Filed to story: Penny and Navy Brother Asher
“He doesn’t treat you right, Asher says, voles
I slam the plates a little harder into the sink then neremary,
The’s familiar,” I snap.
“He’s comfortable. He’s kind. That i ennoch.”
The lie tastes bitter as soon as it leaves my mouth
Asher’s jaw ticks ence. the semide are dragina.. inmething he derin’i ment to thow
The mutters something under his breath-to lose for me to catch the whole thing but
“Stupid… deserve more.”
My throat tightens so fast it hurts, and I don’t trust styself to answer,
I grab the too-big sagging pants from where I abandoned them earlier, tugging them back on over my bare legi, panking the drawstring tight migh to hund
‘I should get back home,” I say, voice high and brittle.
Asher just watches me.
The kind of look that feels like he’s seeing things I don’t even know about myself yet.
Footsteps on the stairs, lighter this time. –
Tyler reappears, hair damp, shirt clean
He grins when he sees me wrestling with the oversized pants,
“Hey me and Asher should walk you back,” he says brightly sure nothing’s broken at your place or whatever
“You know, make su
I open my mouth to protest to say I’ll be fine, that I don’t need babysitters- but Asher cuts in smoothly.
“He’s right,” he says. a storm like this? You don’t know what kind of damage could’ve happened.”
I bite the inside of my cheek until it stings
Because he’s not wrong.
Because I’m tired.
Because somNE smuli, stupid part of me wants his to come with me me even though it’ll only make everything more confusing.
“Okay,” I say finally.
And just like that the three of us step out into the gray morning, the world washed clear but still maked in something head
The secund the door swings open, the world outside feels like a different planet compared to yesterday morning. for the the place apart and kept the souvenirs,
Garbage bins fir abandoned in the middle of the street, half-tipped and trailing trash down the gutters.
Branches, same bigger than a man, are snapped and scattered across lasens end roads.
One car down the street has a whole tree leaning against it, the hood cumpl in Inil
Neighbors are already outside, armed with gloves and takes and exhaustion, trying to piece the world back together,
I’ve seen worse.
A lot worse.
But judging by the way Penny’s mouth falls open in a silent gasp, she hasn’t.
Neither has Tyler, probably, but he’s better at pretending
She turns to him, wide-eyed, and says, “You drove back in this?”
Tyler shrogs, grinning like it’s a good story for later.
“Yeah. It was tricky. Had to swerve around some stuff. No big deal.”
She frowns, hugging the oversized shirt tighter around herself, but says nothing else.
We start walking toward her house, Tyler launching into some story about the football game last night – who won, who lost, who made an epic fail worth laughing about for weeks.
Penny trudges beside him, yanking at the waistband of the massive joggers shes wearing-mine, still, and way too big for her- her little haffs and frustrated mutters making her sound mine a storm cloud than the actual storm.
If I weren’t so pissed off, I might actually find it funny. even.
But the truth is I can barely see straight through how hard I’m trying not to grab her and tell her she’s a goddamn idiot for staying with someone who treats her like she’s optional.
Maybe she’s right, though.
Maybe sunay, fun, easy is what she nerds.
Not someone like me
Someone who’d destroy her without meaning to
Someone who doesn’t know how to be soft without fast being brutal.
I’m tough
Closed off.
Mvan without uying half the time
And hell, I’m leaving again soon anyway.
Heading back to the Navy, back to the life that chewed me up and spit me
Wanting her it’s a stupid, selfish instinct.
One I should’ve killed the second it started. taught me how to stop trading things
I shove my hands deeper into my pockets, clench my jaw, and force myself to focus on anything else the crunch of glass under my boots, the low mummin of voices from the houses see pass,
The world is still dripping, heavy with saim thai ham’t fully drained away, and somewhere overbead, wood creaks against wood-faint but sharp mough s slice through the log in my head.
I slow down, scanning instinctively
Old ha
The one that kept me alive more times than I can coun
The sound sharpens – a dry, splintering track.
Tyler and Penny walk ahead, still talking, completely oblivious to the danger threading itself above them.
Then I see it.
The tree ahead, heavy and battered from the storm, leaning dangerously toward the sidewalk,
A branch-thicker than my arm is hanging loose, ready to snap.
Another crack-louder now and the whole thing shifts, the movement so subtle it would be easy to miss.
Except I don’t miss things
“Move, I bark, already surging forward.
There’s no time to explain.
No time to think,
I grab Tyler first, fingers fisting in the back of his collar and yanking him sideways hard enough to stumble.
The Penny-
My hand wraps around her waist like it’s always meant to be there, pulling her tight against my chest as I phot us out of the way.
The beach crashes down with a roar, smashing into the sidewalk where they’d been standing a second earlier, sending splinters and debris flying.
For a beat, everything is still
The world holds its breath.
It sounds a little too loud.
Tyler covers first, letting out a shaky laugh that sou
“Holy shit,” he says, clapping me on the back hard enough to jolt me forward.
Holy shit…