Crushed (43 page)

And now Cleo
was
the one that ha
d
everything to lose.

And
he kne
w
he
need
ed
to make sure that d
idn’
t happen.

They had
to find a way to fix this.

The problem
was he was
pretty sure
they weren’t
going to be able to do it
themselves.

Chapter 24

Reece thought that if his mom
could see Cleo right
then
, she’d be pretty happy.

She
was
eating
a
caramel French toast
bake his m
om had
left
in the fridge
for him
.
He
could tell she
was
loving every bite. She
was
on her third piece and
he was
kind of impressed.
He
had no idea she could eat so much.

She
had
a mug of caramel hot chocolate with instant coffee stirred in. It was the closest
he
could get to her favorite without running to the little coffee shop in town.
He
wouldn’t have been opposed to doing that but the weather had turned
stormy. S
he
’d
told him
it would be
sill
y
to leave the house. It
was
an absolute downpour, complete with wind, thunder and a few flashes of lightening.

“So
I h
ave
a few ideas
,”
he
started in while she finished eating.

They were
downstairs again.
He
fe
lt
pretty lucky that it happen
ed
to be her Saturday off.
As if
, finally, for once, something
was
going
their
way. Even if it
was
a small something,
he’d
take it.
He was
relieved that if nothing c
ame
up, she
’d
asked if
they
could spend the whole day together. Too bad the conversation
wa
s going to ruin that a bit.

“I have money in savings, too. What i
f we get a place together?” It was
a huge proposition.
He knew that. He
didn’t care.
He
just wanted to throw the idea out there.

She blinked at
him
in surprise. Swallowed the bite she was chewing. Took a sip of her hot chocolate,
probably to give herself a minute to think
, he realized
. Then she asked, “You mean like…move in together?” She looked and sounded surprised.
But at least she didn’t look horrified by the idea.

He
nodded.

“No,” she said quietly. She started shaking her head. “Just because I’m having problems
at my house, I don’t want you to leave yours.”

“Do you think I want to stay here? With him? After what he did?”
he
didn’t mean to raise
his
voice. It seemed to have shot up on its own. “Look, you’re eighteen. I’ll be eighteen
in two more months. I was thinking either you could stay with Emma for two months?
Or, we could find a place now and I’ll stay here until my birthday. But I’ll pay part
of the rent. Just until my parents can’t tell me I can’t leave.”

Reece
knew he
had e
nough money saved for this. H
is m
om
had
told
him
to save
his
money for something important.
H
e knew she
sure as hell
hadn’t
mean
t
to save it so
he
could use it to move out of her house. She was going to hate the idea.

He
knew Cleo had money saved, too.

And though
he
’d been thinking of getting a car
with his savings
,
his mom
had
said they’d switch his
vehicle to
his name on his
birthday. Just like they’d done for Amanda and Chelsey. Maybe
he
should feel guilty about that, waiting until it
was
in
his
name and then dropping the bomb that
he was
leaving. But
he
d
idn’t
feel guilty because after what
his father
had done, he figured
the man
owed him
at least that much. The plan made sense in
his
head th
at
morning, while
he
had been
thinking things over. But it d
id
n’t look like it
was
making as much sense to Cleo as it did to
him
.

She put her plate down on the coffee table and slid it away. Suddenly
,
he
wished
he
’d waited until she was done eating. Because
he was sure he’d
just made her lose her appetite.

“Reece,” she started, “I appreciate the offer but—”

“It’s not like I’d be
doing it as a favor!”
he
interrupted. “I
want
to be with you.”

“I want to be with you, too,” she said.
He
could feel a huge “but” headed
his
way.
He
wasn’t wrong. “But we’re still in high school.”

“And we’ll both be adults,”
he
pointed out.
He
wasn’t at all surprised
that
she
’d
shot this idea down.
He had known
it was a long shot. And
he
knew she was right. And while
he
did want to be with her,
he
also did
not
want to be where
his
dad was. Moving out would be like a two for one deal for
him
. But
he
could tell it wasn’t going to fly. Not yet. Maybe after graduation
but judging by the stubborn look on her face, definitely not now.

“So, what have
you
got?”
he
asked. “What do you think we should do?” 

She rolled her lips in and was silent for a minute. Meaning she was hesitant. And
that,
he
was sure, meant that she knew
he
wasn’t going to like what she had to say.

Finally she said, “I think I should just go home and talk to Paul. I could try to
convince him that we’re not together. I mean, Luci told him she was the one that invited
you the other night. It was one night, for a few hours. It was my birthday.” She shrugged.
“I think I could convince him nothing has changed.
That you only came over because we’re friends.
”

He
already hated this idea. “That means we’d never be at your house. Which I’m fine
with, I don’t want
you
there at all. But that means Luci would be alone a lot. Or,”
he
realized the other side of this, “you and I would never be together. Which we probably
couldn’t be because someone would see us and it would get back to him.”

She was silent.
He
slumped back into the couch. “That’s your idea?! To pretend like this week never
happened? So you go back to being what…his punching bag?” She tried to cut
him
off but
he
kept talking. “And we act like nothing has changed between us? Like things are just
as crappy as they have been the last few months? No!”
he
shouted as
he shot up from the couch. Maybe his
idea was a little over the top. But hers? Stupidest. Idea. Ever. “No way.”

“Okay,” she said quietly, “how about…” She faded off and
he
knew
he
wasn’t going to like this one either. “I tell him we’re together. I know all he’s
worried about is the money. What if I take five thousand out of my savings to replace
the money from your dad?”

Did
he think
her first idea was the stupidest ever? This topped that. Cleo was one of the smartest
people
he
knew. But right now, she wasn’t thinking straight.

“Do you want me to start listing all of the reasons that’s not going to work? Because
for one thing, how do you know he won’t take your money and kick you out anyway? And
then you’ll have almost nothing left to start over with. Not to mention
, that means you’d still be in that house
!” There was also the issue with
his
dad. Would he fire Paul?
Reece
had no idea.
He
didn’t really care. Except
he
wasn’t sure what that would mean for Luci
,
and
Cleo wasn’t the only one worried about her
.

“It’s not that bad there,” she said quietly.

“How can you say that?”

“Maybe I want to be there,” she admitted.

“Why?”
he
demanded. The last thing
he
had wanted was to fight with her. But
he
was getting frustrated.
He
had made her show
him
her bruises last night. The one on her stomach was faint. The ones on her thigh made
him
want to punch a hole through the wall. And the one on her shoulder
, though it didn’t look as bad as the others,
bothered her the most.
He
wondered if she’d wrenched it or something and just hadn’t realized it. “I thought
you hated it there?” Not just because of Paul. The place wasn’t exactly full of happy
memories for her. It literally gave her nightmares.
He
couldn’t understand why she would ever want to stay there.

“I do hate it there,” she said and her eyes started filling up with tears. “But it’s
familiar. It’s what I know. It’s where Luci is. It’s a lot less scary than not having
any idea what’s going to happen to me. Or her. What if I can’t find anywhere to go?
What if no one will rent to someone still in high school? What if your dad fires Paul
and he takes Luci and leaves town? He could do that, you know. He could leave with
her and not tell me where they’re going. Then what? What do I do if they just disappear?”

So that was it. She was scared.

And
he
couldn’t blame her at all.

“I mean, it’s not like he does this all the time. It’s hardly ever,” she said in a
strained voice.

“Once is too much!” Reece argued, his voice harsh. “You get that, don’t you? Please
tell me you understand that even one time is not okay?”