Credence

by Penelope Douglas

“You have a pretty smile, cuz,” he tells me. “If you stay, I’ll make you smile some more.”

So creepy like what do you mean by that weirdo

“It can be cut off,” he says. Cut off? Gross. There are levels of decay. The mold just makes it easier to see the really bad parts.

Yall so gross like fine i wont throw out your rotten ass sausage next time, fucking stuff it down your mouth hole for all i care, hope it gets stuck

Mirai

QUEEN MIRAI <3

But my night terrors ended. I haven’t had one since . . . fourth grade, maybe?

Trauma of your parents dying brought it back??

I’d clawed myself in my sleep.

Aww poor thing

The bag of candy still sits on my dresser,

Not gonna lie i totally thought you threw it out before already

Or it could be something else.

Looks like we got a mystery on our hands folks

He makes too many enemies.

Wow so scary, so dark and mysterious, how will HIS COUSIN ever resist :/

what guy doesn’t want to wake up at two a.m. to a twenty-three-year-old naked redhead on top of him? But she’s making a habit of it. And the sex isn’t very good.

…i hate it here…

I’m a terrible father, and I’m too old for more surprises like a teenage girl living in my house.

That's the one thing we can agree on buck-er-roo

People like her, who don’t show emotion, are finding other ways to release it.

Pot…meet kettle

I stop, an image of Tiernan in the back seat of some car—sweat on her face, hair sticking to her cheek, eyes closed, breathing hard—pops into my head.

EW GROSS DAVUD!

pussy. I cock my neck side to side, hearing it crack a couple of times.

…why are you the way that you are…

Hesitantly, I crack open her door, slowly in case she freaks out, and peek my head inside.

BRO JUST SAY YOUR SORRIES LATER, WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU, CLOSE THE DAMN DOOR

and I inhale deeper.

Nasty creep

And suddenly I can taste it. It used to be my favorite place to kiss her. God, I’d forgotten.

Bro just stop

the fact that I still need to be my twenty-year-old kid’s alarm clock is ridiculous.

So Noah's twenty…it can be understandable and why are you surprised since yall don't get along anyway

“Thank you for fixing the fridge,” I say, not looking at her.

Not good enough

A huge ass.

Very true

So much of the world simply replaces broken things or hires out to have it fixed, not wanting to trouble themselves to learn things on their own. Even with the plethora of help there is on the Internet.

Screw you and the high horse you rode in on sicko

She really didn’t have to bother. It’s a cheap plate, and they’re easy to break.

So fucking hypocritical like who's talking now about learning to fix instead of finding the cheap way out, why don't you make your own since you got so much to say…tiernan i swear he can't be that hot

“Is there anything I can help with today?” she suddenly asks, finally glancing up at me.

Tiernan STAND UP GIRL

If she’s going to make this easy for me, I won’t complain.

You a bitch coward

I should’ve asked nicer yesterday.

Thats right, you should have bitch

She is pretty, though. I’d give her parents that much. Flawless skin that looks almost porcelain. High cheekbones, the hollows rosy. Eyebrows a little darker than her hair, framing long lashes and Amelia’s stormy gray eyes, more piercing than her mother’s because she has the same dark ring around the iris that her father had. She’s more her mother, though. The slender neck, the curve of the waist, the spine and shoulders that made her seem statuesque sometimes. On Amelia, it looked cold. On Tiernan, it . . . makes you wonder how she’d bend and move in someone’s arms. Someone’s.

First of all, gross. Second of all, this part just sounds like tiernan in jake's voice so it kinda takes me out of it

But I can forbid her from leaving if I want to. If for no other reason than to burn off my exceeding supply of frustration with her father. To make her work off his debt to me. To fuck up her life just a little bit. To make her . . . She wets her pink lips, and my breath catches for a moment. If I were a worse man . . .

You absoutely suck ass Jake, you are one of the worst men and i hope you fall off a cliff

and a little pathetic. I can’t torture someone who won’t fight back.

Oh you are one to talk sicko

She should be doing that in the privacy of the bathroom.

How about YOU don't be gross and stare at her

This is bullshit.

You are bullshit actually

“I’m Mirai Patel. Mrs. de Haas’s assistant.”

My queen

“How does a dead woman still have an assistant?”

Asshole to a complete stranger, what purpose did that serve…did it make you feel better asshole

they churn the hay.

Churn hay??

“I’d like her to come home,” Patel says.

Thank goodness!!

But at the same time, who is this woman to tell me what to do with my niece?

Bro you were literally thinking about torturing her earlier like you shouldnt be within ten feet of her in my opinion

Who is this woman? What arrogance to think I can’t handle this. I mean, I can’t, but she doesn’t know that.

What a fucking child, this is just a pride thing like get over yourself dude

“I think you don’t know her. I do.”

1000% true

“And I think if I turn over guardianship of Tiernan to you,” I say, “that puts you in charge of not only her emotional support, but her finances, as well. Am I right, Ms. Patel?”

Bro the same could be said for you like you are basically a stranger and mirai was there like 90% of tiernan's life, get a grip

But then she speaks up, her tone firm. “I’ve had access to her finances since I started working for her parents ten years ago,” she says. “I can be trusted. Can you?”

BOOM ROASTED BITCH!!

“Her place is with someone who loves her.”

Mirai you absolute QUEEN!!!

I glance into the stable at Tiernan, watching her hop out of one of the stalls with her arm covering her nose and mouth as she dry heaves at the smell. Noah pats her on the back, silently laughing behind her, but then she swats at him, and he just laughs harder.

This moment is so normal…why must we ruin it later

“You would think ‘her family’ would know that about her,” Patel mocks me. “Goodbye, Mr. Van der Berg.”

Mic drop (Mirai 10 ; Jake 0)

I smile to myself. She’s stronger than that woman gives her credit for. Mirai Patel may care about Tiernan, but she’s had her for ten years. What good did it do the kid? That woman had her chance.

Bro she could only do so much as a nanny because of her parents like where were you all this time? hold up in a dumb ass house with your creepy ass kids and your sicko thoughts and sweaty gross asses fixing up boring ass motorcycles for cash…ass

But instead of saying “thank you,” she simply turns back around and continues working.

She said no thank you and you still did it anyway so you dont deserve a thank you. Seems hypocritical of me to say considering the fridge situation but fuck him, he deserves to be ignored and degraded

He’s twenty fucking years old. He doesn’t know what he wants. Or what he needs.

Bro just let him go if he causes you this much grief and headaches AND ALSO GET SOME FUCKING THERAPY FOR HEAVENS SAKE

Making a mistake takes seconds. Living with them takes a lifetime, and I don’t want my sons to suffer like that.

Bro thats the whole point of adulting and you raising them up to that point, you teach them how to manage and then let them go, sure some stay but for those who want to go, just let them go otherwise he will resent you for it…but still screw all of yall sickos

heat and sweat all the time without discarding our clothing.

Thats what I'm saying like this is all so forced and i see right through yall and the author

But he just argues back. “So do I,” he says. “We don’t need de Haas money in this house.” De Haas money.

Bro why you gotta be such a douche like think before you speak!!

Unfortunately, I can’t stop myself. “You won’t take de Haas money, but you’ll take a de Haas.”

Thats right bitch

“We’ll figure it out,” I retort. “You can’t burn plastic or inked paper or—” “California girls are environmentally conscious, aren’t they?”

Yall is not bad or high standards to be aware of what is safe for the environment like you should know that by now anyway, bringing your own reusable ones like shit yall suck

I hesitate, his words unnerving me for some reason. The sense of permanence in his tone. Like I’m here to stay.

Girl run!