One Breath After Another (The After Another Trilogy Book 2)

by Bethany-Kris

  “What do you want?” she asked, locking the locker. “I have a class to get to.”

  “We can’t talk? You’ve been here like—”

  “What do you want?”

  Caleb stuck a hand in his pocket as he turned to lean his shoulder against the lockers instead of his back like before. Now, he was facing her and that grin of his felt ... untrue. Sinister, even. It bothered her that she recognized those expressions in other people before they even proved themselves to be out for their own agenda.

  Life taught her how.

  “Don’t be a bitch,” he said. “I’m just trying to talk.”

  “Right,” Penny scoffed, grabbing her book bag from the floor. “Well, I’m not in the mood to talk. So, see you lat—”

  “Wait a sec.”

  Penny turned to ice as everything moved in slow motion around her when Caleb reached over to grab the tail end of her braided hair. Flipped over her shoulder, the white braid was more than she usually did with her hair when even running a brush through it some mornings felt like a chore. She was getting better about that, too—taking care of herself.

  Someone touching her, though?

  A chill froze her to the spot.

  “It’s Dunsworth, right?” Caleb asked, twisting the strands of her hair between the pads of his fingers. Penny couldn’t move. Why was he touching her? Why did people think they could just touch someone without even asking? “Preston—that was your dad. Preston Dunsworth.”

  All at once, Penny snapped out of her fear. All she needed was hearing her father’s name on this stupid fuck’s mouth to do it.

  She jerked away from Caleb, her book bag tight in her grasp. Out of his reach, she at least felt a little safer and was able to talk. Or rather, tell this guy to go fuck himself with a sharp object.

  “Get the fuck away from me,” Penny snapped.

  “So, that’s a yes?” He winked. “If that’s true ... is it also true what he used to do? Did he really pimp you out to anyone who could afford the price? Is that still available, or ...?”

  His gaze trailed up and down Penny’s form. She was forced to wear the same stupid uniform as every other girl in the school except she opted for the slacks the boys wore and usually kept an oversized, zip-up hoodie on hand to throw over the button-down and tie that was made mandatory by the dress code. Today was no exception.

  It didn’t stop Caleb from looking.

  Nothing did with creeps.

  They were all the same.

  Then, Caleb dared to step forward.

  Closer to her.

  Again.

  Penny wasn’t going to let him touch her—once was enough and even then, that was too much. Before he could even try, she reared back and threw a fist that landed against Caleb’s smirking mouth. She felt the way his teeth smooshed against her knuckles, leaving an ache behind when her hand fell back at her side.

  He hit the lockers.

  Laughter roared from down the hall.

  Penny was already leaving, spinning on her heels and heading in the opposite direction from the students and her next class. Someone called her name when she turned the corner at the end of the hall, but she didn’t care to look for who.

  Fuck all of them.

  She didn’t bother to call Roz.

  Or Naz.

  They were both busy—baby stuff. Not that they needed to worry about a silly thing like her punching someone in the mouth. The school would probably fill in those details. Why did she have to?

  Instead, she texted Luca. She might as well put that drop everything promise Naz made to the test.

  Right?

  9.

  Luca

  I need help.

  Three words. That was all Luca needed to drop everything he was doing for Naz—the little issue of a caseworker sticking her nose where it didn’t belong—and head a few blocks away. At least, Penny didn’t make him search for her. Her second text added, Don’t rush. I’m at the gas station a block away from the school.

  Well, too late.

  He did rush.

  Shit, it was the first time the girl even used his number since Naz had given it to her. Luca wasn’t about to make her wait when she had to use it in the first place. He figured she probably hadn’t bothered to call Naz or Roz because they were busy with appointments in the heart of the city. Not that it would have mattered as, like him, they would have dropped everything to run for Penny, too.

  He didn’t mind doing it, though.

  By the time Luca pulled his car into the gas station, Penny had made herself a seat on the bench that faced the pumps. With her hoodie pulled over her head, she sat cross-legged on the seat with an open bag of chips in her lap.

  Hey.

  She wasn’t in a state. No tears, by the looks of it. From what he could see through the windshield, there were no visible marks on her to say someone was going to have to die. He counted those as all good things.

  The rest was yet to be determined.

  All it took was one beat of the car’s horn, and Penny pushed away from the bench. She dropped the bag of chips into a garbage bin as she passed it by before coming to the passenger side of his car. Opening the door, she tossed her book bag to the floor of the car and stepped in second, falling into the seat like it was the only thing she was waiting for.

  A safe place.

  He didn’t take the car out of park or move a muscle to suggest they were going to leave as fast as he arrived. He glanced at her from the side when he asked, “You okay?”

  Sky blue stared back at him. Maybe she hadn’t been crying when he arrived, but the bloodshot eyes said she did cry at some point. The twisting tug in his chest hurt at the very idea. Didn’t people realize this girl had been hurt enough?

  Why add insult to the injury?

  Penny only shrugged under the baggy, zip-up black hoodie. A bit of her braid hung out from the hood, the white strands of hair a bright contrast against the dark fabric. “I am now.”

  “But you weren’t.”

  “It’s not a big deal.”

  He didn’t believe that for a second.

  Apparently, neither did Penny.

  “Okay, that’s a lie,” she muttered, looking away from his unmoveable stare. “It was a big deal, but I don’t want to let it be. The more people know shit bothers me; the more they’ll use it to do exactly that, too. People can do what they want or say whatever but only I get to decide if it hurts me. You know?”

  He did, but ... “Just tell me what happened. If anything, so I can decide whether it’s something we need to handle right now or wait until later.”

  Penny rolled her eyes. “That’s so ...”

  “Yeah?”

  “Responsible.”

  Luca barked out a laugh. “Yeah, nobody said this growing up shit was any fun.”

  He learned that a long time ago.

  She only sighed.

  He let her have a moment.

  Eventually, Penny turned back to him but then, her eyes were lined with unshed tears. It made her already wide, bright eyes look even bigger. Impossibly so. Like one of those white-skinned China dolls that people kept safe on high shelves away from hands that might play a little too rough. Too many people had done exactly that to this girl, too. Treated her like a doll and then played with her like one as if she wasn’t a real person with a heart and soul of her own.

  “A guy—Caleb—said some stuff about my father. And me,” Penny added lower. “About ... things. I don’t want to say what. Doesn’t matter anyway. Kind of obvious.”

  “You don’t have to say anything.”

  She said enough, frankly.

  Teenagers were terrible. Teenage boys were little bastards on their good days. Luca could say that because he had been one of them once. He had never been purposefully awful to other people—or females, for that matter—but that wasn’t always the case. Things happened. It wasn’t an excuse for shitty behavior—he also couldn’t say he was surprised, either.

 
; “I think he only did it to be funny for his friends,” Penny said, wiping away the tears that dared to escape with her next blink. As quick as the wet streak graced her pale skin, it was gone like it hadn’t existed in the first place. “Because ha, ha, it’s so fucking funny to be a sex toy for grown men. Asshole.”

  Luca flinched. “I’m sorry.”

  “Should have expected it, right? Eventually, someone was going to put things together or figure out who I am. It was all over the news. Not like I could pretend—”

  “Some people are just cruel because they can be. They don’t really understand the weight of the things they say; they just say it for stupid reasons. Fuck him.”

  That earned him a small smile.

  It was something.

  “I punched him. There might have been some blood. I don’t know, I left pretty fast. I should have stayed right there and done it again.”

  His first thought?

  Good for her.

  His second?

  Yikes.

  That wasn’t going to help the caseworker thing, never mind the fact that the school already had a hard nut for Penny, according to Naz. Luca decided that then probably wasn’t the time to point any of that out.

  Then, he murmured, “I should call Naz and Roz, though. At least, let them know something happened so they have a heads-up before the school calls to inform them. Better they hear it from me—or you.”

  Penny frowned. “Yeah, okay. Will you do it?”

  “Sure.”

  Why the hell not?

  He thought it was better for her to be the one who delivered the news, but why argue? The day had undoubtedly been traumatic enough for Penny without him adding to it by forcing her to do something else she wasn’t comfortable with.

  Naz’s phone rang twice before he picked up Luca’s call. The first thing out of his friend’s mouth was, “Is she okay?”

  Luca passed a look Penny’s way, saying, “He knows.”

  Her face scrunched up.

  Well ...

  Some shit couldn’t be helped.

  “She’s fine,” he told Naz. “Called me right away and I made the trip over to pick her up. As far as that goes, I’ve got it under control. The school, though ... that’s another matter.”

  “Fuck them.”

  Luca chuckled. “Yeah, I know, man.”

  “We’re on our way home, so—”

  “I’ll bring her your way, then.”

  “No,” Penny said suddenly, bringing Luca’s attention back to her for a second. She shrugged, picking at her nails and avoiding his stare when she whispered, “I just ... I don’t want to go home right now. Can we do something? Drive or—”

  “Change of plans,” Luca told his friend, not even bothering to decide what he was going to do with Penny. Something. He had an idea. “I’ll bring her home a little later, okay?”

  “You sure?” Naz asked.

  “Yeah, man. No worries.”

  He could handle a seventeen-year-old.

  Right?

  “Call me if anything changes,” Naz said.

  “Will do.”

  Discarding the phone to the cup holder after he ended the call, Luca tipped his head Penny’s way, asking her, “Anything you want to do or is it up to me?”

  “Well, what did you want to do?”

  He stared at the girl, taking her in and realizing ... his mother had been right. Penny was a young woman struggling between what once was and what would be. She was at a strange time in her life, too, a place between childhood and growing into an adult where nothing would be the same as it used to be. And all of that was on top of the shit she already had to deal with. While some of it merged, because that was inevitable, not all of it did. They were separate issues.

  Did she even realize that?

  “Do you talk to anybody?” he asked.

  Penny’s brow dipped. “Like my therapist?”

  “More like ... someone who knows, Penny. Somebody that gets you and what’s happened. Do you have anybody like that? A friend, even.”

  “Not really.”

  Good to know.

  Luca planned on fixing that.

  Putting the car in drive, he shot Penny a smile when he said, “We’re gonna go see my mom. I think you should spend some time with her.”

  “I ... have?”

  Luca scoffed. “Nah, not like you should. I mean, without other people around. Not sitting down for a family dinner when everyone is on their best behavior. No, you need to really meet my mom and spend some time with her. Just you and her. She’s kind of amazing.”

  “You said ... someone who knows. Does she? Know, I mean?”

  His smile drifted away, then. “Unfortunately, she knows what you’re dealing with better than most. Nobody should know these kinds of things—if the world was perfect, no one would. But she does.”

  “Oh.”

  Yeah.

  What else needed to be said?

  “SHOULD I JUST STAY in the car until—”

  “No,” Luca said, laughing under his breath as he pushed open the driver’s door. “Family is welcome at this house anytime. All you need to do is show up and walk through the front door.”

  “But I’m not ...” Penny’s words trailed off when Luca glanced over his shoulder at her. Maybe it was the way he raised his eyebrow that quieted her, but either way, he saw the acceptance flash in her eyes when she muttered, “Okay, I’m coming.”

  Good.

  Penny stayed behind Luca as he climbed the front steps to his childhood home. He didn’t bother to knock on the door before he opened it up and headed inside. As Penny kicked off her shoes, and he did the same, he yelled down the quiet hall.

  “Ma?”

  He expected his mother to pop out of the kitchen where she liked to spend most of her afternoon cooking and prepping for dinner. Despite the fact she no longer had a whole house to feed, his mother still managed to cook for a small army every single day. If he ever wanted leftovers, the only thing he needed to do was show up.

  And he tried.

  Often.

  Or as much as he could lately.

  “Luca?”

  Sure enough, his mother appeared in the doorway of the kitchen with a dishtowel in her hands. Her confusion quickly melted away at the sight of him and Penny waiting down the hall. He didn’t get to see his mother enough and even he knew it. So, when he did randomly show up like this, the last thing Katya cared about were the details as to why.

  Instead of asking what was going on or anything, for that matter, his mother smiled and said, “I’m just making stew and bread. Do you two want anything else?”

  Luca laughed. “Nah, Ma. We’re good. I just, uh—”

  He jerked a thumb back at Penny.

  Katya’s smile didn’t fade even as she raised her brow like she was encouraging him to continue. “Yes?”

  “I brought Penny over to say hi. And talk, maybe.”

  “Talk about what?”

  Behind him, Penny shifted from foot to foot, her socks making noise as they rubbed against the entry hallway. “Hi, Mrs. Puzz—”

  “Katya,” his mother spoke up quickly. “Just call me Katya. Is everything okay? You look ... sad.”

  “It’s been a day,” Penny muttered.

  For a second, his mother said nothing as she looked Luca’s way again. He only shrugged in response, hoping that would be enough for Katya to get the hint without him actually needing to give her details. If this entire day ended with Penny talking to his mother about anything ... then he figured that was a giant leap forward.

  Katya was always great at reading the room. Once, she told him because she had to be ... a long time ago, knowing the mood of a room before she walked into it was one of the only things that saved her life.

  Yeah.

  His ma really was amazing.

  Penny could use someone like that in her life. Even if it was just to have someone to talk to that understood what it was like to be her ... especi
ally in a world that didn’t understand at all.

  “A rough day?” Katya asked.

  “Really rough,” Penny muttered.

  Katya nodded. “Yeah, that happens. Come on, I’ll show you how I braid and cut my bread, so it looks pretty when I put it on the table.” Then, to him, his mother said, “And you ... your father left some boxes at the basement door that need to go into storage downstairs. Would you do that, so he doesn’t have to when he gets home?”

  Nice. Get me out of the way, Ma.

  Luca didn’t even mind. “Sure, I’ll do it now.”

  “Thanks. Come with me, Penny.”

  He shot Penny a wink when she headed past him after his mother who had already disappeared back inside the kitchen. She smiled back. No blush that time, either.

  Luca figured maybe he was doing this thing—whatever it was—with Penny right. Except he didn’t really know, and it wasn’t over yet.

  10.

  Penny

  EVENTUALLY, braiding bread turned into making tea while the stew did its thing in the large pot on the stove. The longer it stays on the heat, the better it is, Katya told her as they took their tea upstairs to drink. Penny didn’t know if that was true. Cooking wasn’t her thing when she was barely able to boil water without forgetting it on the burner. She had to admit there was something wonderful about the smell of freshly cooked bread wafting through the home, though.

  And it had been ... calming.

  The very act of kneading the bread to perfection, and then twisting braided strips before cutting precise slices in all the right spots was soothing in a way she hadn’t expected. It also kept her talking. Maybe too much, even. She hadn’t realized how much easier it would be to share her truth—and pain—with someone who had similar experiences.

  Katya never told her to stop.

  So, she didn’t.

  Her therapist had suggested group therapy once. A meeting that she could attend once a week in place of one of the days she had to visit the doctor. Women of all ages, as long as they were seventeen or older, came to share stories of their sexual abuse in a therapeutic setting while finding support with others like them.