Page 12 of Release Me

She turns her head in my direction, but it’s as though she is looking right through me. I put the basket of crayons down in between us and place the paper next to it.

She looks away from me, and I see her eyes stop on the basket of crayons. I slowly slide a piece of paper toward her before grabbing one for myself. She looks down at the paper but doesn’t pick up any crayons. I reach my hand in and grab a red crayon from the pile as I gaze up at her subtly, so it doesn’t look like I’m watching her. Then, I begin to draw a rainbow on my paper. I don’t know why, but I feel compelled to help her. Like Emmaline did for me.

Lifting her head, she watches me for a second before grabbing a purple crayon and placing it against her paper. She moves the colored wax back and forth over the page until she’s satisfied with the messy scribble she’s created. When she looks up, her gaze shoots to mine. I quickly move my eyes to the basket and pull out an orange crayon.

Replacing her purple crayon with a pink one, she scribbles on the paper once more. When she’s done, she looks up at me. This time, I let her eyes meet mine, and I give her a tiny smile.

She doesn’t return the smile, but she doesn’t look away immediately, either. She grabs a blue crayon out of the basket and scribbles again.

“Let’s see here,” I begin as I place the orange crayon back into the basket. “Ah.”

Her eyes watch my hand as I pull a yellow crayon out of the basket and draw the next layer. I also draw a sun while I have the yellow out. Once I’m finished with the rest of the colors, I shade the remaining white space blue for the sky. After a few minutes, she picks up another color and begins scribbling on her paper again.

We continue coloring for the better part of an hour, each of us taking small glances at one another in between grabbing a new color crayon from the basket and adding to our pictures.

I place the green crayon I am using back into the basket, and I look down at the pictures we’ve created.

“Gabriella, do you have a favorite color?” I ask her.

Instead of speaking, she slowly places her hand into the basket, and her fingers close over a purple crayon. I lift my eyes to her.

“Purple?”

“Puh-err-ple,” she answers.

“Purple is a beautiful color,” I say just before we’re interrupted by Nurse Evans. She glances at me hesitantly, before regarding Gabriella. I may be a bitch, but I would never fuck with someone as fragile as her.

“Oh, my! Gabriella, your drawings are so beautiful!” she says.

She walks over to the girl and leans down in front of her, so they’re eye-to-eye. She picks one of her pictures up off the table and looks at it like it is the most incredible thing she’s ever seen.

“You did afabulousjob,” she tells her, turning the paper around so Gabriella can see it. She studies her work for a minute and a slight smileforms.

“Are you ready for lunch now?”

Gabriella nods her head, and Nurse Evans holds her hand out for Gabriella to take it.

“Bye, Gabriella,” I say as they both stand up.

She looks over at me, meeting my eyes.

She doesn’t respond or even acknowledge my words, but there is a flicker of something in her eyes that tells me she enjoyed the time we spent together today as much as I did.

As they walk out of the room, I glance at the clock. It’s nearly time for my appointment with… Dr. Fuckable. After last night and our unexpected encounter this morning, I’ve haven’t been able to think about much of anything else. Coloring with Gabriella was just the distraction I needed to make the time go by.

ChapterSeven

BRYNN

As my feetcarry me closer to Dr.Fuckable’soffice, I can’t help but think about what happened last night. It would be easier if itwerea dream because I wouldn’t be forced to sit for the next hour, across from the only outsider who has seen me break. Rapping my knuckles on his door quickly, I’m ready to get this over with. I stand off to the side so he can’t see me through the glass panel of his office door. As I wait for him to answer, I look down at my hands, watching as my fingers clench into fists and relax again.

I am Brynn Holliday.

No one scares me.

No one makes me weak.

No one can break me.

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