Sadie

I walked into the house close to midnight.

I’d stayed with Trevor and he brought me to the studio so I could dance and clear my head. After that, I’d worked out since I hadn’t in a week. It felt good to blow off some steam, and the last thing I wanted to do was go to my parents’ house and have to see the two people who made me give Tate away.

They were the reason he hated me.

They were the reason for everything.

It wasn’t my fault. I was a minor. I was confused and scared. I thought I was doing what was right because it was what I was told to do.

I walked into the house, trying to be quiet so I didn’t wake anyone. I set my purse and keys down on the counter and jumped when I heard a cup slam down on the kitchen table.

That’s when I noticed Mom was sitting there.

“I have been worried sick, Sadie!” She stood. “Where have you been? We’ve been waiting to hear how the visit went.”

“I wasn’t ready to talk about it,” I said quietly. I couldn’t look at her. Right then, the sight of her made me sick.

“Not ready to talk about it?” she scoffed.

Hot tears fell down my cheeks. “No, Mom, not ready to talk about it,” I said through clenched teeth.

“Well, too bad because you’re going to have to at some point! We are his grandparents and your mother!”

I was at my breaking point. I glared at Mom, my eyes full of fire. “You’re nothing to him! You gave him up, not me! This is all of your fault! You selfish woman, you took him from me! You plagued me with years of guilt, you are the cause of me pushing away the only man I will ever love!” I was crying so hard and screaming at her I wasn’t sure if anything I was saying made sense. “You took my baby away from me!” I screamed again. “He hates me! My son hates me!”

I felt arms wrap around me and knew it was Dad by how much he towered over me.

“Breathe, baby girl,” he said calmly as he held me. He was the only thing keeping me standing. If he hadn’t come in, I would have crumbled to pieces on the floor.

“He hates me, Daddy,” I cried softly against his chest.

“Shhh, stop trying to talk. Just breathe and cry it out. It’s going to be okay. It’s all going to get better with time.”

“You weren’t there, Daddy. He told me to get out of the room. He looked at me like I was nothing.”

Dad didn’t say anything as I talked and cried. He sat down on the floor with me and held me in his arms, leaning against the oven.

I WOKE UP in my bed, vaguely remembering Dad carrying me in the night before. My throat was sore and my eyes were puffy. When I rolled over to grab my phone from the nightstand, I stopped. There was a vase full of fresh white daisies and a cute little brown teddy bear in a pink tutu.

I stretched and sat up. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and leaned forward to dig through the flowers to see if there was a card. Nothing.

I yawned and picked up my phone. I scrolled through all the messages from friends back home and replied to a few. I then took a picture of the bear and flowers and sent it to Dane.

Me: Do I have you to thank for brightening my morning?

He’s the only one who had ever bought me daisies.

Dane: I thought you could use something to make you smile. Don’t give up, Sadie.

Me: I’m not. I’ll never give up. I’m just kind of…broken right now.

Dane: I understand that feeling. The good thing about being broken is you can be fixed.

I smiled.

Me: What are you doing today?

Dane: Ummm…I don’t want to tell you. You’ll call me a stubborn ass and be mad.

Me: You’re working.

Dane: :)

Me: Well, I could really use your company later. You should take me on a date. You know, since you still need to tell me in person that you think I’m a stupid fucking idiot and need to work on shit with you.

Dane: You could always come and actually help me. And I’d like that but I have classes tonight. It would have to be after that if we wait until tonight. Of course we could do lunch.

Me: I will come help after I go talk to Jason about a job. And I know they told me I didn’t need the classes, but maybe I could go with you.

Dane: Sounds like a plan.

Me: I love you.

And that’s how I rolled. Since he dropped some crazy shit in a text, I dropped some crazy shit in a text. Bam. Take that, Dane Shaw.

Dane: I love you, too. Always have. Always will.

Me: Oh yeah? Well, I love you past the moon and stars, around Jupiter and Saturn, bigger than life itself. SO THERE!

Dane: Lol. See ya soon

I laughed and felt like some tension had been lifted off my shoulders. I grabbed clothes from my closet and headed down the hall to take a shower.