Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 106003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry, that sounds like a hard place to grow up in,” he says, staring at me from up close. It’s sweet how he can find empathy for me despite his own childhood being ten times more fucked up.
I stroke his hair, and smile when it behaves as I want it to. He looks like a heartthrob, and he’s mine. “It wasn’t that bad until my grandmother was around. I spent a lot of time with her, when I was still young. And then, when she got older our roles reversed, and I was the one to take care of her. After she died, nothing was keeping me there anymore,” I say, surprised by the tremble in my voice.
I miss her. She would have pulled my ear for dating most of the guys I’ve slept with.
Creep nods, soaking my words in like a sponge. It’s a hunch, but I feel he’ll remember everything I tell him. “It’s still nice that you had her in your life for a while. And she was blessed to have you when she needed you most. Brigid is a bit like the mother I never had. I owe her my life, and I hope to always take care of her.”
I’ve seen him swear at Prophet, bristle at others, slam Johnny’s face into a car, and strangle Adam. And yet now his words are so soft and thoughtful, a testament to all the books he’s been reading. I’d be worried if I met him in a dark alley, but it only proves that one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
Even if this book’s cover is looking better and better by the minute.
“I’m sorry you had to wait so long until you met people who took care of you,” I say and take the cape off him. I have to go to the porch to shake off all the hair. Creep’s thoughtful when I return, so I choose not to fill the silence with my own chatter, to give him space.
I do playfully slap his hand though when he starts biting his nails. “How about I take care of those too, huh?”
He nods and holds out his hand to me with full trust in the process. No fussing about a manicure being girly despite him being a big bad biker.
“Thanks for your patience last night. With the shower. It’s always been such a struggle. My aunt slept in the room with the boiler, so even if I washed in cold water, she’d usually hear me. So it unnerves me when the shower is too loud. I know it’s odd.”
What a witch. In the worst possible sense of the word.
I take a deep breath and prepare the skin-softening hand bath. “I wish she was still alive, so I could shave her head.”
Creep snort-laughs, and it’s so cute I’m dying to kiss him. I get busy with his nails instead and let him talk.
“She would have hated that. She had this long, long braid, and one of my cousins would brush it out for her every night. I ended up washing mostly when she left the house, but that was rare. It’s… embarrassing, but when Prophet found me, and I first started living in Vulture Hollow, we argued a lot about my… hygiene. I thought he’d just kick me out, because I’d usually just swear at him a lot when he started on that, but one day, instead of being stubborn as usual, he took me to this little waterfall by the hot springs. I didn’t feel like I could tell him about my aunt, and the way she treated me. I was always on my guard back then, just me against the world, but he still found a way to both get what he wanted and put me at ease. I’m sorry if this was a disgusting story.”
I bite my lip and pull his hand closer. I’m so sad for him. Bad memories have a tendency of staying with people in some form, but what Creep’s aunt did to him seems to still haunt him. As if her ghost clutched onto him as she died.
“You’re not the only one with embarrassing secrets.” I sigh, settling on the other side of the table and picking out all the supplies I still need. When he doesn’t ask what I’m referring to, I just start working on his hands and use a little bamboo stick to expose more of his nail while his other hand rests in warm water. At least this way I don’t have to look into his eyes or see how he reacts when I go on. “There was this guy I was sleeping with who really wanted me to dress up in women’s clothing. I did it despite feeling really weird about it. I don’t like being called a girl, or any related things. But I needed his support at the time so… I just went with it.”