Page 42 of Spark

I shrugged again. “It was a gift from Darren. I like wearing it.”

Liar.

“Right. How did you even meet him anyway?”

I felt my stomach drop. Shit, I never thought I was ever going to have to come up with a bullshit story about my life with Darren. I needed to put Holly in her place and move past this.

“Ya know what? My relationship with Darren is none of your business so stop pushing. He’s a busy man and doesn’t always have time for me. I understand that, so you need to be, too. You’re here to help me get back on my feet, not judge my life. Now, can we move on, please?”

Holly sighed in defeat. “I just wished he treated you better is all. He’s a little scary sometimes, you know.”

“Don’t worry about him. He’s mine to deal with, not you. You just focus on me.”

“Okay, Jaden. Whatever you say.”

And let’s keep it that way. For her sake.

* * *

When Holly and I got back to the house, we were both instructed to clean up for dinner. Confusion swept over our faces as Holly never had dinner with me; it was only ever reserved for Darren. But we didn’t argue.

When I was clean and dressed, Hank and Blondie escorted me down the hall toward the dining room, where, upon my arrival, I was wide-eyed and shocked. Holly was sitting at the table, across from my usual seat, smiling like crazy. But it wasn’t just her presence that had me shocked. It was what was displayed all over the table.

Thanksgiving dinner.

There were bowls of mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, salad, vegetables, and even green bean casserole, plates of several different styles of dinner rolls, and sitting in the center of the table was a delicious looking already carved monster of a turkey.

“Hi, Jaden!” Holly waved from across the room. “Happy Thanksgiving.”

“Wow.” I gasped as I walked over to the table. “Did you know about this?”

“Nope, not a clue,” she said. “Come on, sit down!”

I took my seat across from Holly. Even though Darren said he would be gone for a few days, I left Darren’s seat at the head of the table open, just in case he randomly showed up,.

Holly and I quickly loaded up our plates with just about everything and even went back for seconds. We sipped on chilled white wine and enjoyed pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. It was, without a doubt, the best dinner I had ever had in my captivity. By the time we were done, I was so full I could barely move. Darren would have been very happy with my appetite for once. So much was still left, I’d hoped we could enjoy the leftovers for the next few days.

After dinner, we retired to the entertainment room and watched all the Thanksgiving Day parades from all over the country. I loved the parades, but they only made me think of family—the one thing I was never supposed to mention or probably even think of ever again. In a way, Darren was right, though not for the same reasons. I needed to forget them so I could focus on the task at hand, but no matter how many times I’ve told myself that, the memories always seem to slip through the cracks.

My dad had always found pride in carving the turkey when my family would get together for holidays, even though he was terrible at it. You’d think he had cut the damn thing with a hatchet or something. Sometimes, my brothers would hand him one right when he was about to get started just for laughs, and then one year, he finally indulged. Thankfully, my mom was the pro in the family when it came to barbecuing it. God, those were the best.

Jason and I were usually always late because of his job, but we always managed to witness my father’s hack job of the poor bird. Jason worked at a tank plant as the man responsible for making sure the cannons went boom. Ever since he was a little kid, he loved to blow shit up. His hands had small scars caused by burn marks from handling fireworks and firecrackers back when he was young and dumb. He’d since then grown into an explosives expert. I should know. Bastard blew my world up when I met him, and now, another one had turned it to ash.

Fuck, I missed my family.

I fucking missed my best friend, too. On Black Friday, she and I would skip the stupid crowds and curl up on my couch to drink our weight in wine and watch all the Home Alone movies. It was another holiday tradition for us. Fuck, I missed that bitch.

“You okay, Jaden? You’re crying,” said Holly softly, as she looked over at me, her face washed with concern.

Shaking myself from my thoughts, I quickly wiped my face with my hands to find my cheeks were, in fact, wet.

“Shit, sorry,” I mumbled. “I’m fine, I just… I just miss them.”

Holly rubbed my arm in an attempt to comfort me, a sad look on her face.

“I’m sorry, Jaden. I wish things were different, but we can’t change the past, unfortunately.”

“I know.”

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