Page 6 of Double or Nothing

I settle myself onto the sofa and pat the seat next to me. “Go to bed, Kat.”

“I’m not going anywhere without you.”

It’s his turn to concede. He lies down on the sofa, his head resting in my lap. I recline the seat and toy with his messy black hair. “What set him off this time?”

“My existence,” he says. “What I need to do is get a job. Something, anything to get me out of there until I can get a recording deal.”

His eyes are closed, a silent prayer behind his words. Praying to a higher power that I’m fairly certain he would never admit to believing in. He wants it so bad, though. So desperate to make something of himself, to get out of that damn trailer and move on with his life.

“You’ll get there.” It’s an assurance I give him on a regular basis. One that I wish he believed in as much as I do.

“Thanks, Kitty Kat. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Sutton.”

Chapter 4

Sutton

I’m sitting at the old, abandoned baseball field, my guitar next to me and my pen and paper in my hand. It’s where I come when I need to think, or work on my music. Sometimes even to make love to Kat. Like we did last night in Mac’s truck.

I smile at the memory, though the lifting of my cheek causes a surge in pain by my swollen eye.

There are a million places I could go to, but I like it here. I like the solitude of it. I like that it’s the place where my last good childhood memory was made. Any memory really besides the ones that I make with Kat.

Me, my mom, and my dad were all here at the field after one of my little league games. My dad was so proud of me for hitting the winning homerun. He hoisted me onto his shoulders and toted me proudly around the field. I can still see my mother’s smile. She was beaming. She always was. A beautiful, happy woman.

It was the perfect day. A day filled with lots of laughs, smiles, fun.

The next day, my mom left.

That’s when my dad changed. The way he looked at me. How much he drank. How much he hated me. All of it changed in what felt like an instant.

Rather than forgetting that moment, I latch onto it. I come here to remember that day. To inspire myself. To be happy.

It’s why I brought Kat here, shared my place with her. I wanted happy memories with her here too.

When I woke up at Kat’s this morning, she was still fast asleep on the couch. Her mother was waiting in the kitchen with coffee and a muffin. We chatted for a bit, just like we always do. She begged me to let her call the authorities, an argument we’ve had for two years now. Ever since the first time I showed up on her doorstep with a black eye.

I had tried to tell her I got in a fight, but somehow, she knew better. I pleaded with her, telling her it was an accident, begging her not to call the authorities. The best-case scenario was ending up in a foster home. Worst case? A group home. Neither sounded like a good option for me. Not when I still had Grandma Virginia to think about and care for.

Who else was going to do her shopping? Cut her grass?

Mrs. Keller agreed to keep my secret. And she’s regretted it ever since.

Now that I’m eighteen, it doesn’t really matter much. My staying in that house with him has been of my own accord. Well, that and my inability to afford anything else.

I rest my head back against the chain link fence of the dugout, and close my eyes. I say the same prayer to a higher power that I must admit, I don’t much believe in these days, but I say it, nonetheless. It’s a plea, begging for a chance, an opportunity – something – to get me out of here. Out of his house, hell, out of Vegas if that’s what it takes.

“Thought I might find you here.” Her sweet voice automatically brings a smile to my face.

I’m so grateful for that sophomore orientation. The one where the nervous and unsure girl with dark hair and blue eyes bumped into me. There was fear in her eyes as though I was going to hurt her or torment her in some way. I learned later that she had been teased a lot growing up. That it wasn’t until that summer, right before sophomore year, that she grew into what is, by all standards, a heavenly body.

She tried to walk away, though I guess run might be a better word, but I grabbed her hand.

“I’m Sutton Cole, your new best friend.”

Even then I knew it was going to be so much more. When she smiled at me, my cold heart melted.

---