Page 76 of Some Saviors Can Break You

Florence

You don’t have to

Fletcher

Can't help it, little sister

Jake said you're off work till next week

I can't come tomorrow but the next day

I'm driving up to see you

We’ll hang out, do anything you want

You can talk if you want to but you don’t have to

She could say no, insist that she was fine on her own, but in reality she wasn't.

Shedidneed someone right now, it felt like life had tossed her into the middle of the ocean without a life vest.

She needed a life vest.

Spending a little time with her brother would help.

Florence

Okay, that sounds nice

Fletcher

Love you, Florence, and call if you need anything

Florence

Love you too

And I will

As she put her phone down, she couldn’t help but smile. Most of her life she’d felt all alone in the world, but she wasn't completely alone. She had her brother who had been by her side through so much. They’d raided dumpsters together in search of food scraps, and snuggled together to stave off hypothermia when they’d had to sleep outside in the forest because their mother had kicked them out so they didn't interrupt her night with her current lover. And now she had Jake, he’d offered to open up his home to her, and cared enough to reach out to her brother to update him on everything that had happened.

Her life wasn't all bad.

She’d get over Eli, her heart would mend, and she’d come out of it stronger than she’d been before.

But right now she needed a good cry.

Needed to expel all those emotions swirling around inside her, threatening to well up and choke her.

Pushing herself out of the chair, she went through to her bedroom and stretched up onto her tiptoes to find the teddy bear the cops had given her when she was eight. Taking it with her to the bed, she curled up under the covers, and clutching the bear in her arms, she stopped holding back the tears.

They flowed down her cheeks, puddling on her pillow, it had been so long since she’d last cried, not since she was sixteen andbeen violated by her mother’s boyfriend, and half a lifetime of bundled up pain came flooding out.

Chapter

Twelve

February 20th

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