“I was just saying that there are these online groups for women who want to travel but don’t know anyone, travel friends, you know? You move around together as a unit. It’s totally safe and legit-”
“It’s expensive.”
“And I have money coming to me on my eighteenth birthday, just a month after I’m done high school. And I don’t plan on staying in five star hotels or anything. I’ve never been that girl.” I try to keep my tone light and confident. If Shay senses any weakness or emotion in my voice, he’ll pounce. “I think it’d be good for me.”
“You are needed here.”
“For what?”
“You know what,” he snapped, still not looking my way.
“No, I don’t, Shay,” I said, raising my voice slightly. “I don’t have a purpose here. What am I going to do? Sit around in this house all day? Get a job in town waitressing or… or… bartending or something? Oh no, wait, can’t do that. I have a goddamn curfew! And if I don’t follow it, my crazy stepbrother will hunt me down and haul my ass home and embarrass the shit out of me.”
Shay spun around and threw his mug across the room. It shatters against the wall, sending ceramic shards and hot coffee everywhere. I flinch back, while James doesn’t even move a muscle, like he saw it coming. Shay storms forward, standing over me as I huddle back in my chair. His chest is heaving and his silver eyes gleam dangerously. “It’s for your own good, you fucking brat!” he shouts directly in my face. “I look out for you! I always fucking have! You should be goddamn grateful that you have someone in your life who loves you enough that-”
“Shay,” James’ voice holds a warning bite in it.
“You aren’t travelling,” he goes on as though this was final. “And you sure as hell are not leaving for school!”
“Watch me!” I throw my hands against his bare chest and manage to shove him back. The only reason he moves at all is because I caught him off guard. He’s a huge guy, and being so slender and tiny, I wouldn’t have been able to make him budge if he had seen it coming. Getting to my feet, I hobble down the hall, intending to hide in my room, but Shay’s hand whips out and seizes my wrist hard and yanks me back. I cry out in pain and fall over, the weight and rigidness of my cast unbalancing me.
James hurries towards us, hands extended to me. “Let her go, son.”
“She’s not leaving! I won’t let her!” Shay pulls me up from the floor, his entire body is shaking so hard, it makes my teeth rattle.
“You’re hurting her…”
Shay froze and looked down to where he was grasping at my arm. When he let go, my skin was red and angry. Wincing, I brought my wrist to my chest, cradling it carefully.
“Mina, I…” He reached for me, his tone rueful.
“Don’t touch me.” Breathing hard, I fight to control my emotions, and move out of his reach. “Just… leave me alone. Please…” I back away from him, leaning against the wall for support as I make my way down the hall to my room. I hear Shay struggle behind me, and before I disappear through the doorway, I look back to see James restraining him, hissing into his ear to calm down. Ignoring them both, I close the door behind myself and carefully bolt the locks into place.
The Past…
Mina: Sixteen Years Old
May
Dance school…
At the very mention of it, Shay went off the rails. In the morning, I’d announced that I was hoping to be accepted into a school for dance once I graduated, then move to New York and try to join a theatre company. I’d live in a studio apartment, and work my way up to become the prima ballerina. But this meant I would be leaving our little town and most likely moving to a whole new state to get the best training. Mum had been all for it, and though James had nodded in approval, his mouth had pressed into a tight line as he glanced warily over at Shay, who stared at me from across the kitchen table, his mouth open, and his dark brows drawn down over his shining eyes. With a wild sweep of his arm, he sent his plate of food flying, including the vase of fresh daisies I’d gathered the other day in the woods, the first ones of the year. Everything went smashing to the floor as he leapt to his feet, sending his chair soaring back with a crash.
“Like hell you are!” he shouted at me, his face turning red as he screamed.
“Shay!” James moved forward, but was shoved back as my stepbrother spiraled.
“No, no! You promised me, Mina! You promised you wouldn’t leave me!” He stomped around the table and grabbed my chair, easily pulling it away from the table so that it scraped across the floor. My mother let out a shout, but I couldn’t hear her words as my ears buzzed and the sound of my heart pounding drowned it out. Shay placed a hand on the arms of my chair and bent his face so that it was inches from mine. Rage and despair rolled off of him in hot, angry waves, and I recoiled back in my seat, terrified of this version of him.
“Mina!” he snapped at me. “You promised you wouldn’t shut me out. You said you would never leave!”
“Shay, I-”
“She has a future ahead of her!” Mum yelled, her steps pounding up behind me as she grabbed the back of my chair. “She has a life outside of yours! She has always wanted to dance; you know this!”
“She has always danced, and she can keep doing it. But she stays here!” he snarled, not moving his eyes from mine. “She takes part in the local performances and Christmas ballets, why can’t she keep doing that?”
“She wants more than that!” Mum snapped at him. “She can do better than small local plays-”
“How would you know?” he snarled at her. “When was the last time you went to one? Oh, that’s right, years ago, and you were drunk off your ass!” As usual, when he addressed my mother, his jaw was tight and clenched, and his face twisted into a hideous expression of pure animosity. “I’ve been to every single one! No one else has been as supportive or as devo-”
“She is not yours!” Mum raised her voice and I felt her hands suddenly grip my shoulders.
Shay moved so fast, I cried out in a panic when he righted himself and lunged over me, reaching for my mother. I screamed when I heard her smack him in the face, and he went off, calling her every ugly name in the book while fighting to get to her.
James let out a shout and raced forward, trying to intervene. I reacted in the only way I knew how, and that was to reach out to Shay to calm him. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my face into his hard stomach, still sitting in my seat. Overhead, I could hear him and Mum screaming, their hands and fists clipping each other. Shay twisted his upper body, shifting into a better position, as he continued to fight my mother. I squeezed him harder, trying to distract him and de-escalate his terrifying outburst.
“Shay? Shay!” I cried when someone’s fist came down and cracked the top of my head. I closed my eyes, fighting back the ache, ignoring how my vision blurred, and gave him another squeeze around his waist, “Shay!”
A pair of hands seized me around my waist and ripped me away from him. I stumbled to the side and quickly spun around in time to see James punch Shay right in his face. Shay, who had been gripping the front of my mum’s shirt as he screamed at her, let go and staggered backwards. James closed in on him and swung his fist again, knocking Shay across the jaw, sending him to the floor in a heap. I stared in horror, my ears buzzing as my brain hurried to catch up with everything happening. Holy crap… holy crap! What just happened?