Strings Attached

Chapter Twenty-One

"That's right," I told him. "You can't."

Teddy lowered his face. "I'm just to messed up, Chris. My dad messed me up in every way he could possibly have." He bit his bottom lip, and I could see his eyes becoming teary. "That bastard would beat the crap out of me every time, and no one was ever there to defend me."

I wrapped my arms around Teddy and sighed. "I know you probably won't believe me, but I promise I am not leaving you."

"I believe you," he whispered.

"That's good," I said, "Because I mean it."

"You are amazing," he muttered.

I let go of the hug and kissed his cheek softly.

"You're stronger than this, Teddy," I told him. "If you were able to put those wires together, then you are able to do anything."

I smiled at him and left the room, rushing to the restroom where I could freely cry without anyone asking about it. My heart ached for Teddy, but I did not want him to see me cry because I had already fallen apart in front of him too many times before. I needed to be strong for him, and I was going to try my best to be so.

One Saturday, Teddy arrived with a new bike, and as soon as we asked him about it, he simply shrugged and told us that had been saving money. He asked me if I wanted to go for a ride, and I accepted, thinking maybe it would be fun.

As we rode the bike, I felt careless and powerful because I could feel the wind against my face, moving my hair.

Teddy was going very fast, so I feared for my life and whispered on his ear, "Darn it, Teddy. You're going to kill us both."

He chuckled. "Don't be exaggerated, Chris."

Suddenly, I saw that we were making our way towards a tree, so I asked Teddy to stop. He made a funny sound that was a partly amused, partly nervous chuckle.

"It's funny that you say that...," he said. "Because I forgot how to brake this thing..."

"Teddy!" I exclaimed angrily as we stamped against the tree.

Once we finished cleaning ourselves up—we were full of leaves from head to toe—my phone started ringing, and I immediately picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Tina," said a familiar voice from the other end of the line.

"Dad," I said in almost a whisper. I could not believe he was actually calling me.

"Hi," he said. "How have you been?"

"How do you think we've been?" I asked sarcastically.

"Right," he said. "Sorry for not having called. I've been very busy... with the new baby and everything..."

"Yeah," I said, rolling my eyes. "Whatever, Dad."

He sighed. "I'm very sorry, Tina," he said. "I wanted to apologize for the way I acted..."

"You know what? It's fine, Dad. Really. You deserve to start over. Just don't call, okay?" I said coldly.

"Tina, I really am sorry," he said. "I actually called to tell you that you and Brianna are more than welcome to come meet your new brother, Carlos," he said.

"I don't want to meet him," I snapped.

"Tina..."

"Really," I said. "I don't want anything to do with him, just like you don't want anything to do with us."

"Tina," he said firmly. "I'm asking you to please come. I need to talk about something very important with you and your sister."

"I thought you wanted us to meet our new brother," I said, raising one of my eyebrows.