Ugly girl

I stand up on shaky legs and wrap my towel around myself, pissed off that I didn’t think to bring clothes with me. The last thing I want is to walk down the hall nude, but I have no choice.

I run.

Slamming the door behind me, I dive into my room and instantly start throwing clothes around. I dress in sweats and an old hoodie of Blake’s that he grew out of two years ago. That kid is growing into a beast. I need to stop feeding him.

I throw clothes in a bag and tie my hair up into a messy bun. I put my sneakers on and rush out the door, more than prepared to leave this life behind. I don’t care if I have to leave all of my possessions behind. I have nothing valuable to lose, only the memory of my parents and no one can touch that.

I rush into Blake’s room, throwing the light on as I go. His hand flies over his face and he groans in irritation. “Sky, what are you doing? Get the hell out of here. I’m trying to sleep.”

I ignore every damn word and beeline for his closet, jumping up as I try to reach the bag at the top. “Come on, we have to be quick. Get up and help.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Why are you packing my clothes?”

“I’m serious, Blake. We’re leaving. We have to get out of here. It’s not good here.”

“Sky,” he demands, sitting up in bed. “Would you calm down? Why are you freaking out so bad?”

“Blake. Please. Just help me, okay. We need to go.”

Blake trudges out of bed and crosses the room. He pulls the bag out of my hands and throws it to the floor. “What’s going on?” he questions, searching my face and surely seeing the red marks across my skin. “Who did this to you? Marcus? Lucien?”

“Please don’t make me talk about it,” I beg. “I just have to get out of here. Are you with me or not?”

“Sky,” he sighs. “Why don’t you just go to bed and think on it? If you still want to go in the morning, then we’ll talk.”

“Blake, I’m not fucking around. I’m leaving right fucking now,” I tell him as tears begin filling my eyes. “Are you with me or not?”

His brows drop in concern and he instantly draws me into his warm, loving arms. “What happened? Did he touch you?”

My face smooshes into his chest and I try my hardest to pull myself together. “Please, Blake. Let’s just go.”

“I’ve got friends here, Sky. I’ve got a chance of getting into the best basketball program in the world. I’ll be in the NBA. Please, I want to stay. I know things are shit here and Maria and Lucien aren’t exactly the best parents, but they’re good to me. I promise, I’ll protect you but please, let’s just stay?”

I shake my head into Blake’s chest and the tears begin streaming, realizing that this could be the last time I see my little brother but there’s no way in hell I’m staying here. “I’m sorry, Blake. I can’t. I can’t stay here one more second.”

“Sky.”

I shake my head and pull my arms from around his waist. I place my hands at his shoulders and push up onto my tippy toes so I can kiss his cheek. “I’m sorry. I’ve got a car waiting outside.”

I step back and fight the sob that threatens to tear up my throat. I turn on my heel and start for the door, making sure to grab my bag that sits in the doorway. I stop and look back at the other half of my heart and if he’s really going to stay behind, then he needs to know the people he’s choosing over me. “After mom and dad…” I start, struggling to talk past the lump in my throat. “We were in that dark room for a week. You remember that, right?”

“Bits and pieces,” he says. “I was only three. Why’s this important now?”

“Because we weren’t adopted, Blake. We were sold to the highest bidder and Lucien Valentine was the lucky wi

“Sky, wait…”

“Bye, Blake. Don’t ever forget how much I love you. Anything you need, you know you can always call me.”

He looks completely broken. Our whole lives I’ve gone out of my way to make sure Blake has the world at his feet, but this time, I need to put myself first. I need to run.

I go to pull the door closed behind me when his voice rumbles through the quiet room. “Wait. I’ll come. I can’t have you out there by yourself.”

I look back at him with wide eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Where you go, I go. We’ll sort it out.”

“I promise you, whatever you want in life, I’m going to make it happen. If you want the NBA then I swear to you, I’m going to bust my ass to make that happen. We don’t need this place; we just need each other.”

“I know,” he tells me, indicating to his closet. “Come on. Let’s get this done.”

We start going through his things, tossing clothes into bags and he goes as far as to pack a second bag of things in case I missed anything in my rush. He grabs one of the many basketballs lying around his room, his Air Jordan’s he’d gotten for his sixteenth birthday, and his signed Laker’s jersey. Me? There’s absolutely nothing here that I could possibly want to hold onto.

We go to leave when Blake stops and doubles back to his bed. He gets down on his hands and knees and pulls a silver safe out from under his bed.

I watch in shock. I didn’t know he had a safe.

He puts in a code and the door opens revealing cash, gold watches, and a lone pocketknife.

My eyes water as I take in the knife Blake had stolen when he went to our old home in Haven Falls. We could never really be sure if it was our father’s as the house was cleared out years ago, but his initials are etched into the wood and despite the fact that I don’t believe in coincidences, I’ve been holding onto this one pretty tight. I can’t believe I was going to leave without it.

Blake stuffs his pockets with the cash and the watches before passing the knife to me. “Here, I think you need this more than I do.”

I take the knife greedily, wishing I’d had this an hour ago and swear that I’ll never be without it again. What happened tonight will never happen to me again. I look up at Blake. “Where’d you get all that cash?”

“Lucien would gift it to me every time I’d win a game. I guess it’s supposed to be his way of showing support.”

Fuck me. We come from exactly the same womb, same parents, same fucked up experiences and here we are living such different lives. Blake really does have it good here and I’m about to take him away from it all.

I look up at him, meeting his devastated gaze. “I’m sorry.”

Blake steps into me and pulls me into another hug. “You don’t need to be sorry. Let’s just get out of here and figure out what our next step is. We’re going to be alright, Sky. You and me against the world.”

With that, we walk out the door and don’t dare look back.