Page 36 of Worthy

Fuck,this is a fucking mess.

“Do you know what state we’re stopping in tonight?” Nelly’s question startles me, pulling me from my thoughts.

I turn the music down as I answer her. “New Mexico.”

“Is this the last night, then, before we make it to San Diego?”

Nodding, I mutter, “Yup. Tomorrow will be like a ten- or eleven-hour drive, but we’ll make it there.”

She nods, but goes quiet.

“What’s your plan when we get there?” I ask, needing to know, but also nervous about what she’ll say.

In my peripheral, I can see she glances over at me, but I keep my attention straight ahead.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” she finally replies. “I don’t want to go live with my parents again. They don’t even know about Anthony yet. But I also can’t afford to get a place right away either.”

Finally, I turn my head, gaze meeting her deep blues. “You know you can stay with me, right?”

She looks down into her lap. “I don’t want to be a burden. You have your own life and—”

“And what?” I ask, cutting her off. “You’re my best friend, Nelly. You act like we didn’t share a dorm with each other all through college.”

“I just… I just didn’t know after last night.” Her words are spoken softly. She doesn’t want to broach this subject any more than I do.

Swallowing, my tongue feels like sandpaper. “It doesn’t change anything.”

“It doesn’t?”

Her tone is almost defensive, and when my head snaps in her direction, I’m taken aback by the hurt present on her face.

“I…shit.” Glancing back at the road, I try again. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that, no matter what, you’re welcome to stay at my house for as long as you need.”

“Yeah, and are we ever going to actually talk about last night, or just fucking pretend it never happened?”

There’s a bite to the words that I’m not used to hearing from her normally soft-spoken lips.

“I don’t knowwhatexactly to say,” I reply honestly. My heart’s jack-hammering in my chest. This is so uncomfortable—a feeling I’m not used to feeling when it comes to Nelly.

Her phone rings in her lap, saving me, at least momentarily, from having this conversation. Maybe I can use the time to try to figure out what to say. Glancing over at the screen, her mom’s name flashes seconds before she hits the green connect button, bringing it to her ear.

It becomes eminently clear that her parents have somehow found out about Anthony. Nelly spends the next hour arguing back and forth with her mom, to the point of tears. If it wasn’t obvious before, it’s certainly obvious now that her staying with them isn’t going to be a healthy option. I can’t hear the other side of the call, but based on the things Nelly is saying, it’s evident they don’t give a shit about their daughter’s happiness.

If they saw the fucking bruises on her eye or the scab on her lip, I don’t even know if that would change their minds. They’d probably just push for marriage counseling. Or make excuses for Anthony.

He works so hard, honey. He’s stressed.

You need to take better care of your husband, Penelope. Men have needs.

No marriage is perfect, dear. It’s perfectly normal to loathe the sight of your husband.

Okay, they probably wouldn’t say that last part, but still, their way of thinking when it comes to marriage is garbage.

By the time she gets off the phone, it’s nearly time to find a hotel for the night. The sun is starting to set, and exhaustion is buried deep in my bones. I barely got a few hours of sleep last night, especially after what happened. Nelly’s quiet for the rest of the drive. I want to ask her about what they said, try to comfort her, or something, but I let her have her space. Sometimes, she needs the silence to work through her thoughts.

We check in to the only place I can find in a thirty-mile radius. Getting into the room, we toss our bags onto the beds and kick off our shoes. My muscles ache from all the time spent in the car. I want to take a hot shower, but Nelly looks three seconds away from breaking down.

I close the distance between us and wrap my arms around her shoulders. I’m taller than her, but not by much. She buries her face into my neck, body trembling with the sobs I knew were coming. She soaks my neck as she wraps her arms around my middle, holding on for dear life.

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