Take Me With You (3 page)

Chapter Three

Amelia

It’s late. Mommy didn’t shut the window, so there’s a breeze, but I can’t find my blanket so I’m shivering, my knees curled into my chest in an attempt to hold onto the small amount of warmth my body still has.

The door creaks open and the hallway light spills through, making the shadow of the person standing here even bigger. So big that it covers me completely. They’re moving toward me now, I can hear the scuffing of their feet on my carpet.

“There she is. Daddy’s special little princess. My Amelia.”

I really like it when he calls me his Amelia, it makes me feel super special. Like I’m his favorite. He loves me more than anyone else in the world.

He sits on the bed and reaches his hand out until its resting on top of mine. I wrap my small fingers around his and squeeze, my way of telling him that I love him. I’m rewarded as even in the dark, I can see him smiling so wide his teeth are showing. He scoots over until his big strong arms are wrapped around me, his fingers rubbing up and down my back, causing my already chilled body to shiver.

“Yes, my Amelia.” He whispers and I giggle, causing him to pull away just enough until our faces are almost touching, his eyes focused on nothing but me.

His smile from a second ago, it’s gone and he looks sad. I hate seeing Daddy look sad. It makes me wanna take it all away. I bet Mommy is the reason for it. She never makes him happy.

“Daddy, are you okay?”

He flinches as I speak, but his hands never leave me, now running up and down my arms the same way they just were on my back.

“No, baby, I’m not okay.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Daddy needs his little Amelia.”

“You do have me. I’m right here and I’m never ever leaving you.”

His eyes go soft again, a smaller version of his earlier smile starting to form on his lips, but before I can enjoy it, he moves toward me and his lips, the same ones that were just smiling at me so innocently are pressed on top of mine.

Not liking the way it feels, I raise my hands up and start pushing at his chest, but it does nothing but make my fingers hurt as his body is even closer to mine now, his lips harsher than before, pushing down so tightly that I can’t even breathe. He’s got my nose blocked too.

“No Daddy!” I scream inside my head, still using all the strength I’ve got to try and push him away. I can feel his tongue now. It’s pushing on my lips, trying to pry them apart and even though I don’t want it to happen, he’s gonna get his way as I can already feel them separating.

“That’s right angel Amelia, you know just what Daddy likes.”

~*~*~

“Ames! Earth to Amy!”

Shit. It happening again.

Shaking off the memory, I jump back once I see how close Tim is.

“Hey, you alright?”

“Not with you bending over me like that. What the hell dude!”

“I called out to you, even talked to you a bit. Did you even hear anything I said?”

Of course I didn’t hear anything, but I’m not about to tell him that. I’m gonna do what I always do when this shit happens and bullshit my way out of it.

“Yeah, I heard, but as usual, it’s boring as hell so I zoned out.”

“Funny.” He rolls his eyes before sitting down beside me. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yes Tim. Better than ever. Why?”

“When I walked up, you were shaking and shit. It was weird. Just wanna make sure everything’s cool.”

Damnit. Remembering, I’m used to it, but reacting, that’s different. I haven’t physically reacted to one of them since Dillon and I used to make out in the backseat of his car. I’m gonna have to do now what I did then. Blow it off like it’s nothing.

“I think I’m sick or something. Been feeling like crap all day. Shivering and shit.”

He nods and that’s all she wrote. He doesn’t need anything more than that. He’ll believe anything I say because it’s how he is. He asks questions first and thinks about it all later. It’s one of the things that I like about him. Tim being clueless right now is a godsend.

“So how long are you out for this time?”

“Daniels wants me expelled. So permanently if he has his way.”

“Can he really do that shit to you so close to the end of the year?”

I shrug and he sighs. This is another thing I like about him. He’s loyal. Not the brightest bulb in the box, but definitely loyal.

“It’s bullshit, Ames. How many times have we all done that shit before and nothing ever got done. Now all of a sudden, he’s got his panties in a bunch.”

“Honestly, I should have known it was coming.”

“Why?”

“With Dillon snitching on us, it means we’re under a microscope. He was right about that before, ya know? Whenever shit goes down, it’s smarter to run under the radar.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“I was bored and she was there.”

“If the school was smart they’d stop letting them in. How many of them do we gotta beat down before they get a clue that we don’t want them here?”

“Don’t know. So, what are you doing here?”

It’s his turn to shrug and I laugh. We’re a pair, the two of us. It’s like when Dillon got a conscience
and started dating the deaf chick, we lost our way. Neither one of us knows what the fuck to do with ourselves now.

“There’s fuck all to do around here and honestly, it sucked balls not having you at school.”

As much as I hate admitting it, it did suck not being at school today. Even if we’re just screwing around together, it beats sitting around here stewing over everything the way I have been. Ever since my mom went to work this morning, it’s been one repeated nightmare after another. School was like the one place they couldn’t get to me.

“Well I hate to disappoint ya Tim, but there’s dick all to do around here too.”

“Figured.” He laughs. “But at least we can do dick all together.”

I can tell by the look on his face that he doesn’t get what he just said, so I struggle to keep the laugh that’s building down, but I fail miserably as it flies out anyway.

“Thanks Tim, I needed that.” I say the minute the laughter dies and I find that I mean every word of it. I really did need the laugh, especially with what he walked in on a few minutes ago.

“What did I say?”

“You seriously don’t know?” I laugh again before slapping him on the arm. “Think about it.”

After a few minutes of silence, his eyes locked on the ground in front of him, his forehead creased and eyebrows furrowed, deep in thought, he lifts his head and smacks himself.

“Shit. It wasn’t supposed to come out like that!”

“Sure it wasn’t. Like I said, thanks for the laugh.”

“Can I ask ya something, Ames?” he asks, all earlier traces of humor gone from his voice as its deep and even again.

“Go ahead.”

“The reason you were all out of it when I walked up, is it cause of Dill?”

Dillon Murphy is a sore subject for me. It’s only been a few months sinc
e he dumped me and we haven’t said two words to each other since prom night. There’s still a lot of unresolved shit where he’s concerned and I’m not sure Tim’s the person I wanna be spilling my guts too.

“Nah, it’s not Dillon.”

“So what is it?”

God, he’s a persistent ass right now. What I said earlier was supposed to be the end of it. Now he’s no better than the stupid doctor that CPS is making me go see.

“Parental bullshit. You know how it is.”

He nods and I silently pray it’s the end of it. As much as I like Tim and how loyal he’s been to me after everything that went down with Dillon, he’s not gonna get anything other than lies and half-truths out of me.

“You wanna do something tonight?”

“Mom’s making me do shit with her for a few hours, but after that, sure.”

“Cool. Text me when you’re done and we’ll hook up.”

I casually nod my head and he stands, ready to head out, but not before he slugs me in the shoulder, pulling my eyes up from the ground until they’re resting on him.

“Just say the word, Ames.”

Huh? Say the word about what?

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What Dillon did to you, it was bullshit. The school shit is even worse. So, just say the word and I’ll deal with it.”

“It’s all good, Timmy.” I say, using my nickname for him in hopes that it will have the desired effect and chill him out. As sweet as it is, him wanting to deal with shit for me, it’s also extremely wrong. I don’t operate like that.

If the way he was willing to go to bat for me wasn’t weird enough, what he does next completely blows my mind. Reaching out and grabbing my hand, he pulls me up and wraps his arms around me, pulling me into a hug.

Another thing I don’t do. Touching, it’s off limits. If he knew what I’ve been through, he’d know this, but of course because I can’t trust anyone enough to tell them the truth, he doesn’t have a clue.

Pulling back after a few seconds, content that the hug lasted long enough not to offend him, I smile weakly and he turns and walks away. Watching him make his way down the path and through the gate, I let my mind wander.

Am I always going to be this way? Afraid of the most basic form of human contact? Will I ever let anyone get close enough to tell them everything I’ve been through and if I do get to that point, will I ever be able to let it go any further or am I destined to stay in this proverbial hell for the rest of my life?

After all the horrible shit I’ve done, do I really deserve anything more than what I’ve got?

Eric

“Why don’t you tell me about your weekend? Did you do anything interesting?”

I half expected when I got here today that Thompson was gonna dive right back into the whole Cadence thing, so when he brings up the weekend, I’m pretty sure the entire world could feel my relief.

Being so against it in the beginning, I expected the entire weekend to be a bust, starting with the family movie night, but it turned out way better than I expected.

Belle was there and for the first time in months, she didn’t have Kayden attached to her hip which made me a whole lot happier than it should have. It’s not that I think of Belle that way, like wanting to get her alone so I can get closer to her, but I’m just better one on one then I am when more people are added to the mix.

It also helps that I missed spending time with her like this. Before she got with Kayden, even though it wasn’t that well known, we used to have movie nights together. Before I took the chance with Cadence, asking her to prom the way I did, hanging out with Belle was my first attempt at doing things with someone else. Stepping away from being alone all the time.

“Saw the new X-Men movie with my best friend and my parents.”

“How was it?”

“Pretty good.”

“Now, are you talking about the movie or the company?”

“Both I guess.”

“How are things with your dad? Is there still tension between the two of you or have things gotten better?”

One time a few months ago, after hearing my parents fighting, I came to my appointment and unloaded about it, admitting things that until that point I’d kept to myself. My worries over being the reason my parents were fighting, my fear that it was gonna split them up and how it all made me feel.

Biggest mistake of my life because now it’s a topic he can use anytime he feels like it.

“It’s about the same. He doesn’t want to accept things.”

“How does that make you feel?”

“You already know, Doc. Their fighting, it’s happening because of me. If it was just Summer, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t constantly be going at each other.”

“You’re right. We have spoken about this at length in the past and I am aware of your thoughts on the matter, but I’m going to tell you the same thing I told you then. What is going on with your parents, it’s an adult issue and despite you acting older than you are, it is their issue, not yours.”

“They’re fighting over me. Doesn’t that make it my problem?”

“No. Your father’s inability to accept your diagnosis is his problem, not yours.”

I don’t agree with him, but whatever. Arguing this is not going to get me anywhere.

“Can we talk about something else?”

“Absolutely, why don’t you tell me what else you did this weekend?”

“I had a movie night with Belle.”

“Ah, that sounds great. What movies did you watch?”

“Since she was at the movies with me, we decided to go back and watch all the old X-Men movies.”

“So she did something with you that you enjoy?”

“Yeah. We haven’t done a marathon like that in a really long time. It was nice.”

I’m not sure what he wants to hear, so I just go with telling him the truth. It was nice hanging out with Belle that way. In a way it’s like we got back to a routine again and doing it settled things inside me.