Page 52 of A Sky Full Of Stars

It almost works to distract me until a vision of Lainey clouds my brain before morphing into Summer, reminding me I’ve got a Thanksgiving lunch to get to. More family time without her.

Taking a deep breath, I turn toward my childhood home and sigh.Hopefully today’s less painful than yesterday was.

My fingers tense as I work hard not to tap them on the table. The silence is torture, and I want out. We’re not even partway through the main course, and the tension is thick. I don’t know why my parents are still married. They constantly snap at each other, Mom’s always close to tears, and they never smile. It started going downhill after Summer left. She took everything from them, and when the financial troubles began, so did the fights.

I struggled through college, barely making ends meet, but I’ve been supporting them a little since making it to the pros. Though, there’s only so much I can do. Money may break a relationship, but it doesn’t necessarily help to repair it, and I hear about it regularly.

When Mom heads off to the kitchen to grab dessert, my phone rings. Dad glares my way, but all it takes is a littlewhite lie about it being my agent, and he’s smiling instead. Like always, football is the most important thing to him. I often wonder what our relationship would be like if I never made the pros, or worse, if I never wanted to play football in the first place. Maybe our relationship would have been more like his with Summer, almost nonexistent.

I excuse myself and head out front before answering, my brow furrowed by the Thanksgiving day call. “Nate, how are you?”

Nate still plays for the Heartwood U football team with Dylan and Luke. We were teammates in college, and while we were close then, we’ve barely spoken since I left.

“Hey Thomas, I hate to be calling about this, on Thanksgiving, but I spoke to Dylan, and-”

Dylan? My eyes widen as images of an irate Dylan come cascading back.I fought with Dylan? Jesus.

“Fuck, he just came at me.”I think.“And—”

“Not about that.”

“Huh? Oh-kay.”

“But it is about Summer. Where are you? Can I meet you somewhere?”

Istare through the windshield, unseeing, listening to Nate on the phone as he tells me about his girlfriend, Cory’s, confrontation with Dylan—Summer’s best friend, Cory—and I’m confused.When did my two worlds collide?Were my friends all just waiting for me to leave? I didn’t even know the team knew Cory and Summer.

“The scars are real, Thomas. The scars Dylan was yelling aboutare real. And Cory…fuck… I’m sorry, man, but Cory said it was your dad that did it. He hurt her.”

My dad?My ears ring as a sharp pain stabs me in the chest, and when I don’t respond, Nate continues, filling me in on what he knows, telling me about the physical abuse Summer endured at the hands of my dad before she left…the scars, the stuff I never knew. As he speaks, the ache in my chest deepens to an unbearable level, but I welcome the pain.

Dylan wasn’t lying.

Pressing the mute button, I slam my palms into the steering wheel over and over until Nate pauses, my head clouding with all the awful things I’ve thought about Summer over the years… the things I’ve said to her… about her.Fuck.

“My sister is off-limits. I don’t care that she’s easy… She’ll ruin your life.”

“Stay the fuck away from my friends, Summer. I’m begging you. They deserve better than you and yourlifestyle.”

“Good for you… you’ve fucked my sister now stay the hell away from me.”

“Stay out of my life, and I’ll keep out of yours.”

Bile rises in my throat.What did I do?I want to hurt someone.

Dad.

I want to hurt Dad.

He fucking lied. He abused Summer and I…Fuck!

“Thomas, are you there?” Nate asks, his voice panicked. “Can Ipleasemeet you? I’ll go anywhere.”

Instead of meeting him like he’d asked earlier, I’d driven here to my high school football field, something in his voice telling me I needed to be alone.

Dylan should have beaten the shit out of me when he had the chance. I deserve it. I deserve so much worse.

I’m numb as the world goes by.I hurt my baby sister.It wasn’t just Dad. Sure, I never physically did anything, but I hurt her too, and she’s been forced to live with the pain.

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