Damaged 2 Read Online Free Page B

you hurt?"
    I
shake my head. My heart is pounding. I lose all my bluster, which drives me
nuts. In my head I'm roaring like a lion, but I sound like a mouse when I
actually speak. "What are you doing here? Did you follow me?"
    Peter
smashes his lips together and then smiles at me, like he's really mad. "Yes, I
did. I didn't think you'd leave without me. I didn't think you'd walk away in
the middle of a fight."
    "The
fight was over. You said if I left not to come back, so I didn't."
    Peter
lets out a rush of air. His anger fades and he looks at me with so much remorse
in his eyes that I want to melt into his arms. Peter considers me for a moment
and then says to Millie, "You can't skip out on finals. Get back to the
university before someone fails you."
    "But
there was an emergency and—"
    "This
doesn't count. You can't be nice to get out of finals. Every single professor
will fail you." Peter tosses his car keys at her. Millie catches them. "Drive
my car back. I'll stay with Sidney."
    "No,
you're not. Millie is coming with me, not you." I fold my arms over my chest.
My head sways from side to side when I say the last two words. I may have lived
in Texas for a few years, but I'm still a Jersey girl through and through.
    Peter
smirks at me, then says to Millie, "Toss me the bag on the front seat." Millie
does it. I give her an evil stare. My eyeballs are bugging out of my head as I
shrug with my palms up. It's a what the fuck pose and I mean every inch
of it.
    Millie
beams at me. "I think this'll be good for you. You need to go, and it seems
like you two have some issues to work out." I want to kill her, but I'm too
shocked by her betrayal to speak. I just stand there with my mouth hanging
open.
    "And
you," she says to Peter and walks up to him, poking him in the chest, "if you
hurt her—if you lay a finger on her—I will get my daddy's gun and shoot you.
It's a promise, not a threat." Millie is so small and pretty that it looks like
he's being threatened by a china doll.
    Peter
grins at her. "Good. I wouldn't want it any other way."
    "Damn
straight." Millie looks over at me again. I'm so mad at her that I can't speak.
My arms are folded tightly against my chest. She knows how betrayed I feel.
    "Sometimes
you need friends, Sidney. You can't do everything by yourself. Let someone help
you, okay?" I don't say anything to her. Millie smiles awkwardly and slips into
Peter's car, and drives away, leaving me behind.
    Peter
is standing next to me. He works his jaw before saying, "We need to talk."
    "There's
nothing to talk about."

CHAPTER
6
    I'm
sitting in the passenger seat, staring out the window at the night sky. I feel
like an emotional train wreck. It's strange, but I thought I already grieved
and mourned my mother. As I sit, memories that were lost to time pop up
randomly in my mind. The hand of death is the only thing capable of freeing
them. I see myself on a swing and know that I can't be more than three years
old. My mother pushes me, and I try to look back at her, making my hair tangle
in the chains. I can feel the sharp tug on my scalp like it's still happening.
I remember the tears that covered my face and how afraid I was. My mother
untangled me and held me. It's not a recollection that I would normally
remember, but it surfaces now. My mother loved me then. I wonder what she'll
say when I walk in the door now.
    A
chill races down my spine, making me shiver. It's late, well past dinner time.
I rub the goose bumps away with my hands while trying to avoid Peter's gaze. We
haven't spoken since the rest stop. I feel so betrayed by him. It's like
someone turned me inside out. I hate that I feel his eyes on me. It makes me
want to open up and spill my guts. I want my Peter back, but he's gone. That
Peter was never real anyway.
    After
a few more exits pass, Peter pulls off the road. We're in a little town in
Tennessee. It's so hilly here, the opposite of where we were in Texas where
everything is as flat as a frying pan. I