The Downside of the Truth by London Casey & Ana W. Fawkes & Karolyn James

Author:London Casey & Ana W. Fawkes & Karolyn James [Casey, London]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-10-05T04:00:00+00:00

12.

Bryan hurried to catch AJ. His arms went tight around her slender body and he stepped back with her. He knew the more distance he put between AJ and the room the better she would feel. That room had suddenly become nothing but a room of bad memories and present regret.

After storming away from his father, Bryan figured he would have followed him. But he didn’t. His father was nowhere to be found. Bryan wanted to convince himself he didn’t care, but he did. He cared a lot.

But right then, he had something better in his hands. He had AJ and nothing was going to make him let her go.

He would never let her go, in so many ways.

“Promise me you won’t leave me,” she whispered, her face buried in his chest.

Bryan looked to the partially opened door and saw Willie standing there. His eyes were glazed, empty yet in pain. His face was beat up. His demons worn on the outside, giving him that gracious appearance of hell.

All Bryan had to do was curl his lip a little to get Willie to close the door.

Fuck him, Bryan thought.

“I’ll never leave you,” he said to AJ. “That’s why I’m right here. That’s why I never went anywhere.”

AJ peeled her face from his shirt and looked up at him. She looked so upset and so vulnerable, layered with enough innocence that Bryan wished everything bad in the world would strike him and everything good in the world would be offered to AJ.

“Thank you,” AJ whispered.

Bryan couldn’t help himself as he touched her face, wiped her tears away. She looked beautiful when she cried, the emotion of life. Life was exactly what Bryan wanted to give AJ.

“Don’t thank me for anything,” Bryan said. “I still messed up.”

“But it’s a good messed up. Even though this sucks.”

“What happened in there?”

“Let’s talk in your car.”

Bryan nodded. He kissed AJ’s forehead, wanting more, and then slowly guided her from the halfway house. They probably weren’t the first two people to leave the place upset after visiting family, and they wouldn’t be the last. Once on the sidewalk, Bryan casually looked up and down the sidewalk, still searching for his father. He knew if he really wanted to find him he could look in the bars. That’s the only place where his father would be. Everything always came down to the bottle, and the worst of it all would be sitting in a bar until it closed and then finding his way home.

Once in the car, Bryan started it and drove.

He knew what AJ needed and that was to get out of there. They made it less than a mile before AJ opened up, telling Bryan everything that had happened. By the time it was done, Bryan felt like he could cry. He didn’t understand why people like AJ - and Wendy for that matter - were dealt with such dumb luck.

“So Wendy has nobody?” Bryan asked.

“Nobody,” AJ said.

“Well, I guess you. I mean, of course she has you.

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