Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 50311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 252(@200wpm)___ 201(@250wpm)___ 168(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 252(@200wpm)___ 201(@250wpm)___ 168(@300wpm)
“First, you never bother me. Second, I left the truck keys, babe.”
Embarrassment washes over me. I have to tell him. He needs to know. “Drew, I don’t know how to drive and I definitely don’t have a license.”
“Well, we will work on that next.” He says this casually like it’s the easiest thing in the world. “Until then, I’ll make sure one of my sisters is around if you need to go out while I’m at work. I’ll let Dre know if you need something more than the cash on the counter, text me and I’ll transfer money to her. I’ll leave my credit card with you tomorrow. I wasn’t thinkin’ about that.”
“Drew,” I whisper, “you’re making this way too easy.”
“Baby, you left all the hard stuff in Arkansas. No matter where this goes, only good for you comes next.”
I feel tears pooling in my eyes but I refuse to let them fall as a knock comes to the door. “Dre’s here,” I tell him. “I’ll see you later.”
“Lookin’ forward to it, Cambria,” he tells me softly.
“Thank you, Drew. Seriously, thank you.”
Ending the call, I open the door and Dre studies me.
“Alright, how can I help? Are we digging a hole to hide my brother’s body? You need an alibi?”
I bust out laughing. “No, I need a ride to the store.”
“Oh that’s easy, come on.”
No questions, no fussing, just a simple okay. I reach out and grab her arm as she turns to go back out the door. “Thank you, Dre for coming. Thank you for being willing to hide a body or be my alibi.”
She smiles brightly, “I love my brother, but penis heads sometimes aren’t smart. We girlies gotta stick together. I told you if you came here, I would have your back. I meant it. Now where do you want to go shopping? What do we need to get?”
“I need some toiletries.”
She blinks like it’s dawning on her. “My brother moved you in and left you to use his man smelling shit, didn’t he?”
I nod.
“Did he get the good toilet paper?” she asks moving past me and to the bathroom to investigate.
“No,” I explain before she makes it to the small room.
“I bet he didn’t get feminine products either.”
That’s when I blush. “Yeah, that’s the thing. I started my period, and well this whole thing with him is so new, I don’t know that I’m ready to have him tote me to the grocery store to get tampons or me try to send him to pick out pads.”
She laughs, “well, good thing for you, he’s actually practiced in it.”
My mouth drops open in surprise.
“Oh yeah, my mother raised her boys to understand. With us being twins, she made Drew go buy stuff for me every cycle once he could drive. Before that it was on our older brother Axel to take care of. And our younger sisters too. Drew always gets chocolate on day one. Carbs on day three. Alex and Te, they weren’t good with the snacks. Drew is the best. And because there is me, Abby, and Cadie, he would literally buy a box of every size pad and tampon available once all three of us were menstrating because we would sync up.”
Wow.
My mother never even talked to me about my period. I learned about it in the girls bathroom in middle school.
“You didn’t call him,” I state the obvious.
“Cambria, my brother is my brother. I’m going to love him to the ends of the Earth. I won’t ever betray him. But you are new to all this. I’m not gonna make waves for you or him. That’s not my role. As his sister, I want him to be happy and you have given life to my brother in a way I’ve never seen before, even in a matter of days. I wanna see where this goes for both of you.”
I nod taking in her words and giving a smile.
“Now, let’s get some girl products, some snacks, and a heating pad.” Then she leads the way to her car and off the store.
A week passes before I realize how much I’ve changed.
Not on the outside—I still wear Little Foot’s clothes more than my own, still pull my sleeves down over my wrists out of habit—but inside? I’m not the girl I was at that motel. I wake up earlier now. Make coffee before he’s even dressed. I help clean up around the clubhouse, learning which shelves the patches like their whiskey on and which knives never get loaned out. I learn to listen more than I speak, and when I do speak, I watch every word.
There are rules here. Unspoken ones.
But I’m learning. Tessie, she’s Drew’s mom helps explain things. She doesn’t say much, but when she does, it matters. She teaches me how to read the room and know when it’s a brother’s only moment so I can exit swiftly without embarrassing Little Foot. She’s also taught me Drew is mine, but Little Foot belongs to the Hellions. To survive as an ol’ lady I need to understand this.