Page 79 of Lucky Shot
TWENTY-THREE
ELIXON
My bed shiftsenough to jostle me awake. The mattress dips next to me, and I yawn as I roll over to find my brother crawling into bed with me.
“What’s wrong?” I ask through another yawn.
Roux wiggles closer and I’m reminded of when we were kids. When he’d have a nightmare and instead of going to our parents; he’d climb into bed with me, trusting that I’d chase away every monster in his closet or under his bed.
“You’re dressed under there, aren’t you?” he asks.
I laugh sleepily and move to pull him close. He rests his head on my shoulder. “Yeah. More than on the yacht, anyway.”
He snorts.
Then the room envelopes us in silence. I’m tired enough that I’m nearly dozing again when he speaks.
“He hit me,” Roux whispers.
My eyes snap open. Everything in me turns on and I’m suddenly not tired at all. Did he just say…? I lean up on my arm to look down at him.
“Who hit you? When? Do I—" I stop talking at the look on his face. I’m not sure what his expression says except that right now, he doesn’t want me to freak out. He’s worked up the courage to talk about this and he wants me to listen.
It takes a lot more strength than I thought I had in my body to lie back down. I pull him closer and rest my head on his. “I’ll just listen. You can tell me whatever you want.”
“You won’t tell anyone else?”
“Never,” I promise, hoping it’s a promise I can keep.
Minutes pass and I don’t think he’s going to speak. This time, there’s no danger of me falling asleep again. His words,he hit me, keep running through my mind, making my blood burn with fury. I almost don’t hear his quiet voice over the pounding in my ears when he speaks again.
“He used to hit me a lot. Never where anyone could see it. Remember when I had a broken rib?”
My hand fists into the bed as I give him a single jerky nod to indicate that I recall.
“Trevor did that.”
“Trevor?”
“My ex.”
“You’ve never given him a name before,” I say.
Roux doesn’t acknowledge that. He just continues telling me things that I wish I could unhear.
“He would call me names. Often. There was a way he used to do so, as if he was picking something specific about me I was insecure about, and blow it up so much that I believed it. I think… I still believe some of it.”
I swallow around the fury in my throat so it doesn’t escape as a growl. My fingers somehow manage to run smoothly through his hair, even though I feel like I’m vibrating with my anger.
“He wouldn’t let me see my friends. Sometimes, he wouldn’t let me go to class.” Roux takes a breath. “Once, he kept me tied to the bed.”
My fingers stop moving smoothly and I have to physically force myself not to jump up.
“I… uh… He did other things too. Things I didn’t like. That I told him I didn’t want to do.”
That’s the last straw. Once more I’m up on my arm, looking down at him. Roux flinches and I can only imagine the look on my face. The thing is, I don’t know what to say. I feel so helpless. My baby brother was going through this shit and I… I didn’t know. He called me all the time and I didn’t know!
“Roux,” I say, hearing how desperate my voice is. How do I help him right now?
