Page 44 of Broken
Chapter Nineteen
Max
I’m taking Izzy out today, hopefully to get her mind off of whatever has had her in a funk. I want the girl I fell for back. I’ve been texting her, but I only get one-word answers. Nikki actually came up to me yesterday and asked if I had noticed a change in her. She hasn’t been the same since graduation last week.
She’s told Twisted that I’m taking her to grab some more clothes. That way he wouldn’t expect her back anytime soon. I hate hiding our relationship like it’s some dirty little secret. Today I’m going to take her for a ride and then wherever she might like to go. I just want to make her happy. With as strong as my feelings are for her I also have so much to learn about her. I want to spend today doing that.
When she walks out to my truck she looks as emotionless as she has the past couple days. I’ve been racking my head, trying to figure out what could have happened to her. Everything was fine until we had dinner. I know my parents are assholes, but they didn’t do anything too horrific that day.
Once she climbs into my truck, I pull out of the lot, determined to get my girl back today. We drive to Cliff Ridge, and I park in one of the open spaces. Izzy looks over at me in question. “Follow me,” I say before climbing out of the truck.
Walking around back, I grab a blanket out of the bed and close the back. Izzy is standing at the front of the truck looking around. I take her hand, leading her to one of my favorite spots to come and think. We sit on the blanket, and I pull her to me so that her head is resting on my lap.
This place is gorgeous. Tall trees line the different paths around. There are numerous benches and grills for people coming who wish to have a barbecue. Where we are is more secluded. A ring of trees surrounds the small area. The grass is a little overgrown and a vibrant green. In front of us is one of the ridges; a small wooden fence stands before it to prevent any accidents. The sky is a pure blue with only a few clouds in sight.
I look down at my girl. She is staring out into the sky, and I can see the wheels turning behind her eyes. “What’s on your mind?”
She looks up at me and shakes her head. “Nothing important.”
I sigh in frustration. “I don’t know why you’re keeping things from me, but I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on. Talk to me.”
“You keep asking me stuff like this, but it’s not like you have told me anything about your past, about why you have so much hatred for your parents.” Her eyes glare at me.
What she’s said is fair. Getting into my family drama was the last thing that I wanted today. If she needs to hear it to trust me then so be it. “I had a brother. Trent. He was the opposite of me, completely okay with fitting into the mold my parents made for him. All he wanted to do was make them happy and for them to be proud of him. They were never satisfied. Even when he did what they wanted it wasn’t enough. There was this stupid thing my mom signed him up for. He was supposed to escort some stuck-up priss to a ball.” I look up at the sky, hoping it calms the anger inside of me. My body tenses and my muscles tick as I let myself go back to that night.
“It was pouring, and I told him to just forget it. My mom wouldn’t hear it. She insisted that he go and he did. The drive was somewhere around an hour. She got a message from one of her friends a little bit after Trent left that they were rescheduling the ball. I planned on calling him and telling him. She and my father forbade me to. They thought that if he went to the girl’s house anyway maybe they’d hit it off. She was from a ‘good family’ and it would help his standing. He never got there.” Izzy’s breath catches in my lap. “A sixteen wheeler lost control and his car was thrown off the road into a ravine. He was five minutes from the girl’s house. If those assholes had just let me call him, if they hadn’t forced him to drive in that fucking storm. If they didn’t insist on controlling every aspect of his life he’d still be alive. They killed him, and I’ll never forgive them for it.”
Izzy sits up and wraps her arms around my neck. I let her comfort me and take in the fact that this is the first emotion I’ve seen from her for a few days now. I pull back to see her.
“I told you my story. I need to know what’s going on with you.”
Her eyes drop and she shakes her head. “It’s nothing. I’ve been having nightmares and I’m just frustrated that I can’t remember anything.”
She’s lying to me.
It’s so obvious that it pisses me off.
I told her everything like she asked. I bared my demons to her, but she won’t trust me to handle hers.
“That’s bullshit.” I force the words out through my teeth. She flinches at my comment. “You’re lying, and I hate liars.” I stand up, my fists clenched in anger. “Let’s go.”
She stands up but looks at me. “Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you back to the club. You don’t get to do this shit. You can’t ask me to show you mine, and then refuse to share yours. I also won’t take you lying to my face. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you’re not the person I thought you were.” It’s harsh and I know it.
Right now I’m so pissed off that I don’t even give a shit. I mean every word of it.
The drive back takes half the time. We don’t say anything and once we pull up she all but jumps out of the car. I know I hurt her with how blunt I was. She needs to understand that I care, though, and if I didn’t care I’d let her keep pretending everything was great and I wouldn’t care how much she is hurting, but I do.
I feel like for now, I need to care enough for the both of us.
