Credence

by Penelope Douglas

I used to watch them out my bedroom window late at night, my father pushing her and the magic of their play and laughter making me want to be in the middle of it.

Literal salt on her wound WTH

because the last time was only yesterday.

Damn that’s crazy

I don’t move. “They never said anything to me,” she tells me. “Did you know your father was sick?” I shake my head again, still watching the tire sway. I hear her swallow. “Apparently, he tried treatments, but the disease was aggressive,” she says. “The doctor said he… he wasn’t going to last the year, honey.”

Wtf, how he kept that a secret? Like why wouldn’t you tell your freaking daughter?

Nothing else.

Well shit…thats messed up, fuck her 🖕

She carries shears in her hand and charges right up to the tire swing, and as she raises the scissors to the rope, I clench my fists under my arms and watch her press the handles together, working through the rope until the tire hangs by twine and eventually falls to the ground.

Absolute queen move here 👑

A single tear finally falls, and for the first time since I’ve been home all summer, I feel something like love.

🥹

The recipe, the procedure… I know what to do. It’s meditative.

Oh do you now? Can’t relate

Is it weird I stayed in the house tonight when they died just down the hall this morning?

I wouldn’t know so, everyone deals with death differently

Only my parents and Mirai had that number. It was a phone for them to reach me if anything was urgent, since they knew I turned off my other one a lot. They never used that number though, so I never kept it on me anymore. Pushing up on my knees, I reach into my desk drawer and pull the old iPhone off its charger and fall back to the floor, looking at the screen.

Like a burner phone?

“Do you want to come here?”

This is the start of something new, it feels so right to be here with you 😂 🎶

They had a comfy, testosterone-infused man-cave, and here comes the girl they think they’ll have to guard their dirty jokes around now.

Oh girlie I don’t think that’s gonna stop them from being completely gross 🤮

He fills up the driver’s seat, the sun-kissed muscles in his forearm tight as he holds the wheel.

Uh girlie that’s your uncle 👀

A quiet place of my own to decompress, and men are noisy. Especially young ones. We’ll all be on top of each other all the time if they work from home.

😳😳

“Jake Van der Bong!”

😂 I can’t handle reading his full name sometimes

“The old me. The evil me.”

Hello 👀

“These are my favorite, too,” he says and pops two into his mouth. “Yo, dirtbag!” I hear Spencer shout.

Eww Jake, Spencer kick his ass out

Two dogs rush up, a brown lab and another one, scrawny with gray and black hair and glassy black eyes.

❤️ we probably won’t see them often 😭

His dark blond hair is slicked back under a backward baseball cap, and he doesn’t look much older than me, maybe twenty or twenty-one. His body, though… His strong arms are tanned dark under his green T-shirt, and he’s broad. His crystal clear blue eyes widen, and his mouth hooks in a half-smile. “This is Noah,” Jake introduces us. “My youngest.”

Introducing Noah

Why is he staring? I meet his eyes again, and he quirks a real smile. Should I say something? Or should he say something? I guess this is weird. We’re essentially cousins. Am I supposed to hug him or something? Is it rude not to?

Eww bro, stop staring, it’s so rude

“My logic is that if we don’t find her then she won’t ever run away again.”

Lazy

But if I refuse it, he’ll wonder why. “Sure,” I answer. “It’s under Cobra Kai.” I shoot a look up at him. Cute.

We talking the show?

A yawn pulls at my mouth, and my eyes water a little.

Girl same

I still, not sure what that means or if it should make me feel better.

It really shouldn’t

“And you don’t have to call me uncle,” he says. “I’m not really anyway, right?”

Bro you still her legal guardian so chill

I don’t know these people.

No shit Sherlock

Damn. I slept like shit.

lol mood

The way he looked at me last night.

No eww David! 🤮

“The difference between pizza and your opinion is that I asked for pizza,” she recites.

Ha, got em!

“I was just keeping it warm for you,” he says, his breath brushing the top of my head.

Bro how short are you 👀

My heart starts pumping harder. Keeping it warm…? Oh, the coffee. He left it on for me. “You have pretty hands,” he points out.

WTF 😳

“Your dad did, too,” he adds, and I can hear the taunt. I pinch my eyebrows together. Was that a dig? “My dad had pretty hands,” I muse, taking a sip without looking at him. “So real men use chainsaws and pick-up trucks instead of Mont Blancs and cell phones?” I ask. I turn my head, peering up at him, and he narrows his blue eyes on me. “Well, he’s dead now,” I tell Jake. “You win.”

Oh snap

I like that I don’t like him.

Gonna be so short lived huh

“Do you know how to answer in anything other than nods and one-word sentences?”

If you were trying to be funny, it didn’t work. I’m unamused sir

Slices of thigh peer out between shreds of dark-washed material, and Jake laughs under his breath as I look back up to see a lopsided smile on Noah’s cocky face.

Assholes 🤬

He’s teasing. I’m just not in the mood. Of course, I haven’t been in the mood for years, so I guess this is who I am now.

Girl I wouldn’t be either, I’m not a morning person anyway and he is still a stranger so the little dumb teasing jokes need to wait

I look around for his horse, but then, all of a sudden, he’s pulling himself up and plopping down right behind me.

Oh hell no 👎🏼

I grip the horn of the saddle with both hands, scooching up as far as I can, because he’s right there, and I’m practically in his lap.

Girl tell him to get the fuck off like this is not okay 🤢 and you barely know him

“Are you uncomfortable?” he asks.

Dude why do you ask this NOW after you already left the damn stable?!

His sigh hits my ear. “Yeah, your father could piss me off without saying much, too.”

Oh fuck you you fucking perverted old man whose is also HER UNCLE

I don’t know, but I’m aware that maybe I should be. This is weird. We shouldn’t be sitting like this.

He’s the problem

and then his fingers brush my neck. I tense, the touch making me shiver.

Ew gross David

“Do you like it?” he asks again in a stern voice, and I know he wants me to use my words.

Bitch, shut the fuck up 🖕🏼

But he takes my chin and turns my head to face him.

Bitch get your hands off me like I hear your stupid mouth moving and the words that came out so you don’t need to touch me

Or a rifle.

How the hell does he have a rifle and you didn’t notice 👀

I finally lift the rifle,

Rifles are heavy so I would be struggling, just give me a handgun and I’ll take my chances

“I can’t shoot animals,” I tell him. “I thought that’s what you were asking.”

You tell him girlie, fuck that old douche

The peak is massive. But so close. Such a strange feeling, something so big, reminding you that you’re small, but also reminding you that you’re part of a world full of magnificent things. What a great thing to be able to see—and relearn—every day.

This is beautiful but I’m not forgetting this is step uncle and step cousins taboo gross fiction

“I’m going to check some traps, so I’ll walk home,” he says.

Well you’re stupid

“Start breakfast when you get back to the house,” he tells me. “After you unsaddle the horse, of course.” I narrow my eyes without thinking. Cook? I have no problem helping out, but why that? I look away. “I’ll pitch in, but I’m not staying in the kitchen.” I’m not sure if I have a problem with cooking or because that’s where he wants me. Put the girl at the stove, because of course she doesn’t know how to ride a horse or shoot, right? “Do you know how to tend crops instead?” he asks.

Cooking as a part of my share but not gonna do that all the time because I’m not a fucking personal chef

“So cooking breakfast, it is,” he chirps. “We all do our part, Tiernan. If you want to eat.”

Bitch, then teach me like I don’t wanna be stuck just cooking shit, wouldn’t it be better to learn all that if you want to prepare me for like any worst possible situation. No you don’t wanna do that and boss me around like an asshole because you are too stupid to teach my girlie anything