Discovering Parker. ✔ ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇᴛᴇ

Chapter Seven| Give Heaven A Try, Be Young And Be Wild

CHAPTER SEVEN| GIVE HEAVEN A TRY, BE YOUNG AND BE WILD

I tell him everything and once I start, I can’t stop. I cry to him about Nolan, about dad, about mom, even about myself. It all pours out as if the flood gate has suddenly broken. I can’t hold it all in anymore.

 

Parker sits next to me on the cream loveseat and when my words become incomprehensible through my choking sobs, he pulls me into his side and lets me cry myself hoarse. When I’m finally done, I notice his head resting on top of mine and his fingers trailing patterns across my skin.

 

“I’m-”

 

“Shhhh.”

 

I look up at him when he shushes me. His eyes are soft and hooded as he looks down at me, his long lashes sweeping against his skin as he blinks slowly. His beauty strikes me as hard as it did the night I met him, but the bags under his eyes still remain. I wonder how long it’s been since he’s slept.

 

We stare at each other, waiting for the other to speak. His eyes are dark and cold but the more he looks at me the softer they become and it’s then that I realize just how much I truly get to see of him. I look away, laying my head against his chest as he pulls me closer. He’s tense but I know he’s trying.

 

“...I remember him. Your dad, I mean.” I listen to the vibration his voice causes while he talks. “Out of everyone in the room, he was the only one to come over to me. We talked for a while, he’d ask me questions and I’d answer him and he’d smile. My old man never smiled at me like he did, like he was proud. The old man came in a while later and started in on me, yellin’ about some book and callin’ me a piece ‘a shit. The Sheriff glared at him and I left. I guess your dad said somethin’ because when we got home he was angrier than he had been earlier. Told me I embarrassed him. He whooped me good that night. I still have the scar from his belt buckle on my back.”

 

I grip his shirt tighter, the angry I had felt for his father in the hospital coming back. “He hit’s you?” I whisper, my knuckles turning white as I grip his shirt as tight as I can.

 

Parker places his hand over mine, loosening my grip from his shirt. He answers me, still holding my hand in his.

 

“He used to. He still tries. In his eyes, I can’t do anythin’ right. That’s why I try not to go home. If I do, it’s because I have to. For ma.”

 

“Does your mother… know?” I ask.

 

I feel him tense up, before his muscles become slack again. He tightens his grip on my waist. “Yeah, but there ain’t much she can do ‘bout it. She speaks up, she gets it too. I don’t want that. I told her a long time ago not to worry about it, I can take it.”

 

“You shouldn't have to, Parker! You don’t deserve that. No one does.” I sit up so I can look at him, causing his hand to slip from my waist.