I wave goodbye as he leaves and watch the truck back out of the driveway, the sense of dread hitting me as soon as he is gone. As I shut the front door behind me, Davis' voice fills the space.
“Where the hell have you been?” he shouts, and I cringe at the sound.
Beside him on the couch sits my mom, who is clinging to a bottle of beer. She pulls it toward her lips and looks over at me with empty eyes and says nothing. She has never stuck up for me before. I’m not sure why I still hope that she will, but instead, she allows Davis to do and say whatever he wants to me. Even though she's physically here, it's as if she’s abandoned me.
“Ryland has his license now and took me to get something to eat.”Since we don’t have anything to eat in this house, I want to say but bite my tongue. “His grandpa went with us,” I add.
“You don’t just leave without telling your mother where you’re going. She was worried sick.”
I’m not sure what comes over me at this moment, but something inside of me snaps, and my anger toward my mother and Davis lashes out. “Yeah, she seems really worried. She was passed out drunk when I went to ask for her approval. I thought since it’s okay for her to be unconscious around her child, it wouldn’t matter if I left for a little while.”
My mother’s eyes widen once the words leave my mouth. She cowers deeper into the couch as Davis twists around and looks at her with disgust. Her eyes snap back to me, a little bit of emotion sparking back to life inside her.
“Raine, go clean up the kitchen and then go to your room,” she growls, trying to sound demanding, but all I hear is fear laced within her words.
I roll my eyes, ignoring his words about how I’m worthless and disrespectful, and head into the kitchen where I find Luke at the sink, washing the dishes.
“Hey,” I say, feeling relieved the instant I see him. I’m so happy he is here, even though I know how much being here makes him unhappy. It does for me too, but at least we have each other—some of the time, anyway. His dark eyes look dimmer today, the usual light in them gone. Davis does that to those around him.
“Want to share?” I add, holding up the plastic bag in my hand, hoping I can make Luke’s day better.
He blinks, as if recovering from a trance, before looking at the bag. “He’s been in a bad mood since finding out you weren’t here. He kept demanding that I tell him where you were, and he had his goons out looking for you.”
The color drains from my face. I didn’t think about the consequences of leaving. I just left at the first opportunity that I could. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “You could’ve gone with us if I knew you were coming over,” I add as he dries his hands off with a towel.
“It’s okay. Mom dropped me off about an hour ago. I’m not allowed to go into my room until I do the chores.” He huffs, and I instantly feel regret.
“I took off the second I could. I was going to do the dishes when I got back home.”
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault my dad is a jerk who’s apparently obsessed with you.”
I swallow hard at his statement. Davis is controlling over the both of us, but I have noticed he’s harsher on me, always demanding to know where I am at all times. The fact that he had his friends out looking for me makes a chill run deep into my bones.
Davis stomps his way into the kitchen, his bloodshot eyes snapping between the two of us before they land on the bag in my hand. He walks over, and I flinch with the movement, not missing the way Luke places his hands onto my shoulders and moves me to stand behind him.
“The next time you decide to leave without telling me, therewill be consequences. Do you understand?” he hisses before he eyes the bag again. “What are you hiding?”
He shoves Luke out of the way so he can snatch the bag from my hand. He pulls out two containers of ramen noodles, a Snickers bar, and two bags of chips before tossing the bag back toward me.
I look inside, and all that’s left are three Milky Ways. I’m surprised he even left those. As I always do, instead of yelling back at Davis, I keep my true feelings buried deep inside and turn to rush off into my room, dragging Luke behind me. I shut the door behind us and feel my tears trying to betray me.
“He’s such an—” Luke mumbles but stops once his eyes land on me. “Hey…”
“Why is it okay that he treats us like this?” I say, my voice trembling, and I take a seat on my bed.
“I don’t know. But it won’t be forever,” he says and sits on the bed next to me.
“Here.” I reach into my jeans pockets, thankful they’re a little baggy, and pull out a few bags of candy, beef jerky, and ramen packages from my back pocket that I hid before coming inside. We both laugh softly.
“You’re awesome,” he whispers before unwrapping a Milky Way and taking a big bite.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I add, his eyes piercing into mine with a knowing look behind them before we return to our dinner.
I cling to the rainbow necklace around my neck and think about the hope Ryland was speaking about. I pray for God to place hope into Luke’s and my hearts that, one day soon, we can both get away from Davis. And that no matter what, we will always have each other.
Chapter Thirteen
Now
