Page 57 of Only Temporary

“We do.” I sit down on the edge of her bed, giving her as much space as I can but still showing her I’m not going anywhere. My mind briefly trails to Phillip and what he would do right now. He’d have no problem getting her to talk, but I know from watching him I need to keep my voice level but not patronize her.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not.” Okay, so Phillip wouldn’t argue with her. But this is still me, and she’s not fine. I know she’s not. “And I’m not.” Her head snaps in my direction in question. “Not until I know what happened.”

She sighs, her small shoulders sagging. “Fifth period, Blake came to my locker and asked me to skip the rest of the day. I didn’t really want to, but he has this way of making me feel guilty when I say no...” It takes everything inside me not to make a fist and think about slamming it into Blake’s face. But I manage for now. “We came here since no one was home.”

My stomach is twisted up as I wait for her to continue. “What happened?”

“He started to kiss me, and it was fine...” she says, but I can see fat tears welling up in her eyes, and I want to at least punch the wall if I can’t find Blake. But I remain sitting.

“Okay... what changed?”

“This is embarrassing, Kellan.” She looks horrified, but she has to know she can talk to me.

“I’m your brother. It’s not embarrassing. You have to talk to me, Rae. You have to know you can trust me. I know I fucked up with you guys before, but I’m here now, and I’m doing everything I can to make it up to you. Please. Just tell me what happened.”

“He kept trying to reach into my shirt, and I told him I wanted to stop. That it was moving too fast. He called me a bitch and then actually leaned in like he was going to kiss me again. So I broke his nose.”

Okay... I do still want to kill the fucker, but thank fuck she knew how to do that. I’m guessing I can thank Cason for that. The big brother that he is.

“Why are you smiling?” Am I?

“Because I’m proud,” I answer her honestly.

“I messed up. I skipped school and brought a guy home, Kellan. You shouldn’t be proud.”

“I’m not proud of that, but I’m proud of you for saying no and then breaking his face when he didn’t take no for an answer.”

She just shakes her head subtly, and I know she’s still suffering from it. She probably will for a while. “It could have been so much worse. If I didn’t know how to break a damn nose or if he still kept coming at me after...”

I try to listen to Phillip’s voice in my head—what he would say. If I kill him, that’s a felony, and I really won’t be able to take care of the kids from prison. It keeps me in my spot.

“It’s not your fault, Rae.”

“But...”

“No,” I shut her down because she can’t blame herself for this. “You should have been able to trust your boyfriend. Even when you chose to do something dumb and skip school, you should have been able to trust him. This is on him. Not you. His actions. Do you want to report this?”

I want to tell her that I’ll hold her hand the entire time, but I know she would definitely refuse then. “No.”

“Rae... you were assaulted.”

“If anything, I assaulted him.”

“You defended yourself against an assault.”

“I don’t want to, Kellan. Please don’t. I’m fine.”

I don’t like him getting away with this, but I also know the system sucks, and it would likely end up ahe said, she saidscenario, which would just end up dragging my baby sister through the shit. “If you change your mind, I’ll go with you. It’s your call, but if you need anything, you let me know.”

“I will,” she says, but I can tell she’s growing more and more agitated, so with a quick hug, I leave her alone to give her some space and run right into Cason, who’s pacing outside the door.

I walk with him to the kitchen and grab a drink of water for my parched throat. “She’s okay, Cason.”

“Are you sure?”

I nod my head. “He tried to push her further than she wanted to go, and she broke his nose.”

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