Page 75 of Under the Texas Sky
“You’re okay, we’re going to figure this out.” I don’t know if I’m trying to convince me or him more, but a sense of peace slips over his face as he stares at me.
“Together.”
“Together,” I reassure him, keeping my hand in his as I drive around. The grocery store is closed for the night, but there’s a small convenience store down the road that has a small selection of medical things. It should be enough to tide him over until maybe he can go see the school nurse. I don’t know if they are mandated to report things, but by then it’ll be too late. We’re in this, just the two of us. And if I have to put my foot down and argue with adults over it, I will. For him.
“My head hurts,” he whines, and a helpless feeling courses through me. I’m driving in circles around town trying to find somewhere to get something to help him.
I know there’s a first aid kit in the trailer, under the bathroom sink. Am I really going to risk going back there?
The obvious answer is yes, yes I’m willing to risk whatever Don is going to do to me. If it helps Kian, it’s a no brainer.
“Hang on, Freckles. We’ve gotta make a pit stop real quick.” While I make the short drive back to the trailer park, I make a mental list of everything we could need. We don’t have anywhere to live right now, but I can’t think about that right now. My main priority is making sure Kian is taken care of.
The lights aren’t on in the trailer, and I heave a deep sigh of relief. Kian is still awake beside me, but the glazed over look in his eyes says he’s not aware of what’s going on. That’s probably better.
“I’ll be right back, don’t get out of this car. Promise me, Ki,” I demand, making sure his eyes are on mine.
“Promise, can we get me some chocolates too? I really want some.” He loves the chocolates I get from the grocery store, and I want to get them for him, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
“Yeah, we’ll get you some.”
“M’kay.”
I leave him in the car, quietly shutting the door in case my mom is home. I don’t want her to tell Don I’m back.
I push the door open, it’s still barely hanging on by its hinges from where Don threw it open earlier. He was on the warpath, and now that Kian’s parents also know it's no wonder why.
The cold breeze is overtaking the house, and I can see my breath with every exhale I take. It’ll be fine. I’ll grab all the blankets I can. My clothes still should be hanging up, unless Don already got rid of them. But when I get to my bedroom, everything is as I left it. Except for a few broken beer bottles that were shattered against the wall, the pieces of glass littering the floor.
I fill my hands with everything I can. I’ll make multiple trips if I have to. Blankets, clothes, bathroom items. We have everything we could need.
I’m stuffing an old duffle bag full of the few cans we had left in the pantry when I hear a car pulling down the road. I don’t know if it's my mom and Don, but I’m not willing to risk it.
It’s not them, the car I heard flies past the trailer house, leaving a small trail of dust that leads to the houses in the back.
I throw the last bag in the backseat, hearing the loudthunkof the cans hitting against each other. Kian is staring at me while I search through the things I grabbed to hand him a reusable water bottle I filled with water and a few advil. I’ll have to wait until we get to a safe space to sleep for the night before I can bandage up his gashes, but the pain medicine should hold him over.
“Thank you for saving me, Trent.” I extend my arm to him, letting him rest his head on it as I find a place to park the car for tonight.
Deciding the safest place will be the park, I park my car into a spot far enough away it won’t draw attention. Leaning over the console, I patch up Kian’s wounds to the best of my ability. The fog is starting to clear from his eyes, but when he flinches in pain I feel the pain resonating in myself.
“Almost done, and then we can sleep. We can share the backseat, and I grabbed lots of extra blankets so it’ll be warm.” And hopefully our body heat helps as well.
“As long as you hold me tight and don’t let me fall off the seat.”
“Never,” I vow to him. Vowing to hold him tight and never let him go, in all aspects. He’s mine, and I’m his. He’s the person Iwished on shooting stars for, and here he is right in front of me, and I’m never letting him go.
CHAPTER 60
KIAN
“You’re not listening to me, Willow,” I groan into the phone, but her echoing laughter tells me she doesn’t care. She gets off on me being in pain.
Last night with Trent was a dream, and then waking up surrounded by his warmth was like a slap in the face. We were supposed to take this slow. I told my dick no sex. It obviously bent the rules, because I’m not considering what we did last night as sex. That was purely… I don’t even know what to call it. The best rim job of my life? Considering it’s been the only one I’ve ever had performed on me, I don’t have a lot to compare it to. Trent must have been paying more attention to what I used to do to him, and he put those skills to work.
No, no. Do not think of him doing that to other people. It doesn’t matter. It does not matter. There’s no reason for me to be jealous when we are two adults. I’m not the same young boy I was when we first started dating.
Maybe I need therapy. Scratch that, I definitely do. I’ll put that on my five-year to-do list. I think that’s reasonable.
