The Square by JA Huss & Johnathan McClain

Author:JA Huss & Johnathan McClain [Huss, JA & McClain, Johnathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Science Future Press
Published: 2019-01-28T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - DANNY

“Christine?” I say, feeling like I’m stuck on repeat. But she’s not answering me, and this is making me very fucking nervous. “Fucking say something or I swear to God, I’ll pick you up by your ankles, tip you upside down, and shake the words right out of you.”

She smiles. Because I used to say this to her back in that first foster home where we met. I knew she was holding a lot of shit inside and I needed to know what it was. Because I was holding shit inside too and I wanted her to need my story as much as I needed hers.

But she didn’t need anything back then.

It’s scary to meet a kid who needs nothing.

I mean she needed food, and shelter, and all that other basic crap. But she was already at that late stage of neglect where one decides they don’t need love.

I was there too. But I was fourteen and she was ten. It just felt like I should’ve been way ahead of her in the whole no-love thing, not on equal footing.

So I wanted her story and she didn’t want to give it up.

This was my threat. Gonna shake it out of you, Christine.

I never did of course. Or maybe once or twice I’d actually pick her up by her ankles and make her squeal. But I never hurt her, and I never shook any words out of her.

The story came, eventually, but she was the one who shook it out, not me.

She sighs loudly in the here and now and says, “There’s more.”

And she looks ten again. No, she looks eight. Or six. Or four. She looks like some version of Christine I never saw but always knew existed.

“Yeah, no shit,” I say, taking her hand and pulling her towards me. “I know that.” She sits down on the wall and kinda… slumps into herself. I put my arm around her shoulder, and she leans against me.

“I can’t talk about it here. I can’t stay here.” She straightens up again, turning a little so she can look me in the eyes. “I need to leave this place right now and never come back.”

I nod my head. “OK. I mean, I never figured we’d be staying so I texted our driver to come get us. He should be here in a few.”

“But I’m not sure Alec should come with us.”

“Whoa,” I say, putting up a hand. “No. We didn’t just fucking break that asshole out of a fortress to leave him behind with Eliza fucking Watson.”

“He needs to decide—”

“Fuck you,” I say. “Just fuck you, Christine. He did decide. He’s with us. These Watson assholes can do whatever the fuck they want, but he’s with us.”

She sighs again. “That’s his daughter.”

“I know that. He knows that. And if we go in there right now and say, ‘Let’s go, man. We’re out,’ he’s gonna leave with us.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Let’s go test it out.”

She deflates again. Shakes her head just a little bit.

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