Page 40 of Rue

“Mr. Kinnish and Mr. Pierson,” Justin spoke up, his face still red.

“Anyone else fuck with you?” Geo asked Sailor as she pushed into him, then turned and hid her face.

“I’m going to throw up!” she wailed.

Hands yanked her off Geo and spun her, holding her overan empty bowl that had had food in it recently.

“What’d I say about putin’ hands on ‘r?” Geo demanded heatedly.

“I’m helping! Did you want her to puke on you?” Davon asked angrily.

Sailor whimpered, then heaved and brought up everything she’d eaten that day as Geo took her from Davon and held her over the bowl.

“Oh god,” she cried, hanging her head as a throbbing pain started behind her eyes.

“You cain’t deal with blood?” Geo asked angrily.

“She’s pregnant, she has a tender stomach, and she’s always been tender-hearted. I TOLD you she wouldn’t want to see those or even know about them. That’s not a gift in her eyes, it’s just…”

“Shut your fuckin’ mouth, fool! Mig, get that bitch outta my sight ‘fore I fuckin’ kill ‘m!”

Sailor broke down in tears, flinching when a cool, wet cloth wiped her mouth. Turning away from the light and the room, she sobbed brokenly with her face in Geo’s shoulder as he gripped her.

“Take them out, get ‘r a drink,” Geo called, his voice pitched low. “There’s Sprite in the fridge. Stop cryin’ like that, you’re gonna make yourself sick again! Dry it up! Enough! Sit up here and sip on this,” he demanded, turning her and sitting her up, putting a cold can to her lips.

Sailor flinched back again, the pop making her nose burn.

“Calm the fuck down,” Geo ordered her, letting her roll back into him and bury her face in his stomach as she curled up and clutched him.

Breathing him in, his cologne or whatever it was, made Sailor’s stomach ease some. It was a clean, fresh smell and not too strong. She managed to settle down, but she felt numb and lost as she curled up there and hid from the world.

The nightmare.

The voices droned around her, but she didn’t really hearthem as she pressed into him and lost herself, finally passing out.

Chapter 21

When Geo jostled and lifted her to sit, it was dark outside, and the room was more crowded. Several men were sitting around the living room talking quietly, chuckling. More were standing along the walls, and they didn’t seem as important as the ones sitting. She saw Davon there on the wall, watching her worriedly.

“Sit up here ‘n eat, Rue,” Geo coaxed, pulling her to sit next to him, still wrapped in a thick comforter that hadn’t been there when she fell asleep. “Here, drink this too,” he went on, putting a bottle of water on the tray that Mig put in her lap.

Sailor blinked at all of it, then looked up at Geo and around the room before she picked up the fork, still so tired that all she wanted was sleep.

“Eat, Rue,” Geo told her gently, repeating himself.

“She on somethin’?” a man asked, laughing.

“Nah, she ain’t feelin’ well.”

“She contagious?” another man asked, leaning away from her in a nearby chair.

“Nah, she pregnant.”

“Oh, fuck. That shit is wild, man. My baby girl was sick for six months straight with that shit. Not till the last couple months did she stop pukin’ everywhere. I couldn’t be aroundthat shit! She was fuckin’ miserable. She said never again,” he laughed. “Made me go get cut.”

“Why didn’t you make that bitch get her tubes tied?” another man asked, affronted.

“They wouldn’t do it,” the other man snorted. “Said she was only 22, had only one kid, and wasn’t married. Ain’t that some shit? They didn’t ask me if I was a dad or if I was married, they just cut my shit without question.”

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