Page 55 of Run Away Home: Tempered

“You have to promise me something.”

“What? What do I have to promise you?”

He looks up at me as if he’s going to cry. Why is he so set on this? I know he loves Danny, but I still think there’s much more to it. It’s strange.

“Danny comes first,” I say.

“Of course he does, Melissa! I know that. I’ll do anything to make sure Danny has a happy—” He pauses. “No, the happiest, safest life possible!” Tears run down his face. The bags under his eyes make him look ten years older now.

“It’s okay, Peter!” I wrap him in a hug, the kind a mother gives her child. He needs that. “I just want to make sure this is something you want to do...something you can handle. You understand?”

“I want to do it. I can do it.” He holds onto me tighter. “And I’m not crying because I’m pretty and weak. I’m not! I’m crying because you’re going to die, and I’m scared you won’t let me take Danny. Don’t take this as a sign of weakness!”

Pretty and weak? What does that mean?

“I don’t think you’re weak, Peter. I know you to be very strong, actually.” He pulls away from my embrace, and I place my hands on his shoulders.

He sniffles and looks away from me. “I’m sorry about that outburst.” He wipes his eyes. “Danny will come first. Believe me, he will. Always.”

It’s against my better judgment, but then again, I don’t know what foster home Danny will land in...and Peter loves him dearly. That’s more than can be said about a lot of foster parents. Maybe it will be a good thing for the three of them to stay together. I hope I’m making the right decision...

For them all.

Hayley

I’m sweating. Not that it’s super-hot in here. It’s okay, I just... I really need to take something, or drink something, or...something. It hasn’t even been a week, pull yourself together! You can do this! I can do this, right? Yes, I can do this!

Maybe not.

I pick up my phone and scroll through my texts. I pull up the last conversation I had with Tristian. We don’t have to be together for him to be my dealer, right? No, that’s stupid. No!

I put my phone back in my pocket, stretch, and walk into the living room. Danny’s on the couch playing car soccer again. I try to walk past him without saying a word.

“So, you and Peter break up yet? Lasted longer than I thought it would.”

“We didn’t break up.” Brat.

Ignore him, Hayley.

I go into the kitchen and return with a bowl of ice cream. I sit next to Danny on the couch, watching as his car drives up the wall and toward the ceiling. Uh...I don’t think that’s how you play?

“So, how do you win this game?”

He looks at me a couple of times from the corner of his eyes, then back at the screen.

“You get the ball into the goal. Isn’t it obvious?”

“That’s not what you’re doing.”

He grunts.

“Well, what areyoudoing?” he asks.

“Uh, I’m watching you play this and eating?”

“Go eat somewhere else. Like the table. That’s where you’re supposed to eat.” He jams the buttons on the controller.

“Fine. I’ll go eat this somewhere else, I guess.”

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