Page 55 of Whenever You Call

“Don’t,” he said, his eyes piercing mine. “I didn’t want it. They did, Mom and Dad. It wasn’t my dream. If I got dropped, I didn’t care. I liked football, but I didn’tliveit. Dad did, though. Any game he could bet on, he would. He planned to make a fortune out of me until I could set him up for life.”

“Was it going that far? Could you really have gone pro?”

“In a heartbeat.”

I searched his eyes, looking for regret or nostalgia, only to find a brick wall closed off by the truth in his heart. He hadn’t wanted the fame and fortune he could have so easily gotten through sport. Instead, he’d wanted to drive around in the city, saving the lives of strangers, and somehow his family didn’trespectthat?

“They sound like assholes,” was all I could think to say.

“At my father’s funeral, Mom turned to me and said,‘if only he hadn’t had so much pressure in his life. If only he’d have had the money he could have had if you’d played football… maybe his heart would have been stronger’.”

“Sheblamedyou?”

“Still does.”

“Do you blame yourself?”

His eyes held mine, a small scowl forming. “Not about his death, no.”

“You shouldn’t about anyone’s. You aren’t responsible for the choices other people make.”

Logan scratched at his eyebrow. “Since we’re doing family stories… Your turn.”

“What do you want to know?”

“About you? Everything.”

I chuckled to myself. “Be careful there, Logan. Everyone thinks they want to know my story until they hear it. It isn’t pretty.”

“Why would it need to be?”

“Because not everyone actually wants to listen to bad truths, do they? They ask you about your life, then look at you like you’re stupid when you start telling them how shit it was. It’s like these people ask you to tell them everything then silently beg you to shut up and give them nothing but fake pleasantries and a wholesome, happy upbringing they can cling to that will make them feel better.”

“Do you think I’m one of those people?”

“No,” I said quickly, not needing a second to think about it. “I don’t.”

“Then tell me everything, and if you think I’m not listening, tell me that, too.”

So, I did.

I told him about the life I’d had before Cole, and how I’d been moved from home to home, trailer park to trailer park, as my parents fought constantly, breaking up one week only to get back together the next. I told him how their love reigned supreme above all else, especially their daughter, and how I’d been neglected by the two of them until one day, at the age of fourteen, they disappeared out together and never came home. Logan listened, focused, as I told him how they’d had enough of carting around their excess baggage, and child protective services had found me not long after with nothing but the clothes on my back and empty kitchen cupboards to show for it.

After that, I got passed around from foster family to foster family in Seattle. Some of them kind and comforting, others vicious and cold. At the last high school I attended while staying with one of those families, I met Cole, and that’s when my life changed completely.

“Cole had been given up for adoption the moment he was born. His adoptive parents weren’t the best for him, but they weren’t the worst, either, and it suited him not having the blood bonds because he thought he’d have no problem leaving them behind once he tore off to find fame with the band. Not long after we left Seattle together, those adoptive parents died in a car crash on the freeway, and in Cole’s eyes, that made life even easier. We were now free to go wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted.”

“That’s cold.”

“He could be like that.” I scowled, remembering the fights we’d had and how I’d warned him not to be so thoughtless. But Cole had somehow found a way around it, like always, and he convinced me that he didn’t mean to sound heartless but the only love he cared about now was the one he had for me. Like a lovesick fool, I’d ignored every red flag flashed before me, and I’d believed him.

“And your parents never tried to track you down again?” Logan asked with a frown.

“No.”

“Cole’s biological parents?”

“They only wanted to know him once his name was in lights with Envy-98.”

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