Page 52 of Creed

“Collins, we need to call Asher. He’s been worried sick?—”

Her bitter laugh cuts me off. “Has he, though? Because I haven’t spoken to him in years, Creed. Years. He stopped answering my letters, didn’t answer my calls, he just went radio-fucking-silent on me and you tell me that my brother is ‘worried sick’?” The words are nearly spit from her mouth with a renewed venom that causes a shift in the atmosphere of the room. Pretty sure I even see Riley flinch at her words out of the corner of my eye.

I keep my expression neutral as I lean back in the chair, crossing my arms over my chest. “Yes, he is. Asher’s been through some serious shit, too, while we were all separated. It’s not my story to tell, but just know that his situation gave him no choice but to put himself first and work on his own person so he could be there for others.”

I can see the curiosity and concern warring in her eyes as her expression loses all animosity. It’s now full of worry and for a moment I’m reminded of the little peacekeeper kid from Stutton. We’re all quiet for a moment before Collins licks her lips, her eyes darting around the tabletop while she thinks. She licks her lips before raising her gaze to mine and Riley’s. “Okay then. We’ll call him. But my phone is dead and I don’t even know if he has the same number anymore.”

“It hasn’t changed, but we can use my phone. I told him I’d call him when I was home from Europe so he’ll be expecting my call, anyway.” I explain, and she nods again, but she looks a little lost in thought. I stack her and Riley’s plates on my own and take them into the kitchen. I keep talking over my shoulder as I rinse the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. “There are some other things we need to discuss this morning that we sidelined last night.”

I hear Collins audibly groan before a thudding sound, followed by Riley’s quiet chuckle. Reentering the breakfast nook I see Collins slouched over with her head resting against her folded arms on top of the table and Riley now sitting next to her, a small smile tugging at his lips while watching her as if she’s the most fascinating person in the world.

He reaches out with a cautious hand and pats her back before rubbing a small circle and murmuring something close to her ear that has her chuckling by the way her shoulders are shaking. I expected to feel jealousy at their close proximity, but something about the interaction warms my heart. They’ve only known each other for less than a day and already they seem so comfortable with each other. Riley is one of the most respectful people I know when it comes to boundaries, so I know he’s only being friendly to her and wants to alleviate the heavy burdens we know she carries.

Quietly, I take the seat across from them again. I have a plan and I haven’t even run it by Riley yet, but now’s as good a time as any because I’m not willing to let Collins slip away again when I just got her back. We. We just got her back. Asher and Me. Me and Asher. Definitely not just me. Mine. Fuck, not mine. Whatever.

Taking a deep breath, I steel myself to rip off the goddamned band-aid. “You’re not going back there. To the club, I mean.”

That gets her attention. Her head snaps up and her eyes flare with indignance. Her mouth opens, then snaps shut before she narrows her eyes at me and the look is so cold it almost makes me squirm in my seat. Almost.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, Stardust. I don’t want you going back to that club where that fuckhead thinks he can put his dirty hands on you, let alone anyone else. Not in my fucking lifetime.”

She scoffs, “Are you fucking serious right now?”

“As the goddamned plague,”

“Creed! I need that job, you—you can’t just barge into my life and start telling me what I can and can’t do! Jesus, I’m not a goddamned child anymore.” She spits at me.

Ain’t that the fuckin’ truth?

Before I can stop and think, the words are spilling out of my mouth as I shoot to my feet. “Clearly someone needs to! Working in a shady strip club? Living in a fucking motel in a shitty part of north county? Yeah, I’ll let you go, because you’ve done a fan-fuckin’-tastic job taking care of yourself so far, huh?!” I shout back at her and she rears back as if I’d slapped her. I feel the color drain from my face at the same time the color in hers rises in hurt and anger, because I know I shouldn’t have said what I did.

“Creed,” Riley’s voice is a soft but curt warning, knowing I fucked up.

Tears well up in her eyes and it feels as if I’d been sucker punched in the gut. “I’m so sorry.” I blurt, swiping both hands through my hair, gripping the roots tight before pulling them down my face. “Fuck, Collins, I’m sorr?—”

My words are cut off and my cheek stings at the hard slap Collins just delivered to the side of my face. I don’t dare try to rub at the spot because I deserved that hit.

“Fuck you, Creed.” The words are nothing short of a whisper before she shoves away from the table, storming out of the room. I move to follow her but Riley stands and places his broad palm on my chest, stopping me.

“Hang on, man.” He says softly.

The back door opens, then slams shut a second later. “She can’t leave—” I panic, but Riley is quick to ease.

“She’s not leaving. Unless she can climb the ten-foot wall around the property with her bare hands and feet, she’s not going anywhere. Besides,” he lifts his phone in his hand, gesturing to the screen, “I’ll get a notification if she crosses the perimeter of the security system. Just let her cool off outside for a few and you talk to me.”

I exhale a slow breath through my nose, trying to resurface from the massive wave of guilt that just crashed over me, feeling like a piece of shit for the way I just snapped at Collins.

Riley raps his knuckles against the table rhythmically a few times before meeting my eyes. “Tell me what’s going on, Creed.”

“She can’t go back there,” I start.

“Yeah, no, I got that,” He deadpans. “Let’s go back a little further, why are you acting this way with her? I gathered enough to know she’s important to you in some way from the letters you have saved, but that’s as far as my knowledge of the situation goes.”

I nod gathering my thoughts for a second. Then I take a deep breath and just start talking. “So you know she’s Asher’s little sister, yeah?” he nods. “She’s actually his half-sister, so they share the same mom. Asher was nine when she had Collins, all shortly after meeting her prick of a father. They never married. I’ve known Collins since she was born. Unfortunately, she and Asher didn’t have the greatest home life. It’s not like their parents were absent like mine. No, they stuck around only to constantly fight in front of them, some of them more than just verbal arguments. Asher was old enough to leave the house when shit would hit the fan, but Collins was just a little kid caught in the middle. At first, Asher and I had shit to do after school so she’d be home alone a lot and we didn’t think much of it because she was always smiling and happy when we’d come home.

“One day our junior year, I’d waited around after school to give Ash a ride home from baseball practice. We got to his house and his stepdad was MIA, and his mom was passed out cold in bed from snorting Xanax. We looked everywhere but couldn’t find Collins and we started to panic. We were about to call the police but then Asher found her passed out in the back of her closet one day. Locked herself in there to try and escape her dad’s wrath and it fucking broke my heart. Here was this little girl curled up in a fucking tiny ball in the bottom of her closet, sleeping with my hoodie cuddled to her chest and Asher’s old mp3 playing David Bowie on repeat, all because the man who was supposed to protect her had struck fear into her heart. She’s not my sister, and it honestly never felt that way, but I felt—still feel—protective of her all the same. Back then I felt like a secondary guardian to Asher. I felt this strong need to wrap her up and keep her as safe as possible, and help my best friend shield her from the shitty home life she was dealt. After that day, Ash and I sat down, mapped out, and rearranged our after-school schedules the best we could so that we could keep her with us as much as possible.

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