Truly

by Carmel Rhodes

“I see you, Truly. If my brother was stupid enough to drop you, you better fucking believe I’m going to pick you up. I will own you, every inch that belonged to him will be mine.” I swallow at the conviction in his words. At the finality of them. I stare up at the demons dancing in his eyes, and in that second, I know that I should run. I turn and bolt for the stairs. “You can run, Little One,” he calls after me. “But I will chase you, and I won’t stop until your innocence is smeared all over my cock.”

He isn’t here to bring me hearts and flowers, he’s here to bring chaos and calamity.

Leaning over, he tucks a strand of hair behind my ear and bops me on my nose. “Tell anyone about this, and I will fucking kill you.”

This is where I would have just moved.

Life is like a sink full of dirty dishes—you stick your hand in, and hope there isn’t a knife at the bottom.

It’s not about blindly following. It’s about trusting the process. It’s about the journey. It’s about doing the work. Sowing the seed so that you may grow in faith, in life, in love. So that one day, you can move mountains.

“I wasn’t born yesterday, baby girl.” Dad looks between us. “I see a boy looking at a girl the way this boy is looking at you, and I know it’s only a matter of time before he makes a move. That kind of intensity…it’s more than just friends.”

“We can watch one episode of You, and then YOU need to leave.” “Into stalkers, huh?” He grins, kicking his shoes off and settling back against a pillow. “I’m researching how to get rid of one.”

“It’s only settling if the bad outweighs the good. I can search my whole life for the perfect man and never find him. I want a real man who loves me, one who may not be everything I want, but who’s willing to be what I need.”

“I don’t care if you were on the moon, Tru. I’ll always come to your rescue.”

Things don’t fit neatly into boxes, but that’s okay, because life is messy and people are not all good or all bad or all brave or all naive.

“Truly—” He opens his mouth, then closes it, choosing his next words carefully. “I have always noticed you. You just noticed him first.”

“He said, and I quote, the one with the purple hair belongs to me.” My mouth drops open and I’m not even sure how to respond to that. The football comes whizzing through the air and hits Juan’s cup, spilling the contents in his lap. “MINE,” Noah yells, sneering in our direction.

“Then act like it,” I say, my backbone is finally making an appearance. “You want free rein over my body? Deserve me. You want to own me? Earn me. You don’t get to parade other girls in my face and then feign innocence. You want to keep doing fucked up shit to me? You want to keep using me as an outlet for your rage, then prove that I can trust you to lead me down that dark path. If you want me, if you want to possess me, then I get to possess you too.”

“I’m not your prince, Truly. Our story isn’t a fairytale. I don’t vow to always be kind, or do what the world deems as right, but I will always do right by you. I will always protect you. Plus,” he pauses, and I can feel the corner of his mouth tip up, “I’ll fuck you better than the prince ever could.”

“He’s my ex. I’m sorry.” “Ex meaning no longer together?” Jones verifies. Noah finally lets me go. He bends down to pick up the fallen jacket and hands it over. “Ex, meaning working shit out. Take your jacket and this loss and run along.”

“You deserve someone better than me,” he begins. His brow wrinkles as he searches for the next words. “But I’m not selfless enough to let you find him, so I figured I’d do the next best thing.” “Which is?” “Be better.” It’s a two-word declaration, and yet it makes my heart race.