ooooooooo
“Hey Angel, you ok?” Wes lowered himself onto the couch beside me. He sat so close that our thighs touched, and I couldn’t help but tense as I nodded wordlessly. My mom had let us come over to the McKay’s after the funeral. She, on the other hand, went home. Cole and I had been zoned out downstairs in the entertainment room as the weight of day all but drowned us.
“I’m fine,” I mumbled as I shifted away.
“You don’t seem fine,” Wes whispered. I watched him scan the room for my brother who was sitting in front of the TV watching some basketball game as he screamed at the refs. “Come here,” he opened his arms and beckoned me closer.
I froze. I wasn’t sure what to do. I wanted the comfort, but being that close to the one thing I wanted was torture. It was like jumping into a fiery pit and hoping to survive.
“Come on, I won’t bite,” he moved closer and wrapped his arms around me, almost pulling me into his lap. “I know you’ve had a rough day, Angel. You don’t have to be so strong; you can let it out.” His arms banded around me as I curled into his chest, and my tears fell for the first time.
It was slow at first, just a few drops here and there, but once they started, I couldn’t stop them. Before I knew it, I was sobbing and effectively soaking his t-shirt. He whispered soothing words as he rubbed small circles in the middle of my back. I melted into him, taking the comfort he was offering. It wasn’t that I was upset over my dad; at least I don’t think that was it. Rather, it was that I was finally free. My life was going to be normal. My brother wasn’t going to have to take care of me, and protect me from my father. I was going to be able to enjoy my teenage years without the same fears that Cole had felt every single day.
“Let it out,” he whispered against the crown of my head as he tightened his hold on me. As the tears continued to fall, relief was replaced with anger. Why was I crying? I should have been happy. I was finally going to have a normal life, not one filled with fear. I shoved away from Wes, and scrambled to my feet. “What’s wrong?” his confused expression made me that much angrier. Didn’t he know what was wrong?
“I hate this!” I yelled as I stomped my feet. “I hate crying about this,” I grabbed a pillow off the couch we’d been sitting on, and flung it to the floor. “It’s not fair!” By this point Cole had turned away from the game on TV and was watching me.
“Ang?” He slowly stood and made his way over to me. He reached out like he was trying to soothe me, and I slapped his hands away.
“Don’t touch me!” I growled. “I’m mad, and I can be mad if I want! I tired of being told what to do, how to act, how to dress, where to go. I’m not sad he’s gone, and you shouldn’t be either!” I demanded, pointing to Cole. “He was mean to us, Cole. He hit us. Dads aren’t supposed to hit their kids! We learned about that in school.” I stormed up in front of him, and pounded on his chest. He stood there and took it as I continued to pummel against him.
“It’s not fair! Why didn’t you let me tell someone?” I crumpled to the ground. Right before I hit the carpet, I felt two arms band around me from behind and lift me up. “It’s not fair,” I sobbed and I curled into the chest I was cradled against.
“It’s ok to be mad,” Wes’ voice was soft, soothing. “You can be as mad as you want, but don’t let it eat away at you like this, Angel. Let it out and move on.”
I nodded slowly as I sniffed and rubbed my face against his shirt. He smelled so good, and being in his arms, the one place I’d dreamed about at night, was sending my senses reeling. “Put me down,” I murmured.
Wes sighed as he sat back down on the couch with me still in his arms. “I want to help you, Angel. Let me help you get past this,” he placed his chin on the top of my head and sighed.
“You got this?” Cole called from somewhere behind us.
“Yeah, man.” Wes shifted before I heard the floor creak as Cole left the room.
“I know you’re mad,” Wes continued to talk quietly. “But you need a better way to let go of the anger. I’ve been teaching your brother karate for a couple of years. I can teach you, too.”
“Really?” I lifted my chin so I could look into his eyes. “You’d do that,” I wiped at the tears. “I might not be very good.”
“You’ll be perfect,” Wes smiled a half smile as he shifted me off his lap. I started to fall backward off the couch, and grabbed at his shoulders to keep from falling onto the floor. The movement startled both of us, and before I knew it, we were lying haphazardly on the couch, me on my back and Wes on top of me. I laughed, not really thinking about the position we were in, and just enjoying the fact that it was happening. Wes had always treated me like a sister, no matter what the situation was, so I don’t know why I did what I did next.
Before he could push himself back into a sitting position, I lifted up onto my elbows, and pressed my mouth to his. He froze before his eyes flew open, and then he scrambled away from me. Embarrassment came quickly and I jumped off the couch and raced up the stairs to get away from him as fast as I could.
“Angie, what’s wrong?” Cole called after me as I scrambled to get my shoes on, and rushed out the door.
“I’m going home,” I called out as I took off down the sidewalk. We only lived four blocks away, and now that I wasn’t a little kid, I was allowed to go the distance on my own.
ooooooooo
Wes- Age 16
“What was that all about?” Cole was scratching his head as he came back down the stairs. “She rushed out of here like her pants were on fire,” he came over and flopped down beside me. “What’d you do to her?”
“Listen,” I sighed as I leaned forward and placed my elbows on my knees. “I need to tell you something, and I don’t want you to kick my ass.”
“What?” Cole scowled as he looked at me.
“Angie likes me,” I mumbled.
“I know,” Cole grumbled. “I’ve seen her diary. She thinks I haven’t, but she left it open one day on her bed.”
“What?” I gasped.
“She’s been writing your name in little pink hearts for years. She even has stuff with Angela McKay written on it,” he groaned and rolled his eyes. “You’re just now noticing this. Can’t you see the way she looks at you, Dude?” Cole chuckled.
“It’s not funny,” I narrowed my eyes on him. “She just kissed me,” I stood and began pacing the room. This was not ok. Angela is eleven. I’m sixteen. It was not ok for this to happen.
“She what?” Cole roared as he stood in front of me. He shoved me by the shoulders, and I stumbled back a few steps.
“Dude,” I reached out to steady myself. “I didn’t kiss her back. She’s just a kid. I felt bad that it was happening today of all days. I didn’t want to embarrass her.”
“You stay away from Angie. She’s not old enough for you, and I’ve seen the way you are at school. Angie’s a good girl.” He advanced closer as the anger that was simmering at the surface began to erupt.
“Will you listen to yourself?” I yelled. “I don’t like her like that! That’s sick! She’s a kid!” I was angry now, too. I should’ve kept my mouth shut, pretended like it never happened. I was good at ignoring things. I did it for years when Cole would come over with a new injury. I knew she liked me. I knew holding her like that was going to send the wrong message, but having her follow me around all the time was an ego trip. I would never act on those feelings, Cole knew this. We talked about the girls we liked all the time. How he thought I could want his sister in any way other than friendly was baffling.
“You stay the hell away from her!” he charged at me, and before I could get out of the way, his fist connected with my jaw.
I cupped my face as I moved away from him. “I’ll let you have that one,” I growled as I wiped at my lip. A small drop of blood had formed where my tooth had made contact. “I don’t want your sister. It’s sick that you think I do. She’s a little kid. She’s hurting today, and I was trying to comfort her, nothing else.
When you get over yourself, we’ll talk.” I stormed up the steps leaving him stewing downstairs.
It didn’t take long for Cole to search me out in my bedroom. He shuffled in, blew out a breath, and dropped down onto my bed. “I’m sorry, man. I’ve got a lot going on, and that just caught me off guard. I know you don’t like her like that.” He shook his head before running his fingers through his hair. “With everything that’s happened over the last few days, I’m just starting to go a little crazy.”
“The police labeled it as self-defense, right? They’re not going to charge you,” I huffed.
“Yeah, but my mom blames me. I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me for what I did,” Cole looked over at me, and as mad as I’d been at him, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. He looked so broken and lost.
“She’ll get over it,” I turned away from him before adding, “just like Angie will get over me.”
“I know, man; it’s just hard,” Cole’s voice trembled as his body shook lightly.
“Trust me,” I clapped him on the back. “It’ll work out; it has to.”
That day was the first day I ever saw my best friend cry. He’d been to my house numerous times after his dad had beaten him. He’d shown up bloody, broken, and defeated, and it had never once made him cry. Today, just thinking about not getting his mother’s forgiveness had reduced him to tears. Watching him break down almost caused me to join him. I knew that down the street, Angie was crying, too. Only she was crying for a different reason. She wasn’t upset over the loss of her father, or over her mother’s anger. She was mad at me. I’d tried to comfort her, and in that split second, she managed to change our entire relationship. I knew, as we grew older, we would never be as close as we once were. My angel had forever changed things between us that day, and I wasn’t sure how to fix it.
Chapter 4
Angela- Age 16
“I can’t believe your mom is actually letting you go,” Ally giggled from outside the dressing room. We had been trying on bathing suits for the last hour, trying to find the perfect one for our Spring Break vacation at the beach. Cole had called me from school last week asking me if I’d like to come. After convincing him that Ally would need to come too, I agreed. Who wouldn’t want to spend a week in the sun with hot guys everywhere? Hot college guys for that matter.
“She didn’t want to, but Mrs. McKay assured her that I’d be fine. She’s always been like a second mom to me. Besides,” I leaned my head out through the curtain, and shrugged. “My brother would never let anything happen to me. He thinks he’s my dad.”
“A hot dad,” Ally sighed as she sifted through the racks, finally settling on a black swimsuit. “You think he’d like this?” she turned and held up the small fabric that looked like nothing more than a few strings.
“You do realize this is my brother you’re talking about, right? Thinking about him in any way remotely close to the way you are is just gross!” I opened my mouth and made a gagging motion.
“Well,” she grinned as she moved closer and lowered her voice “I’m hoping he sees me as anything but sisterly this weekend.”
“I know what you mean,” I mumbled as I turned to glance at myself in the mirror. The purple bikini was just revealing enough to draw attention, but still covered all the right places. The scar my father had left on my thigh had faded enough now that you didn’t notice unless you really looked, and I finally had boobs. “It took long enough,” I muttered as I cupped them and glanced down. “I actually look like a woman now.” I grinned as I twisted from side-to-side in front of the mirror and deciding this was the one.
After dressing back in my shorts and tank top, I slipped my flip flops back on and made my way out to the register. Ally and I paid for our swimsuits then went to meet up with her mom at the café down the block. Most girls would feel bad that their mom didn’t do things with them, but not me. I was used to it. My mother pretty much checked out on my brother and me when my father died. She works as a secretary at a bank downtown, and other than sharing our house with me, she’s nonexistent. Cole offered to let me come live with him, but my mom wouldn’t let me go.
Cole’s a junior this year at Boston College. He’s majoring in Sports Medicine, and wants to be a personal trainer when he graduates. He says all those years of being a punching bag made him want to teach others to punch back. Wes went away with him, only he’s majoring in business. His dad wasn’t thrilled with that; he wanted him to follow in his footsteps and go to medical school. I just wanted both of them to hurry up and finish and come back home. I missed my brother fiercely, and I missed all of us hanging out. I’d ruined things years ago when I’d kissed my brothers best friend. Things weren’t the same for a long time after that. At first, we both acted like it had never happened, but every time I saw him with a girl, a little piece of me died. I wanted him to look at me the way he looked them, and now that I had a body like they did, I hoped he would.
“Knock, knock…Earth to Angie,” Ally giggled as she leaned into me causing me to stumble to the side slightly.
“What?” I scowled.
“I asked you if you were going to try and make him jealous this weekend,” she gave me a knowing look as we spotted her mother and grabbed a seat.
“I don’t know,” I groaned.
“Did you girls find what you were looking for?” Mrs. Tanner smiled as she closed the newspaper she was reading.
“Yes, we did, Mom,” she gave me a conspiratorial wink.
“Am I going to approve of it?” Mrs. Tanner crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes on Ally.
“Maybe,” Ally giggled as she crumpled the bag she was carrying into her lap. “I’ll show you at home Mom.”
“Fair enough,” Mrs. Tanner sighed. “I need to use the restroom, and then we can go.”
I waved, and as soon as we were alone released a deep breath. “I can’t decide if I love you or hate you,” I grumbled.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ally laughed.
“I’m excited about this trip. I haven’t seen my brother since Christmas, but I have a feeling you’re going say something to him to embarrass me.” I rolled my eyes.
“I think you need to stop worrying about what I’m going to do, and worry more about what you’re going to do,” she giggled just as her mom reappeared. “We’re going to have a blast. Just you wait!”
ooooooooo
The next two weeks flew by, and before I knew it, my brother was home picking us up and we were headed to the beach. The McKay’s had rented the house ahead of time, and Wes had already driven out to open the place up and get the keys. Cole was picking us up in the city, and we were going to head out that afternoon. My mother didn’t even come outside to say hello to Cole or bye to me.
“What’s up, Ang?” Cole grinned as he climbed out of his Jeep.
“Not much,” I giggled as I raced down the front steps, and threw myself in his arms. I missed him, and seeing him standing there made me realize just how much.
“Whoa!” he chuckled. “I missed you too, Little Girl.”
“I’m not a little a girl, Cole,” I scowled as I backed up out of his arms and straightened my shirt.
“I’m not either,” Ally giggled from behind me.
“No, no you’re not,” Cole smirked as he eyed her.
Ally had made certain that all her assets would be on display today for my brother, and even though I knew he would never act on it, it was fun to watch.
“Come on, perv,” I slugged him in the gut. “We’re ready to go,” I slung my bag into the backseat, and climbed in.
“Nope,” Cole folded his arms in front of his chest. “You need shorts,” he pointed to my cutoff jeans.
“Um, these are shorts,” I glanced down at my bare thighs.
“No, they’re not. They could be if they were a little longer, but those are definitely not shorts.”
“Yeah,” I climbed back out and turned my back to him “they are.” I bent ov
er and looked at him between my legs. “See, no underwear is hanging out. They cover everything,” I stood back up and turned around. “You’re not my dad, Cole. You don’t get a say in the way I dress. I wear a lot more than most girls my age,” I crossed my arms over my chest and held my ground.
“Do you tell the girls you sleep with how to dress?” I tipped my head to the side in challenge.
“That’s none of your business,” he grumbled.
“Exactly,” I grinned as I climbed back in the Jeep. “Let’s go.”
“You are going to make me work this weekend, aren’t you?” he sighed as he climbed in behind the wheel and shook his head in defeat.
“You don’t have to keep the guys away from me,” Ally called from the backseat as she leaned forward. “I’m all for a little spring fling,” she laughed.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Cole muttered under his breath.
ooooooooo
Wes- Age 21
“So who did Cole go to get again?” Toni leaned up against me as she took the beer from my hand and began kissing my neck. We’d come in from the beach as soon as Cole left, hoping we’d get some alone time in the house before the rest of the group noticed we were gone.
“His sister,” I gasped as she bit down on my ear, “and her friend.”
“Oh, so how long do we have?” she giggled as her hand snaked down my chest and began tugging at the tie on my swim trunks.
“Couple hours,” I hissed, when her fingers slipped inside.
“Shut up and kiss me,” she begged right when her fingers wrapped around me, and began to stroke my cock.
“Fuck, Toni!” I growled as I turned my head and made contact with her mouth. She grinned against my lips as she began shifting on the couch where we were sitting. Before I knew what was happening, she had freed me, slipped her suit out of the way, and sunk down on top of me.
I wasn’t really into the whole “someone could walk in on us” thing, but when I opened my eyes, and saw her tits bouncing in front of my face, I didn’t really care what was going on around us.
My Broken Angel Page 3