Page 46 of Petals of Blue: Part One
How is she so calm right now? Blue deserves everything good in this world! She has raised me since I moved in with her when I was seven years old. Ma is the best person I know. She deserves to be cherished and flaunted. Most of myvideos online are with her, or me gushing over how amazing she is.
I don't think Blue knows she is my main content, but it doesn't matter. My followerslovemy Ma, and I have many.
She eyes me warily. "Not exactly...Declan told me to leave him alone and move on. Felix..."
"Felix what?" I demand, ready to kick some ass.
Studying me for a moment longer, Blue thinks through something, then she seems to come to a conclusion. "Linda's Tacoma boyfriend scared me. He got rough a few times, pushed me around. Tried to get into my room at night."
"WHAT?! How come you never told me about this?!"
I'm going to be sick. Tears spring to my eyes, and my chest feels heavy under the pressure of this new information. No wonder Blue always has a pained look in her eyes. You just have to look past her flawless makeup, amazing outfits, and outgoing personality to see how deeply she hurts.
I just can't believe I'm only finding out about this now. How selfish am I that I don't know about this?!
"Violet, stop. I can see the guilt trying to eat you alive over there. I didn't tell you about any of this for that exact reason." Ma's tone is hard and unwavering.
"Please continue," I plead, needing to know the rest.
Her lips twist, and I don't think she's going to tell me anything else, but she does. "I asked Felix for help once. He said he couldn't help and reminded me I knew how to throw a punch. That was it."
"And then?" There's more, I know it.
"Then I finished high school and planned on moving out when I turned eighteen. You came to live with us, I saw the look on Linda's face and swore I wouldn't let you grow up the same as I did. So I stayed. We moved to Minnesota when her Tacoma boyfriend ditched her. I got my bartending license. Dodged Linda's one-night stands, saved money, got a boyfriend?—"
"Oh! I remember your boyfriend! Josh right? Why did you guys break up?" He was around a lot and was nice to me, unlike Linda's random hookups Blue tried to hide me from.
Blue snorts. "He was a tattoo artist and got wildly offended when I wouldn't let him tattoo me but had someone else give me one behind my ear. He lost his shit, so I ended it. Then Linda got into some trouble with one of her fuck buddies, and we moved to Chicago when I was twenty-one."
Then my bio mom dipped when I turned eighteen, six months ago. Haven't seen her since. Blue got us out of that nasty house four months ago and moved us in here. We've been happy ever since.
"Thentheyshowed up," Blue whispers. "Roman told me they didn't realize how manipulative their parents were being until a long while later. They want me to listen to them. Hear them out because they were kids back then."
In her silence, I wonder what she's thinking. Clearly, she's struggling with what to do. "And now what?"
"And now?" She sighs. "I'm confused. Confused because I can understand they were too young to think maturely before and after. Confused because they'reeverywhereand I'm too tired to fight the pull to them."
"But they left you to be hurt, Ma..."
"That they did..." she mutters.
The doorbell rings, and I cringe so fucking hard. "So, speaking of them being everywhere..."
"Violet," she grits out in a warning tone.
"Roman was in the lobby with flowers looking sad. I gave him our apartment number and told him to come up in twenty minutes."
"Why would you do that?"
Shit, she's mad. "Uh, I didn't think the story behind him and the others would be that deep. But I was obviously wrong..."
"Obviously!" she snaps. Blue stands and takes a deepbreath. "I'm sorry. It's okay. I was planning on giving them asmallchance of being friends again. That conversation just brought up a lot of emotion."
"I'm sorry," I mutter, feeling really bad for putting her in this position right after unloading her trauma on me. These guys left her to fend for herselfanda depressed eight-year-old girl. I don't like the sound of them. I shouldn't have invited Roman up to see Blue without knowing the story first.
"Hey, Violet." Ma tucks some of my hair behind my ear. "This isn't yours to carry, alright?"
I shake my head a little. "What they did wasn't right. They hurt you.Somany people hurt you."
