Page 14 of Come Apart
Chapter Two
Iknow it's fast.
My feelings are undeniable, but it has only been a few months.
And I don't doubt her when she tells me it's not personal.
Ryan was an asshole—he's still an asshole.
And I have no doubt being with him fucked with her head.
It's not like I was in the world's greatest relationship before. I can empathize.
I know all of that.
But... how long will it be until she's ready? What if it's months or years?
I don't want to keep waking up without her.
Lately, it feels as though the emptiness of the bed is mocking me at night.
Being with Alyssa...it's highlighted a hole in my life I didn't even realize was there.
Before her, my life was lacking something. It had been lacking something for years.
And I can now even pinpoint when the void first appeared.
I was barely seventeen.
A stupid kid with no clue of how good I had it.
It was late one night or maybe early one morning—that in-between time where a hush seems to settle over the world.
Or it's supposed to.
That particular night, my mother and my father had been fighting for hours.
It consisted mostly of him treating her like shit, assuming her opinion had no value. He'd never admit it, but he assumed everyone else's opinion had no value.
I remember hearing my name thrown around, feeling that particular sinking in my stomach when I recognized it.
I closed my bedroom door to get away from it, so I could plausibly deny they were fighting over me. Again.
I'd done something stupid to piss off my father—I lived for doing stupid things to piss off my father—but Mom was sticking up for me.
She always did. Hidden in my bedroom, I could only hear them. But I knew exactly how the scene would look.
I knew the look on my mom's face—the sheer frustration, the contortion of her forehead as she choked back tears.
She never would have stayed with him if it weren't for me.
She would have left him years before. This never would have happened if it weren't for me...
He screamed.
She fought back the way she always did, trying so, so hard to stay calm and not show any of the emotion he'd mistake for weakness.
Finally, she had enough.
