Page 46 of Toxic Wishes

Did they date?

“Okay, baby. I understand. She grazes my dick again, and I almost want to slap her hand away this time

“I’ll be waiting, soaking wet for when you do.”

She blows me a kiss and starts rolling up the window. She starts the car.

Thank you, God.

She waves as she drives off, and I wave back, plastering on a fake smile. But as soon as she’s turning left at the stop sign, my smile fades and I jog back to the front door.

When I open it, I don’t see Abigail. I only see Josh and he walks over to me with a beer in his hand, handing me one.

“Where’s Abigail?” I ask him.

“She’s upstairs, she said she hasn’t eaten at all today so I made her a sandwich and then told her to go upstairs since she feels weird about eating in front of strangers, especially if she is the only one eating.”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Is it because she feels guilty eating my food?”

“No, I mean I’m sure that’s part of it, but-” he hesitates, not finishing his sentence.

“Look, on the drive over here, I was kind of hoping you would be here. I wanted to talk to you about a favor.”

I tilt my head back, looking at the ceiling. “What did you do now, Blake? And how much?”

“No, not for me. It’s for Abigail.”

I return my gaze to his.

“Abigail?”

“Ya-” he runs a hand through his hair. “She’s in a delicate position right now. I know Asher seems-”

“Asher?” I interrupt.

“It’s her last name. And it’s kind of my nickname for her. Did you forget how my adopted dad was in the military?”

“Right,” I made a mental note of her last name, in case I wanted to Google search her later.

“Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about letting Abigail stay here. Just for a little while.”

Josh and I didn’t even know we were brothers until a few years back. He was another product of my dad’s carelessness. I was beginning to wonder if my dad had more kids than he even knew about, but when Josh turned 18, his mom said he was free to find his dad, so he did. Then when we all found out Josh was Cliff's son, it didn’t even phase me this time. But even though we haven’t known each other a long time, we’ve grown close over the years. And part of that reason is I thought it would relieve the guilt I held inside for not getting closer to Blake when he was alive, but as time goes on I’m finding out that nothing fills that void.

Part of the reason I closed on this house years back was to give Blake a place to stay, since I knew it was getting bad at home, with Dad being gone and his new wife doing her own thing all the time. I was going to surprise him when he turned eighteen on his birthday, but I never got that chance. Images of Blake and Abigail together flash in my mind, along with her in a towel buck-naked in this house.

“Doesn’t she have a home?” I say, trying to deter this idea altogether.

“She does, but being there isn’t good for her. It’s part of why she developed-” he pauses again, choosing his words carefully. “A sickness.”

“She’s sick?” I hope he meant in the way I was sick in the head for thinking of her bare pussy in my mouth more than once ever since I caught her singing in the guest bedroom.

“Ya, kind of. I don’t want to tell you something that may make her upset. It’s her place to say. Just know, her home life sucks, and it’s volatile, and she can’t stay with her sister because she just had a baby not too long ago, and Abigail really can’t afford to give up all her savings since that’s what she plans on living off of when school starts.”

“School? Isn’t she out of school?” So many unanswered questions. Abigail Asher was a complete mystery to me. Josh sighs as if he’s getting impatient with my 101 questions.

“She wants to be a psychiatrist, so she still has med school to finish and then her residency. She wants to make something of herself. And I have never seen anyone work as hard as this girl does. But her parents don’t help her when she needs it. I don’t know why. All I know is I want to help her.” He holds his hands up in the air as if he’s pissed and just talking to himself now.

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