Eleanor & Grey(56)

“Don’t be. What you went through—what you’re going through is one of the hardest things anyone ever has to deal with. And it’s still so fresh, Greyson. Those hurts are still so new. It’s not shocking that you feel completely lost,” I said, reaching out to him. I placed my hand on his forearm, and I felt his body slightly shaking from his nerves. He was so far from okay, and I was almost certain he wouldn’t be all right for a very long time.

“It’s fine, I’m fine,” he lied as he removed my hand from his arm. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I just wanted to say sorry for being so rude toward you. You don’t deserve it, Ellie, not at all.”

He’d called me Ellie, and I didn’t think he’d even noticed the slip of his tongue.

I smiled. “It’s okay, really. I get it.”

“Even though you get it, you don’t deserve it.”

I didn’t know what else to say, and it seemed neither did he.

He turned to walk back into the house then paused for a moment before turning back toward me. “Every single day…I worry about Karla every single day of my life.”





That morning, everything went back to the normal routine, except this time, I personally walked Karla into the school building. She definitely wasn’t thrilled about the idea, that was for sure.

“This is humiliating,” Karla whispered, hunched over, trying her best to make herself disappear.

“Yeah, well, you should’ve thought about this before planning a make-believe trip,” I replied as we stepped through the front doors.

“Yeah, whatever. Can you go now?” she muttered, grumbling under her breath. “This is so uncool, Eleanor.”

I’d never been happier to be labeled as uncool in my life. “No. First we are going to stop by the front office to clear up a few things.”

“Everything has been cleared up,” a voice said, making us both look up to see Greyson walking out of the main office.

“Dad,” Karla groaned, slapping her hand to her forehead. “What are you doing here?”

“Doing my job as a parent,” he commented back to her.

“That’s a first,” Karla sassed.

Harsh, yet perhaps true…

“Everything’s in order. Plus, I signed you up for some extra credit in every class,” he told her, standing tall.

“Extra credit?!” she hissed, her nose flaring wide. “But I did the homework!”

“Yes, you did—after lying for weeks to do God knows what on your own time. You made a choice the moment you forged that paperwork, Karla. Now I’m making a choice to keep you from thinking about ever doing something like this again. Unless…”

“Unless what?” she asked.

“Unless you tell me where you’ve been going every day,” Greyson said.

Karla’s eyes watered over and she shook her head. “This is bullshit!” she shouted.

“Language,” Greyson and I said in union.

I smiled at him.

He didn’t smile back.

It seemed things were back to normal.

“Don’t you have a meeting or some crap to get to? Can’t you just leave me alone?” she asked.

Greyson glanced at his watch and nodded. “As a matter of fact, I do.” Then those eyes looked at me. “Thank you for bringing her to school today, Eleanor. If you could please take her to room 102 for her science class, that would be great.”

Oh, he was really playing up the embarrassing father routine.

“Of course, Mr. East,” I replied.

“It’s Mr. Ea—” He stopped his, realizing I had indeed called him by his last name. “Right, of course. Well, then, goodbye.”

He walked off and I continued walking Karla to her first class, even though she was completely against the idea.

“I hate when he does that,” she complained.

“Does what?”

“Tries to act like my father.”

“He is your father.”

“You’ve been with us for almost two months now—tell me how much parenting you’ve actually seen.”

She wasn’t wrong. Just as I was about to drop her off at her classroom, another student walked up and paused in front of us. I watched Karla tense up as he looked at her.

He was adorable, a cute boy with a curly blond Afro and blue eyes that would make any girl his age melt. “Hey, Karla. Haven’t seen you around lately,” he said. “A few people thought you switched schools.”

She shifted on her heels and wouldn’t make eye contact with him. Her left hand rubbed up and down her right arm. “Yeah.”

“Have you been doing okay?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

Before she could reply, another girl called out to him. “Brian! What are you doing?” I looked up to see a sassy girl wearing more makeup than anyone her age should’ve ever worn, standing there with both hands on her hips.

Brian turned to the girl and shrugged. “Nothing. I just thought I’d say hi. Did you see Karla’s back?”

“Saw it, don’t care,” she muttered. “Now get away from that thing and walk me to class,” she growled.

Every hair on my body stood up as the rude little demon spoke about Karla like that. “What do you mean that thing?!” I started, but Karla quickly tugged on my arm.