Bad Girl., E Z [best books to read .TXT] 📗

soften up. My dad, grandpa and I went out to get food for everyone. But on the way there, the tire shredded. My grandpa always had a spare on hand, because the road was especially rough where he lived. He took me out to help change the wheel, and...I don't know, it was one of the only peaceful times I've ever had. He instructed me with a kind voice, and when I did something right, he would tousle my hair. I felt helpful, and needed. My dad stood behind us smiling at me, like a real father. It may have been a dream...but you know those times where everything gets so soft and peaceful and just feels right? It felt that way, with my grandpa."

The look in his eyes was soft, and they were distant, as if he were staring right through her. 

"What happened? to your grandpa, I mean."

"Dad...changed. You know what he's like now. So did Mom. They cut off ties with anyone who tried to help them - to council them I guess. Our grandparents tried to take us for a while, Jack and Carol and I. That's when they stopped speaking to them. I...haven't seen them in years," His voice was rough, with an edge of thickness. It was painful for him.

She pulled herself close to him, pressing her face to his chest as she gripped his shirt. "I'm sorry," She murmured.

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her to him like a lifeline.

"It's not that I haven't seen them for so long, that's part of it but....why do my parents have to drag us into their sick, twisted lives? Why do we have to be party to their fighting, and screaming? Why do they feel the need to torture us too?" He was venting now, and Libia knew that she had no answer, so she tightened her hold and just let him speak.

"I never wanted this! Why do they think I get drunk? Why do they think I'm such a fucked up child?" She flinched at the word, but never let go or tried to refute his words. "They're insane, and they're dragging us with them!" He held her so tight that she could barely breathe, but she knew that he needed this. 

She encircled her arms around him as best she could, holding onto the back of his shirt as he buried his face in her hair. He wanted to lose himself in her scent. He didn't want to remember any of it. He wanted to forget, if only for a moment.

She lifted her face from his chest after a while of silence, and he pulled back to look at her. Her eyes were soft and worried, and he let out a long sigh before pressing his lips to hers in a brief kiss.

"Hey," He murmured, his voice still slightly rough. "Do you want to dance?"

She raised a brow. "Dance?"

"Yeah," He gestured outside, "Let's dance."

She tilted her head, and then smiled. "I suppose we could."

I would be cold, but she knew that he didn't want to think about it anymore. He wanted to enjoy his time with her.

He flung open the door and got out so she could as well. And as she stood beside him, he sat back in the front seat and switched on the radio, flipping it until he got to a certain song that he liked. He turned it up enough that we could hear it, but not too loud that it was disturbing, and then got out of the car.

Libia was suddenly blushing from her cheeks to her toes, as he backed her out onto the pavement of the wide walkway, and his eyes never left hers. She'd only ever slow danced once, and that was with her cousin at the reunion, when she was fourteen. Damon was not a thirteen year old boy with acne and a goofy smile. He was masculine, and his presence was almost overwhelming. He felt solid and comforting. He towered over her, and she never realized just how much she had to look up when it came to him. She couldn't look away from his eyes, as his hands found her waist, intimately caressing her skin there. She felt nervous as he took her other hand, and she set hers on his shoulder. 

"Damon," She murmured, her voice hesitant as he pulled her close and they began to move.

"Yeah," He whispered, as if afraid to break the peaceful silence.

"Do you think we'll be together for a long time?"

He stared up at the sky as she pressed her cheek to his chest, listening to his heartbeat. He didn't know how to answer. He hoped that she'd be with him for the rest of his life, but would that scare her? He didn't want to make her think about a distant future possibility like that - she'd start thinking about the possible outcomes. One being a broken heart.

So he simply answered, "I hope so."

She squeezed his hand, and smiled against his chest.

"Me too."

Chapter Twenty.

The car slowly slid up to the front of the house. Libia stared at the sun that was still low in the sky, dreading what awaited her arrival. Had they discovered her gone? Would they be waiting? Was she dead?

She looked over at Damon, who was staring over at her already, and then she let out a laugh.

"I stayed out all night."

He let a slow grin overtake his face, and chuckled. "Yes you did."

"I actually sneaked out of the house."

He leaned his head back against the rest with a breathy laugh, "Yep."

"I'm going to die, aren't I?"

"Not if they don't know," He murmured, looking at her from the corner of his eye.

She grinned. "I had fun, Damon."

Laughing, he lifted his head and leaned over the console, grasping her face in his hand and pressing his lips to hers. 

"Me too, Babe."

"Hey, what happened to 'Baby'?" She protested, her voice soft.

"If I called you that now you'd blush and make that face and then I wouldn't be able to let you go." She blushed anyway, and glared at him.

"I do not make a face."

He groaned and pressed his lips to hers once again, "Did I ever tell you that you look really sexy when you're angry?"

With a roll of her eyes she pressed one more kiss to his lips. "I have to go."

With a pout, he fell back in his seat and crossed his arms. "Fine. Leave me. I see how it is."

She stuck her tongue out at him and opened the door. "I love you, you big baby."

He grinned and said, "I love you too, my little rebel."

She stepped out of the car, and then before shutting the door, shot him one more smile, but this time it was sort of an excited nervousness. She almost wanted to get back in the car with him and take a more permanent road trip.

"Bye, Babe," He murmured, his eyes softening.

"Bye, Damon," She said, and then she shut the door softly as not to alert anyone inside the house.

He waited in the car until she reached the porch, and then slowly drove off. This time, she was too nervous to turn and see him off. She got the door open, and peered in, wondering if someone would be there to 'welcome' her, as they always did.

But no one was there. She began to feel excited - had she really accomplished this? Had she really, successfully sneaked out of the house and back in again unnoticed?

She tip toed into the kitchen, hand over her mouth so she didn't squeal in excitement. She was just about to go into the hallway when a voice made her jump out of her skin.

"Did you have fun?"

She let out a yelp and whirled. She had been so delirious with excitement that she hadn't noticed someone sitting at the far corner of the table, slightly hidden in darkness. It was her brother.

"Ben," She said, eyes wide.

"You know, last night," He began, voice low and angry.

"Ben, please just let me-,"

"I thought that maybe I could trust him," He continued despite her plea. "I thought that, even though he seemed a little rebellious, I just didn't know him too well. But after taking off with you, and leaving for the entire night...I think I was right about him," Ben's voice was getting angrier and angrier with each sentence he spat out, and Libia tried again to speak,

"Ben, please listen to me-,"

"I think I was on point!" Suddenly his hand slammed down on the table, cutting Libia off and making her jump in fright. 

"Ben, if you'd just-,"

"What's going on here?" They both looked up as their mom entered the kitchen, looking tired from her night shift as she hurried to tie her robe. She'd obviously just been woken up.

"It's nothing Mom, just-,"

"Libia just came home from her little rendezvous with Damon."

She blinked as she tried to comprihend what her son just said in her tired daze. "What? What are you talking about, Ben?"

"I'm telling you that Libia sneaked out last night and stayed out until now, with Damon."

She blinked again, but this time swung her gaze to a mortified Libia. She didn't want this to happen. She was embarrassed and afraid of what her mother was going to say to her. How many times before had her mother voiced something she dissaproved Libia doing, and how many times had Libia ceased all participation because of it? Anxiety wavered the determination in her heart. Would she leave Damon if told to? Would he let her?

"Libia...is that true?" Their mother's eyes became sharper as she began to wake up, and Libia knew she was in for it.

But as tears welled in her eyes, she was suddenly furious. Furious at her brother, and for some reason, at her mother. Her hands bawled into fists, and she looked away, saying nothing.

"And, the night that she went out with that guy - Jason or whatever - she came home on a motorcycle. Damon's motorcycle."

Libia lifted her gaze to her brother's, who stared back at her with a leveled, and serious gaze. I'm doing this for you. This gaze said. The betrayal and utter disbelieving anger she felt as she stared at him was overwhelming.

For me? Her mind screamed at him. You're doing this for me? What part of this makes me happy? What part of this helps me in any way? 

"I...I was unnaware that Damon...owned a motorcycle," Libia flitted her stare back to her mother with her lip trembling as she tried to hold in the tears that she refused to let go. She turned her stare back to the ground. "And you...snuck out with him last night," She was oddly calm about this, but Libia knew that wasn't a good sign.

"Did you...do anything?"

Libia whipped her head up, frowning. "No!"

"Then what did you do, Libia?" Ben spat, clearly not believing her.

"Believe me or not," She said in a slow, calculated voice, "I don't think everyone in the world has to have sex to have fun, Ben."

He stood up at that, angry, and her mother clapped her hands together once. "Libia, that is enough."

She sealed her lips, and the room fell in a tense silence, before their mother spoke.

"You're grounded. No cellphone, no computer, and no television. The only