She's Bad News

Chapter 12

“Is that how it is with your dad?” I asked quietly, keeping my cheek against the wet spot on his chest, unused to asking other people personal questions. I wasn’t really the type to reach out to others.

“Yes,” he said simply and my hands on his back felt the muscles there tighten at the thought of his father. “When he’s sober, he’s the greatest guy in the world but when he’s drunk, I can’t even recognize him anymore. The first few times he hit me, I believed him without a hint of doubt when he told me it would never happen again but he always broke his promises until I was old enough to fight back.”

“Flynn,” I said softly, backing up so I could finally look him in the eyes, feeling like I was in some alternate reality where someone might feel like talking to me was helpful, that I was the type of person that could provide comfort. My eyes locked with his light green ones and the pain and concern for me that I saw there stopped my words in my throat. I swallowed hard and opened my mouth to speak, not sure what I was going to say but it didn’t matter anyway because the sound of a car in the driveway made my gaze swing to the side, my words forgotten as I watched Jesse and Aaron step out of Aaron’s car, their eyes locked on the two of us where we stood with our arms still wrapped around each other.

“What’s going on?” Jesse asked, approaching us and hastily, I pulled back from Flynn, putting some space between us and dropping my hands to my sides. For a second, Flynn didn’t move, just kept his arms around me as I tried to pull back and when I swung my gaze back to him, his eyes were focused down on me, their expression unreadable.

“Let go,” I said quietly, squirming slightly in his grip as I frowned up at him. After a moment, his hold on me loosened and his hand fell to his sides, his eyes burning into mine, making my frown deepen as I wondered what he was thinking.

“Corinna,” Jesse said, making my eyes swing back to him, seeing concern and suspicion in his eyes as he looked at Flynn before focusing on me. “What’s going on?” he repeated, taking a step closer to me and reaching his hand out to lightly grip my arm. “Were you crying?”

I shrugged and planted a crooked grin on my face. “What can I say? Girls, they get emotional sometimes.”

“What happened?” Jesse asked, his forehead wrinkling in a frown.

I raised an eyebrow at him and my smile widened slightly. “I heard a sad song on the radio.”

“You’re lying. There’s been something on your mind since we went for pizza. Why are you just getting home now?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said easily, bending to pick up my bag, trying to discretely brush a hand over my cheeks at the same time to wipe away what was left of my tears.

“Cory,” Jesse said, his voice strained as his hand tightened on my arm forcing me to look at him again. “You can talk to me about anything, you know that don’t you?”

My smirk faltered and my heart clenched as I looked into Jesse’s blue eyes that were so much like our mother’s. “Okay,” I said softly, giving him what I hoped was a reassuring smile even as I vowed never to drag him into anything to do with Barbara. His memories of her weren’t tainted by the truth the way mine were and so far, she’d shown little interest in her son which I was grateful for. I’d go back to her in a heartbeat if she even so much as threatened to reconnect with Jesse.

“So why were you crying?” he asked, his blue eyes alight with concern as they traveled over my face.

“It’s really no big deal. I just saw an old friend who wasn’t very happy to see me. I’ll be fine,” I said vaguely, shrugging my backpack onto my shoulder, willing him to drop the subject.