Page 42 of Fighting Chance

He smiles down at me but it’s sad, that flirtatious, bubbly personality nowhere to be seen now. “You feel deeply, don’t you, my darling?” Before I can answer, he reaches up to catch another tear as he murmurs, “It’s a beautiful quality to possess.”

And then his warmth, his touch, and his soft words retreat as he takes a step back, that charming smile firmly back in place. “See you tomorrow, gorgeous. I hope to see you wearing my jersey.”

Chapter 9

Kieran

ALLIE

Hi honey!

will you be around tomorrow?

KIERAN

yes, come over whenever you want!

ALLIE

don’t tell me that, I’ll turn up at the crack of dawn

I can’t wait to meet her Kieran

I know she’s special, she’s half of your beautiful soul

KIERAN

I don’t think I can claim much credit at all but she is very special

ALLIE

then she must be all you

I’ve been sitting in the recliner chair in the corner of Emmy’s room for the past forty minutes, trying to wrack my mind around what Itold Layla.

I’ve never told anyone what happened to me.

Not even Grayson. I mean, I think he suspects some things—we met during middle school and there were a few too many marks that I struggled to lie about—but he’s never said anything.

I think by the time he was old enough to understand what was happening to me, I was also old enough to fight back. The matron didn’t like to go against anyone her own size. The moment I sprouted like a weed and started putting on muscle, she left me alone.

The sad truth is, I don’t know what was worse—being under her watchful eye and punished for anything she perceived as an infraction, or becoming a ghost.

There was a very distinct moment when she realized she couldn’t hurt me anymore, a night where I fought back for once. The next morning, her gaze shot past me like I didn’t exist, and until the other day when I was sitting in her office, she never looked at me again.

For nearly four years I was nothing in that foster home.

Peering down at my forearm, I look at the ink I got the second I turned eighteen to try and cover up the burn marks the matron put there with her cigarettes. I squeeze my eyes shut, forcing myself to count to ten while I slowly exhale, trying to ease the tightness in my chest.

I can’t believe I told her.

And in exchange for a shabby life list wish. She has more on there, I knew it the moment her cheeks flushed and her breathing sped up like she was running, and yet I couldn’t stop the words from rolling off my tongue.

In my defense, I feel like I’ve spoken with her every day for well over a year. Yes, I sound like a complete and total loser saying that because she never texted me back, but I got enough from the phone calls I could pipe into when I was at Bella and Grayson’s house and the updates I nagged her for. I do know Layla, just through Bella.

Layla is the most down-to-earth person I’ve ever known. I doubt she would even kill a bug, and I think a part of my soulrecognizes that, a smaller version of me desperately trying to get close to someone who wouldn’t hurt me like others have done in the past.

I mean, why else would I be hung up on this woman?