Page 85 of Easy Reunion
Chapter 33
Kelsey
Everything feels right, I muse as I climb the steps to Le Cadeau. With a dreamy smile, I wander down the hall toward the raucous noises coming from the basketball court. For the last few days, I feel like the corner Ry and I turned has flowed into every area of my life. I’m already chapters into my next book, and Pilar’s showing the strength the title indicates after a summer apart from the bullying. The understanding Ry gave to me about his actions so long ago have removed this enormous burden of resentment and pain I didn’t realize I was carrying, and it’s not only changing my life, but hers as well.
Even Angel commented on it the other morning. “This is the you I always prayed you could be,” she said, right before she burst into tears.
“Stop crying,” I demanded.
“I can’t,” she blubbered into her smoothie. “I just hate it’s taken so long for your sparkle to appear.”
I reached over and wrapped my arms around her. “I’d lost myself completely until I met you,” I told her honestly. “If Ry’s brought something else into my life, well, maybe it was always his to have,” I concluded.
By the time Darin came into the kitchen, we were both a wreck. “Jesus, do I need to be happy or kill someone?” He was aghast.
“The first, babe,” Angel assured him, as she tipped her head back for a kiss.
Shaking my head at the memory, I start to push the door outside open when I catch someone in the shadows out of the corner of my eye. Startled, I take an involuntary step back. Max emerges partially, his face mostly hidden, still clutching my book like a lifeline. Clasping my chest, I admit, “You surprised me.”
“I apologize, Ms. Kee.” His voice is subdued.
I start to take a step in his direction, but he slams up the book like a shield warding off evil. “Please, don’t come any closer.” There’s a break in his voice I relate to all too well.
“Is there something you want to talk about?” I ask carefully. I’m not a trained counselor, but if this boy is willing to open up, maybe I can guide him to Morgan.
“Does Pilar ever heal?” he asks me almost desperately. “After everything done to her in this, how can she?”
The book in Max’s hands is forever burned in my brain. Staring down at it, I remember the criticism I received because it was too dark for a first release for a young adult novel. I had no other way to start to let go of the pain. I remember purging a variation of what truly happened to me through Pilar’s eyes to set myself free because my memories were too heavy for me to handle alone any longer.
But now, since that first night at Ry’s, I realize not everything was an ache; not everything was darkness. And even as I think back to what I wrote, I intuitively knew that—for both myself and my character. There was hope to be found in the pages ofBetrayal. Love too. And softly, I quote the words I wrote when I was a little older than Max is now—the words Ry had etched in glass before I flung them to the floor in anger and misconceptions. “The worst thing that’s happening to you is the best thing that will ever happen to someone else. All you can do is move past it. After all, if life were meant to be easy, I’d have already won the game.”
“I know you wrote that.” He flips to the exact page and points at my words, which he must have memorized. “I just have a hard time believing it.”
“Why?” I ask cautiously.
“Because day after day, when they’re hurting me, I can’t believe anyone could hurt more,” he snarls.
Inhaling a sharp breath, I inch forward. At that moment, a stream of light hits the shadows. I see the bruises along the side of his face. “Who did this to you?” I whisper. I stretch a hand out, reaching for the book, but he jerks away.
“Don’t touch me,” he hisses, and my heart thumps in my chest.
“I wasn’t. I wanted to look for a passage in the book.” At his doubtful look. I hold up my hand. “That’s it. I swear it to you.”
Tentatively, Max hands me his battered copy of my book with just his thumb and fingertip. Taking it gently, I flip toward the end of the book for the page I’m looking for. “I have a responsibility to you to help you. And you know what drives that? Not my job, but my heart.” Closing the book, I hold it back out to him. “If you don’t feel comfortable with me because you don’t know me, I appreciate that. But please,” I whisper in the hallway that has shrunk down to just the two of us where the loudest noise is his harsh breath. “Talk to Morgan, Lisa, Angel…someone.”
His fingers close over the top before he shifts back into the darkness. I can’t let him go without reminding him of something. “Morgan named the center Le Cadeau because she thinks you’re all gifts. Remember, Max. You told me that. You’re one of her gifts.” Knowing I’ve pushed enough, I move to open the door.
“Ms. Kee?” The dark whisper stops me in my tracks.
“Yes?”
“I just can’t—not today. Maybe…but not today,” he chokes out.
Turning, I let my eyes bore into the area where I know he’s still standing. “Will you promise me one thing? If you need medical help, you’ll come to one of us, no questions asked.”
There’s a long pause before he quietly says, “I promise.”
“Then I’ll leave you for now.” Though it’s the last thing I want to do. I stop when Max calls out my name.
