Page 19 of Break

“We heard you were sick?” Knox says.

Jaxon raises a bag of something in agreement. I don’t trust any of them at all. I kick at Knox’s foot until he moves it.

“Get the fuck away. I’m fine,” I say and try to slam the door shut, but Jaxon stops me with one firm hand.

“Leave me the alone!” I’m done with them. I can’t handle them and my father.

Dimitri smirks. “We never will, sweetheart.”

“What do you want from me?” I demand. “What do I have to do to be done with this?”

“We just want to play with you,” Jaxon says, his dark eyes threatening to drag me in.

“Well, I would like if you left me the fuck alone!” I bite back.

Knox laughs. “That’s never going to happen. You have no idea how long it took to find you. You were even hiding from your sweet old man.”

Everything in my body and mind rebels. I’m done with this. I’m done staying quiet about my father. Let these assholes believe whatever they want, but I’m making my opinion clear. “He’s not a sweet old man. He’s a monster!”

I ignore their tugging eyebrows and slam the door before engaging both locks and sinking down the back of it. I won’t be as calm and compliant as last time. I’ll fight. I’ll kick, I’ll scream. I’ll never have to hear them say Iwantedit again.

Ten

JAXON

Ikeep squeezing the stress ball in my hand. Knox’s place is minimal, which is normal for him, but he’s on the same floor as Hope, which is the only reason we’re here. He has a small couch, a recliner, a wobbly coffee table with some folded mail stuffed under the problem leg. A coffee maker and microwave are the only things on the counter in his kitchen. He doesn’t have pictures on the wall, no little knickknacksor mementos. Everything is put away, everything has a place, and it always belongs there. He’s a stickler about that.

I glance over at him as he finishes his beer and sets the still sweating can on a coaster as if the worn, used table is worth protecting. He shakes his head, just as confused as we are. Dimitri’s nursing his beer, still befuddled, and something hot and frustrated keeps teasing my nerves. I hate feeling like I’ve missed something, and Hope calling her father a ‘monster’ feels like I’m missing something huge.

“What was that about?” Knox finally asks.

He’s been the most protective of our old coach. He’s the one who reached out and told him that we accepted the offer here because of Hope. Coach has his problems, problems I’m surprised Knox has always been willing to ignore.

But we all have problems, so who am I to judge?

My eyes flick to Knox’s basic black curtains that keep the light from coming in. I rub my jaw. I want to have an answer for him. I want to have an answer for the panic that nearly dropped her at the field, but I don’t understand.

The curtains, the warm yellow lights, the tan carpet—none of it is giving me answers, no matter how long I stare at them.

But Hope… that bite to her, the look on her face when Knox mentioned her dad, the way she called him a monster. We’d all thought she was just an eager, dirty slut, determined to get whatever she could from whoever she could.

No one at school would date her, so she looked a little closer to home and never said no when someone presented an option.

We were obviously a better option compared to the old man, but now… calling him a monster reminds me of that conversation I overheard back when I was at Dimitri’s one day. His dad had said something about Hope coming to the police station and spreading lies.

We’d snorted and assumed she was just wanting more attention. That she wanted to play the victim.

Her face today, the mix of fear and rage, the humiliation, the everything I used to find attractive about her has me second-guessing some shit.

But she never told him to stop. She never screamed. She never fought. She just laid there. Right? Or is that what I wanted to see? My brain is swirling.

“We all saw the videos. She never told him to stop,” I say even though it sounds more like a question, trying to remember better. Of course, the idea of an old man showing us him fucking his daughter is fucked up. Does it matter whether she was into it? Isn’t it still wrong? I don’t know what to believe.

“She did a few times,” Dimitri murmurs.

“Yeah, and then she moved with him.” Knox huffs and takes another sip from his drink.

Maybe I should feel sorry for her. Little Hope who always looked a little too ashamed but never said anything. Hope who was always there, who had Coach as a dad, and while Coach liked alcohol too much and his daughter a whole lot more than he should, he was a good guy to us.

---