well his daughter will not talk to him, but her mom stays where she is, watching the both of us.

Trixie hasn’t even looked up from her notepad, and I lean back in my chair watching her. If she thinks I scare easily, she is dreaming. I’ve seen the look of evil. I’ve locked eyes with men who have killed and raped women. There is nothing that scares me anymore.

“I’ll leave you two to work.” She walks away, but Robert is still leaning on the archway leading to the dining room.

“Do you have a problem?” I ask him.

“No.” He walks away, leaving me with Trixie.

“So, Kickboxing, I have to come watch you.” I pull her chair closer to mine and lick the side of her neck. Why does she taste so fucking good?

She slides her pad over for me to look at the rough draft of the cover she’s done. Fucking hell. She did this in, what, less than ten minutes?

“So, you do the drawing. I work on the written parts.” I write a few things down, reminding myself to see which part we can do. She can draw anything, so this could be fun.

Now we know what we are doing, you can leave. Work on what you want me to draw. I don’t mind-

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