Perfect Lie (13 page)

“Was Brock a positive person?”

“That depends on who you ask.”

“I’m asking you.”

I made my way to my seat, noting the chessboard was gone, replaced with checkers. I snorted. “I take it none of your patients knew how to play?”

“Tell me a positive memory about him,” Marie prodded.

“He was my first kiss.” I smiled as I drifted back to that day in the shelter.

“Why are you sitting over here all by yourself?” Brock asked, as I stared at the floor of the main lounge, not wanting him to see my face. I knew my skin was blotchy and my eyes swollen from crying. He crouched in front of me with his arms resting on his knees for balance. “Have you been cryin’?”

I glanced up to look at his face as I wiped my palms over my cheeks. His eyebrows pulled together, and his stormy gray eyes reflected my own sadness.

“Stop that,” I whispered. “Stop looking at me like you pity me.” My gut twisted in embarrassment, and I wished I could run away from here. I let my long hair fall in front of my face so I could hide behind it.

“I’m not. I swear. I just want to make it better. Are you missing home again?”

I shrugged as my eyes danced over his hair because I didn’t want to look him in the eye when he answered with some rude remark.

“If your mom is so damn mean to you, why aren’t you happy to be away from her?” he continued. “You’re here with me.”

“I’m not crying over my mom, and trading one cage for another isn’t exactly a step up.”

“Then why are you crying? You’ve got give me something. It’s not like you can run away.” His muscles tightened in his face as he clenched his jaw. I remained silent as I looked him over. He was cute, and it pissed me off, because I knew outside of this hellhole he wouldn’t give me a second glance, and soon we’d both be out in the real world.

“Fine. Have it your way.” He moved next to me and took a seat on the floor, groaning as he relaxed his head against the wall.

“Just go away.” I whispered, and he turned his head to face me.

“So you still can talk. I was worried you’d stroked out on me for a second, Bird.”

I smiled despite trying to keep my scowl in place.

“She smiles too.” His hand went over his chest. “Now I’m the one who’s speechless.”

“Oh, wow. That was lame.” I rolled my eyes, but my smile grew, and I glanced at him as I tucked my hair behind my ear.

“You’re harsh. I didn’t know you had it in you, Bird.”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For talking to me,” I told him. “I know you didn’t need to waste your time in here with me.”

“Is that what you think? I’ve wasted my time?” He stretched out his legs, but his face didn’t relax.

“You know you have. I’m going to be out of here soon, and it would be social suicide for you to show your face with me in school.”

He laughed loudly, and I couldn’t help join in. People turned to look at us as we disrupted whatever mundane activity they were doing. “You think I give a fuck what anyone thinks about me?”

“You honestly don’t care if people make fun of you for being around me?”

He smiled as he shook his head. “All I care about is what you think. What do you think, Bird?”

“I think you’ll change your mind once we’re out of here.” My eyes drifted over his black shirt, which was stretched tautly across his thick chest.

I ran my fingers through my dark hair, my fingers getting snagged in a snarl, and I groaned in frustration.

“It’s that quail soap or whatever the hell they call it. All the girls walk around here with messy‐ ass hair. Don’t worry about it.”

“Mine kind of always looks like this.” I raised an eyebrow.

“It suits you. Makes you look wicked crazy,” he joked, and I smiled, despite my sadness.

“I’m not crazy.”

“You sure? Well, I’ll make you a promise. I won’t tell anyone you aren’t bonkers if you don’t tell them I’m really a nice guy.”

“People are only nice if they want something.” I pushed myself to my feet and stretched. Brock stood up beside me, and I walked back around the corner and down the long hallway that housed the bathrooms and bedrooms.

“This again? What do you think I want from you?” His gaze flicked to mine, and my cheeks burned under his stare.

“I don’t know,” I said. “We barely know each other.”

“What do you want to know?” he asked, as he watched one of the girls walk by us and down the hall to the main lounge.

“Why did you run away?”

He sighed and ran his hand over his face as he slowed his pace. “This really isn’t going to help my case in making me look like a good guy, Bird.” He chuckled. “Well, I ran with a pretty crazy group of guys in Boston. They liked to take shit, cause fights. It was a tough neighborhood. You had to either fit in with them or be one of the pussies who got their asses beat to fund the next ripper.”

I drew my eyebrows together a she shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “A ripper is a mad‐cool party.”

“Wow, sounds like a great place. I can see why you wanted to go back.”

“It’s all I know, and after Laurie…this place is too…quiet.”

“It’s not that quiet for all of us.” I rolled my eyes and turned to walk back toward the main room.

“Someone fucking with you?” He put his hand on my shoulder to stop me from walking. “Lie, if you tell me, I can take care of it for you.”

I started to walk again, and he followed beside me. “I don’t need you to fight my battles for me, and I highly doubt you want to take this one on anyway.”

“What? You think I can’t protect you?” Brock laughed and shook his head. “No faith in me at all, huh?”

“You see that overgrown jerk standing in front of the couch?” I motioned with my chin as we reached the end of the hall. “He told me this morning that I need to pay their dues.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

I shrugged as I let out a loud breath. “Judging by the way he was grabbing himself, it wasn’t hard to guess.”

Brock was halfway across the room before I could call out his name. He was piss and vinegar, pure testosterone and no outlet. He didn’t care what anyone thought, and I envied him for that. More than anything, I wanted not to give a shit about anyone else’s opinion, and I wanted to be tough like him.

“This fucking guy? This is the guy who thinks he can threaten you?” he yelled, his voice deeper than it had been a minute ago. “You trying to call hosies on Bird?” he asked the guy, looking up to him because he stood at least half a foot taller than him. Brock’s Boston accent came through thickly with his anger.

“I was just fuckin’ with her.” The kid waved his hand as if to dismiss Brock, which only infuriated him more.

“Now I’m fuckin’ with you,” Brock told him.

One hit was all it took, and the heavyset kid fell over the back of the couch and slid to the floor as blood oozed from his nose. Everyone screamed, and it was deafening in the small space. Brock turned back to me with a grin as the staff grabbed hold of him and struggled to keep him contained. “You have faith in me now, Bird?” he yelled over the commotion.

I stared at him, slack‐jawed in shock, as he beamed with pride. “Bird?” he called out louder, and jerked his body, causing the shelter staff to lose their hold on his right arm, and he pulled toward me.

“Yes,” I called out over the chaos, and he relaxed for a moment as he stared at me.

“Mr. Ryan, you need to calm down,” one of the women yelled into to his face, but he didn’t acknowledge her.

“Bird, I’m going to kiss you right now. Do you believe me?” He wore a playful smirk, the anger in his voice gone. He had tried to get me to kiss him for weeks, but I’d turned him down, afraid he’d be able to see that I’d never done it before.

I couldn’t help laugh at the insanely silly mood he transformed into. He was crazy; in fact he had to be certifiably crazy. I nodded once, my hands clasped in front of my chest. It was like a magnetic pull. He twisted free and pried another hand off his shoulder before he took off, nearly tripping as he weaved through the crowd. The other kids darted out of his way just in time to not get bowled over by the staff. Brock stopped in front of me and grabbed either side of my face in his hands and pressed his lips hard against mine. The world stopped and sped up at the same time, just like my heart. His tongue slid over the seam of my lips, and I let them part, welcoming him to deepen the kiss. My tongue followed his lead, pushing gently against his as my arms slid around his waist.

Two staff members pulled him back, but he kept his hands on me for as long as possible until his fingertips slid over my cheeks and grasped at the air.

“When I say something, I fucking mean it,” Brock called out with pride as they took him around the corner to the stairs, and like that he was gone.

I looked up at Marie. “I know it seems crazy, but everything was at that time. We were locked away from the world, stuck in limbo. Everyone was scared or angry, and most just gave up on giving a shit. Brock gave me something to look forward to when I woke up. I didn’t cry again while I was in there.”

“What was the significance of his nickname for you?”

I smiled so hard that my cheeks hurt. I’d never had a boy show interest in me, let alone risk everything just to show me he did.

“Bird.” I let the word roll off my tongue as I tried to remember how it sounded coming from his lips with that thick accent. “I asked him a million times to tell me, and he always refused until after that fight. I think he liked it when I bugged him about it. He thought it was cute when I was frustrated.” I let out a laugh. “Boys can be really stupid.”

It had been two long days since I’d seen Brock, but my lips still tingled from his kiss, and my heart fluttered every time I thought of him. No one in the shelter came near me, and I couldn’t have been happier. I’d rather be left alone than deal with any more bullying. I got enough of that from school, but the days dragged by like years.

We all sat down to lunch, just like every other day, and while people groaned and bitched about what they served, I was in heaven. It was nice to know a meal was coming. Everyone chatted as they ate, except me, who daydreamed about my first kiss as I bit into my meatloaf. The sound rumbled to a low
whisper and stopped, and that’s when I saw him. Brock was back, no longer in the shelter’s version of solitary confinement, which consisted of his being kept in his room. He searched me out, and when his eyes met mine, he grinned wildly as he made his way to my side.

“Did you miss me?” he asked playfully as he sat next to me on the bench.

“Yes. You’re the only one who talks to me.”

“You can’t let them bother you, Bird.” He tucked my long dark hair behind my ear, and I rolled my eyes at him. It wasn’t that simple; nothing is that easy. If I could shut off my feelings, I would have done it years ago. “All we need is each other. Fuck these guys. They don’t get a say in our happiness.”

“Why do you keep calling me that?” I’d been in a foul mood ever since they’d taken him away.

“I can’t give away all my secrets, Lie.”

“Whatever.”

“Don’t be like that. I’m just messing with you. You’re my little jailbird.” His grin made my heart go insane.

“It isn’t jail, Brock.” I rolled my eyes as he laced my fingers in his under the table.

“Your home is your jail, Bird. I’m going to set you free.” He picked up the apple from my tray and took a bite.

“Really?” I turned to face him.

“Do you need me to prove to you again that I mean what I say?”

“I think you proved that point, although I’m not so sure you’re really a nice guy,” I quipped.

“I think you’ll like Boston.”

“You want to take me to Boston with you?”

“You think I’d leave without you?”

“How will we get there? It’s really far.”

Brock dropped the apple onto my tray and rubbed his hands together. “I’ll figure it out. It’s gonna take a lot of cash.”

“I can’t help with money. My mom is broke.”

His shoulder bumped against mine. “Like I said, I’ll figure it out. Don’t worry. But it’ll probably take some time.”

“It didn’t bother you that he used violence to show you he liked you?” Marie asked me.

“People used violence to show me they hated me. What’s the difference?”

“Are you sure you weren’t looking past something that you knew was wrong because it felt good to get attention from a boy?”

“He wasn’t just any boy. He was
the
boy.”

“Explain.”

“No one bullied Brock,” I said, “and no one came near me once they knew he was watching over me. It was just like those fairytales you hear as a kid.”

“Fairytales don’t usually include getting locked up in a youth shelter and witnessing random acts of violence.”

I shook my head. “You don’t get it. You’ve never been me.”

“Everyone is fighting a battle, Delilah. “

I pushed up from my seat in anger, a side effect of having spentso much time with Brock. “That’s bullshit, and you know it. Brock is the only person who ever cared about me. So he got in a fight. Big deal. Kids get in fights all the time. At least he wasn’t being the bully. He was standing up for me.”

“Please calm down, and let’s take a short breather. Then we can try to work through this so I can see your side of things. Sound good?”

“Yeah.” I nodded and made my way to the front door of the building. I grabbed a cigarette from my pack and lit it, pulling a long drag of smoke into my lungs. My eyes closed as I exhaled. I knew Marie was right, and it pissed me off. Brock had saved me. I was hanging on by a thread, and he had held onto me and made sure I didn’t fall.