Page 47 of The Crush
“Reasonable?He’sassaultedour son and has been—” He waves his hand in the air, searching for the perfect crime to throw at my feet. “Usingour daughter.”
I want to deny it, but a louder voice whispers to me that I deserve the charge to my sheet. For all the lies. For wanting her even when I knew I shouldn’t. For actingon it.
Iamusing her. To feel happy, content,wanted…to fuckingbreathe. Even now, I’m using her to barely keep it together, hanging on to the feeling of her beneath my fingers.
If I want her to use me that way, too, does that make it better?
“If you wouldlisten.” Isabel takes a step forward, not quite covering the twinge of pain at the movement. My eyes skim rapidly down her legs, taking in the small cuts and chalky dirt from the parking lot along with the way she’s favoring her right ankle. All I want is to get her out of here.
“Absolutely not,” her father snaps. “But you will listen to me.”
“Why the fuck should I?”
“Mija, language!” Eva has her hand on her husband’s arm, still trying to pull him back and take this to the house.
“I think I’m entitled to sayfuck,” Isabel argues, “if Aarón gets to call me awhore.”
So shedidhear it. I should’ve hit him harder.
“What? When was this?” Eva looks horrified, and Aarón has the smarts to at least glance warily at me before turning to his mother.
“I didn’t mean…” Aarón mutters. “And I didn’t mean for her to fall. I wasn’t expecting her there. I—”
“Oh, but you meant what you said?” Isabel immediately counters.
“No, I didn’t mean youarea—I meant thatheis treating you like—Isawhim with you, okay? People should know what he really is. I’m trying to prot—”
“Don’t! Don’t youdaresay you are trying to protect me,” she flings back at him. “This is aboutyou. Everything always is, and whatever you’ve told yourself to justify what you’ve done isbullshit. You don’t care about me. You knew what was going on, butwaited to say anything until you could use it to pick a fight. In front of everyone. You just couldn’t stand for someone else to be in the spotlight, could you? Youselfishasshole!”
Aarón winces, and I feel a confusing mix of pride and dread watching her face off against both her brother and her father.This is all my fault.
“Aarón, is that true?” Eva asks, her voice thick with disappointment. He doesn’t reply, only looks down at his scuffed dress shoes. “Danny?”
I start to speak, but Isabel gives my hand another gentle squeeze.
“Yes, that’s why Danny punched him,” she tries to explain in the brief moment she has the floor. “He—”
“Punchedhim?” her father exclaims. “If Gabe hadn’t pulled him off, he could’vekilledhim.”
Another accusation that I’m not sure I can entirely refute, since at that moment, I felt like I wanted to. The moment I saw her hurt, I felt like I wanted to.
“I would’ve been fine if she hadn’t distracted me,” Aarón says defensively. “If she hadn’t—she—”
“If you keep talking about her, we can find out,” I snap, low and precise. Maybe Idostill want to kill him.
“You see?” Isabel’s father says as if he’s made his case, and maybe he has. Maybe it’s a good one. “You see what kind of man he is?”
“Aarón.” My dad’s voice is a warning but Isabel’s strikes first.
“Don’t.Danny is—”
“Lookat your brother.”
“You expect me to sympathize with that fuckingasshole?”
Eva is beside herself. “Whereare you learning to talk like this?”
“Heis a bad influence on her. She’s just a kid. And heis—”
