Broken Until You

Chapter 10 - Inner Peace

Autumn

Rap songs played on the radio in Ryder's car as we drove down the road with the windows down. The wind cooled me down on this unusually hot day and brushed through my hair like an invisible brush. I inhaled a breathe of the fresh air and smiled. In this moment, I felt at peace within myself. Just driving down the highway feeling free made me forget about all the bad things in this world. It almost felt like I was in a different life, a happier life.

"So you know what to write for the project, right?" I asked Ryder as I held onto the button that rolled up the window.

He rolled his eyes at me, "yeah yeah, I know."

Yeah right. He probably wasn't even listening to me. And if he wasn't, I wouldn't be surprised.

After fifteen minutes, we finally reached our street and he pulled into his garage.

We both stepped out of his Porsche. "I'll see you later," he said as I walked out of his garage.

"Yeah. See you later."

He was about to walk inside before I stopped him. "Ryder, wait!"

Ryder turned to face me. "What's up?"

"Um," I looked down at my shoes, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear. "Even though you don't really like me, thanks for working on this project with me. I really appreciate it."

He smiled and winked, "you're welcome princess." With that said, he walked inside and closed his garage as I stood still on his driveway.

Princess.

The way it rolled off his tongue and the fact that he was calling me that, made me feel some sort of way. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach while a shiver ran up my spine. How could one word make me feel like this?

I bit back a smile as I walked down his drive way and to my house. My mom said she would keep the front door unlocked for me because she was going to be at a meeting so I would be home all alone.

As I stepped inside, I noticed a broken beer bottle on the kitchen counter and internally groaned. Every step I took closer to the bottle was a step closer I was being dragged back into reality. When I touched the beer bottle, reality swooped in and made me forget about the inner peace I felt earlier with Ryder.

I don't know how many more months, weeks, or days I could live here. Every time I'm inside this house is a reminder that my dad would be coming back to abuse me physically and break me mentally

My throat felt parched so I walked over to the fridge. Inside the fridge were over twenty beer bottles and two large bottles of vodka. Ignoring all the alcohol, I grabbed a bottle of water and walked to my room.

I stopped walking up the creaky steps when I realized something.

There's no way on earth Michael could afford all that alcohol. He doesn't have a job, and mom doesn't pay him anything. He basically has $0. Mom doesn't pay for alcohol because she doesn't drink so it is obviously him. But how is he getting all of it? He would need money? Does that mean someone's paying him?

Someone had to be paying him because over the past months, letters with checks have been sent to the house once or twice a week. There's no name on the envelopes. So someone really is paying him. But who?

I reached my room and went to go sit in my desk chair and begin writing about today at the shelter for the project.

***

"So wait, you're telling me that Ryder Becker let you sleep at his house!?" Grace had a shocked expression on her face as she chewed on her sandwich.