Sins of the Flesh (Exposed Series Book 1)
Page 12
She was beautiful. When was the last time I’d seen her? Maybe when she was fourteen or fifteen? I couldn’t remember. But she was a young woman now, soaking wet with mascara streaming down her round cheeks.
Before I even said anything, she came up to me in the doorway and hugged me like a wet towel.
“You’re freezing,” I said. “Come inside.”
I went straight to my room, stopping only to turn on the kettle. I grabbed some warm sweats and a thick pair of chenille socks from my dresser and brought them to her. Then I left the room so she could change out of her wet clothes and went to make two cups of Earl Grey.
When I returned, she was already in the dry clothes and wrapped up in the fleece blanket I kept draped over the back of the couch. I set the tea cups down on some coasters.
“Thanks,” she said.
I noticed that her eyes looked puffy as if she’d been crying.
“Are you okay, Kate?”
She nodded.
As she reached forward to wrap her hands around her tea, I tried to grab my cigarettes off the table without her noticing.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I know you smoke.”
I looked at her.
“My Mom… bitches about it.”
I tossed them back on the table. “How did you get so wet?”
“I couldn’t remember which building you were in.” She looked past me at my suitcase by the door. “Are you going somewhere?”
“Does your Mom know you’re here?” I asked, sitting gently on the couch beside her.
She shook her head and made a face I recognized. It was a forlorn face. I’d seen it a thousand times. Heck, I’d made it a thousand times.
“You know I have to tell her.”
She pursed her lips and blinked.
“But you can stay here,” I said, resting my hand on her unfamiliar shoulder. “For as long as you like.”
She exhaled and her shoulders dropped two inches.
“Can I get you anything?”
She shook her head.
I stood and picked my phone up off the table. “I’m going to call Carol and let her know you’re safe, okay?”
She nodded.
I scooped up her wet clothes with my free hand and dropped them in the dryer on my way down the hall.
Carol picked up before the second ring. “Dawn?”
“She’s here, Carol,” I said. “She’s here, and she’s okay.”
The sigh of relief she let out was so long she must have been storing up air for hours. “Fred and I will come get her right away.”
“Don’t,” I said. “I already told her she could stay, and nobody should be driving in this.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“What happened?”
“She ran away after-”
“After what?”
“After she came home high tonight for the first time. Oh that sounds so stupid! I’m sure it’s not the first time at all- just the first time I caught her. Who knows how long it’s been going on? I can’t believe- I just didn’t think- it was the one thing I didn’t- she’s an athlete for God sa-”
“Okay, breathe,” I said. “Thanks for telling me.”
“Maybe you could talk to her?”
I laughed. “And say what?”
“I see your point.”
“Look, Carol. She’s fine here. She’s safe,” I sat on the edge of my bed. “She can stay here as long as she wants.”
“Do you mean that?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, but only if it’s okay with you.”
Carol sniffled. “I can’t handle her, Dawn. I feel like I’m failing her when she needs me the most.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You haven’t failed her at all. She knows you love her.”
“Does she though? Because she treats me like some kind of monst-”
“She knows. The first thing she did was ask me to call you so you wouldn’t worry.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t she do it herself? I’ve been-”
“Cause she knows you’re mad at her. I’m sure she just needs some space. Everything will be fine.”
“Everything isn’t fine, Dawn! She’s drinking and smoking and making herself throw up and using drugs and running away from home and who knows what-”
“Relax, Carol. You need to relax.”
Her voice dropped to a whisper. “We were thinking about sending her away.”
“Away?”
“There’s a school on the East Coast that specializes in… troubled teens.”
“Jesus.”
“We were going to talk to her this weekend about it.”
“Does she know that?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
I pursed my lips.
“They have a lacrosse team though and-“
“She doesn’t need to be sent away. She just needs time.”
“I can’t have her doing drugs around Chris.”
“Of course not,” I said. “So let her stay here for a while until this blows over and things settle down.”
“Are you sure it’s not too much trouble?”
“I’m sure.”
“You’ll call me if she needs anything?”
“Yeah. Of course.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m happy to help,” I said.
“I’ll make it up to you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
I hung up and walked back down the hallway, stopping at the entrance to the front room. Kate was curled up in the corner of the couch with her head on a pillow. She didn’t look like a drug user or someone with mental problems to me. She just looked like an exhausted kid with a little too much eye makeup on.
I leaned against the doorframe and watched her sleep for a second. She looked younger at rest. Like everyone does.
I put another blanket over her and plugged in a night light near the hallway bathroom in case she woke up.
Then I removed the thick letter from the mantel. It would have to be rewritten. Or at least, amended.
Because it looked like my story was going to have a different ending.
Maybe even a better one.
Thank You
Dear Awesome Reader,
Thank you for taking the time to read this story. I hope you enjoyed it.
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Thanks again for your time and support and until next time, happy reading,
Xo Hazel
Ps- If you liked Sins of the Flesh, be sure to check out the next book in the Exposed Series, Out of Breath, which is available now at http://amzn.to/1wa1wh7.