When Gracie is humiliated after following her best friend's brother to college and finds he's moved on without her, she grows closer to his rival--the captain of his basketball team--the infamous Kalen Rush, and suddenly Gracie wonders just what len...
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He was stoic as he spoke, a tender reservedness to the words that were coming out of his mouth that didn't deserve them.
For a moment it was just the floating dust motes and creaking floorboards beneath feet that could be heard in the room after the bombshell of a statement that Kalen had just let out.
"Kalen...I'm so sorry that happened to you—"
"Don't be. Don't feel sorry for me, Gracie. I gave back as good as I got it. But that's the thing—I hate that man. I have always hated that man, first for what he did to me, and then what he did to my mother later. I'd always had some idea that he wasn't faithful to her, but after her cancer diagnosis, and then the fact that he just flaunted you and your mother in my face? It was the final push that I needed to see what he really was. So, no, it wasn't a lie what I told you about your father. I never meant for him to get involved in all this, but if it was between you and him? I'd choose him any day if that meant my father didn't set his sights on you."
"But Kalen, my father didn't do anything—"
"And what, you did? You think you deserve to be the target of some sick game of his and your father doesn't? When all he's ever done your entire life is neglect you?"
There was a sick, slimy creature wriggling around in my gut from his words.
It was something I'd come to recognize as guilt and shame, but never did I assume Kalen could make me feel that way, inadvertently.
Because...he was right.
And I was ashamed of the fact that a person I'd only known a few months had so accurately depicted the truth of what my father had done to me my whole life.
I'd even tried to protect him, to defend him, and yet...
Sure, my father hadn't abused me physically the way Kalen's had, but mine had done his own kind of damage in a completely different, emotionally harming kind of way.
He hadn't cared enough about me to take care of me, and wasn't that just about the cruelest thing anyone had ever done to me?
And I'd sat there and taken it, just like I'd allowed my mother to come back into my life time and time again with no explanation and took her bribes and her fake motherly love until it was all too late and I'd only barely just begun to stand up for myself.
Kalen must've noticed the change in my demeanor because he immediately came around the side of the island and placed himself in front of me, grabbing onto my arms just below my shoulders.
"Hey, hey, I'm sorry, that was too harsh, it came out wrong—"
"No, no you were right. I just...no one's ever said it that plainly before, out loud and in front of me. I guess it was all just easier when it went unspoken. I just...you told me that you were only getting close to me because your dad asked you to. Is that the truth? And please don't lie to me, Kalen. I'm so fucking tired of lies and secrets, just please give me a straight answer for once."
