Page 32 of Love is Angry

“Did she know there was trouble in his marriage?”

I didn’t know there was trouble in my parents’ marriage. No, wait, who the fuck am I kidding? I knew. We all knew. Hell, even Laura knew. “It still doesn’t excuse what Madison did. She could’ve turned him down. She could’ve said no if she had even a sliver of honor.”

My sister’s argument pops back into the spotlight, though.

Julian Echeveria always gets what he wants.

Well, where does that leave me? Mom’s dead. Laura’s in a fucking wheelchair over it. Dad is ever the heartless prick who likes to dominate and exert full control over what’s left of our family. And Madison is trying to rebuild her life while I’m haunting her and hurting her.

Yeah, I’m the monster in this story.

I’m the monster because the woman I liked took my father instead of me.

It’s pathetic.

Chapter 15

Back in Highschool: Rhue

“What can you tell me about Wounded Knee?” Madison asks from the guest chair in my father’s study. We’ve got the whole house to ourselves. The big man’s coming back later. Mom is elbow deep in Halloween preparations, thanks to Laura. I can’t say that the timing has been more perfect. But I also can’t say it hasn’t.

I eye her carefully. “Almost three hundred Lakota people were killed that day.”

“Location?”

She’s jotting stuff down on post-it notes and sticking them on different pages of a book titled “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” We’ve only just started this session, but I knew we were going to discuss Native American history, and the Wounded Knee Massacre is one of the key points of any honest and truly comprehensive history book. It’s one of the many things I have learned to appreciate about Madison. She looks beyond the norms and the traditional ways of doing things. She teaches more and far beyond the school curriculum, too. The girl’s got passion. So much so that I could see her behind the Resolute Desk someday. Or perhaps on top of it. My dad thinks I’ve gotpresidential material but nah, I’m too much into hockey and too little into being like him.

“Pine Ridge,” I say. “It started with the Army’s attempt to disarm the entire reservation.”

She looks up from her notes. “Have you ever read this book?” She closes it and hands it over. I take a moment to check its cover, first, then shake my head.

“Please, do. If you give it two hours a day, it’ll be done within the week, tops.”

“I still have hockey training,” I chuckle, though I am genuinely interested in reading it. Truth be told, I am interested in anything Madison might want me to do. I guess it’s what makes her such a good tutor, at least with a participating student like me.

“I don’t care when or how you read it. There’s an audiobook version available, too, just be advised I left you some notes in that paperback,” Madison replies. Whew, she is not in the mood for games, it seems. Too bad for her. I’m feeling playful.

“Good grief, you have no idea how hot you are when you talk like this,” I reply.

It brings red roses to full bloom in her cheeks as she tries to avoid my gaze. “We’re doing important work here.”

“We both know the educational side of this endeavor is not the only reason we’re spending time together,” I say. She loves using long-winding arguments to confuse people, but two can play that game. Madison has a dangerously brilliant mind, but I’m not just a hockey jock, either.

“Rhue, we really shouldn’t go down this road again,” Madison sighs, shaking her head as she shifts uncomfortably in the armchair.

She’s wearing this tight little turtleneck dress, red as blood wool softly wrapped around her delicious curves. But it’s the black leather biker boots that really do it for me.

The dress is supposed to be the nice side of her, the preppy good girl side. The boots scream rebel, and her long legs and sculpted knees make me ache with desire. I’d like nothing more than to lose myself inside of her.

None of the girls I’ve been with so far have riled me up the way Madison does.

I’m standing by one of the bookcases, within feet of her. Placing the book she just gave me on a nearby side table, I move closer. “It’s hard for me not to when everything you say is in direct opposition of what your body says,” I reply. “All I can do right now is promise you that this…this thing between us, it’s real. That we’re not imagining it. And if you’re afraid of my father, of my family name, well, you shouldn’t be.”

“Rhue…” She’s about to give me the whole it’s-not-about-you speech, but today isn’t the day I’m going to let her get away with it. Today, the fire inside me burns brighter and hotter. I have to do something about it and putting distance between us is not the answer.

I slide down to my knees, coming to a rest directly in front of her. I place my hands over hers on the leather armrests. She can’t go anywhere. Not while I’m standing in her way like this. It’s a good thing, too, because Madison looks like she’d run off the second I back off, yet her lips part slowly, quivering with desire. “Tell me you don’t think about me half as much as I think about you.”

“This is wrong,” she sighs. “It’s dangerous. You wouldn’t care. Your parents will sort everything out for you. But I’ve got something to lose. The last thing I want is to put my future in jeopardy because of your family. Taking this tutoring gig was already risky enough. Everybody in the study group warned me about you.”

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