When the blanket ripped off me, it wasn’t a surprise.
I didn’t even scream. I just squeezed my eyes shut tighter.
He pulled my hand away from my ears, and I knew better than to fight.
“Hey, Bliss. Do you want some Goldfish crackers?”
My eyes flew open.
Axel’s gentle face loomed over me, a lighthouse in a stormy sea.
Those words…they meant one thing every time. He thought I didn’t know but I did. Whenever Axel asked me if I wanted Goldfish crackers, it meant, You’re in danger, you need to go hide.
I threw myself at him, my little arms hugging his neck and holding on tightly.
He squeezed me back, scooping me up and clutching me to his chest. “Come on,” he whispered. “Let’s get you out of here.”
We slipped past Jerry and Mom in the bedroom, and I tried not to see what he was doing to her. It was nothing I hadn’t seen before, but I shuddered at the dead look in her eyes as she watched us over Jerry’s shoulder.
It was like she didn’t see us.
Like we didn’t exist.
Or like she just didn’t care.
I turned away. I’d be back here tomorrow, and nothing would have changed. But for tonight, I’d been granted a reprieve in the form of my big brother and my favorite snack.
Axel carried me down the stairs and into the cool night air. Darkness wrapped around us, but a circle of glowing orange-red light pierced through the dim. I eyed it until we got closer and then realized it was the end of a cigarette.
“Jesus, fuck,” Nash gritted out, dropping the smoke to the ground and stepping on it. “They’re really going at it tonight. I could hear every word from all the way out here.”
Axel kept walking, jerking his head for his best friend to follow. “Fucking prick. One day, I’m going to take a baseball bat to his ugly head.”
Nash shook his head as we moved through the darkness. “The guy has a hundred pounds and six inches on you. He’d snap you before you even got to swing.”
Axel didn’t say anything. We all knew Nash was right.
A gangly teenager had no hope against a fully grown man. Especially not one as drunk and mean as Jerry.
Nash peered over at me, wrapped around Axel like a koala. “You okay, Bliss?”
“Hungry.” That seemed the easiest emotion to pin down when so many worse ones coursed through my body.
Nash reached over and patted my back. “She’s skin and bones. Fucking hell. We need to get her out of here. Not just for a night. Permanently.”
“I know,” Axel ground out. “I’m trying to talk to her dad.”
“He still got that big place in Providence?”
“Last I heard.”
Nash took a hard drag on his smoke, keeping it in his lungs for a moment before blowing it out with a sigh. “Jerry won’t let her go without a fight. You know he’s looking at her like she’ll be a paycheck in a few years. We gotta get her dad to take her.”
Axel pinned him with a glare. “I fucking know, okay? I know!”
Nash’s mouth pulled into a grim line as he watched over me. But when he took in my big eyes, his expression softened. “Sorry it took us so long to come back this time. But we gotcha two boxes of Goldfish, Blissy girl. And candy too.”
I picked my head up off Axel’s shoulder. “Twizzlers?”
Axel chuckled. “Of course. They’re your favorite.”
Nash nodded in agreement.
I grinned at him, letting the promise of a belly full of my two favorite things wipe out the memories of my mother’s face and Jerry’s anger.
Everything was better when Axel and Nash were around.
We trudged through the woods around the trailer park, going deep enough that the lights no longer touched the darkness, and both boys turned on the flashlights on their cell phones.
Eventually, their lights bounced over a small green tent, mostly hidden in the thick woods. Some leaves had accumulated on the tough green canvas since we’d last been here, but neither boy brushed them off. Axel dropped me to my feet and told me to wait while the two of them checked the ropes and pegs.
“It’s held up okay.” Axel stomped a boot down on one of the pegs, pressing it back into the dirt.
Nash tugged on a rope, tightening it. “She’s a good secret fort. The guy did say it was ex-army. Built to last.”
“He wasn’t wrong. It ain’t pretty, but it’s strong.”
“It is pretty,” I disagreed, finally speaking up. I tugged at the zipper and let myself inside. “It’s the best home I have.”