Read Online Labeled Love by Danielle Rocco - Free Book Online Page B

letter.
     
    Shay,
    I always have the best time with you. You’re my most favorite person in the whole world. I don’t really care what we do. I just love spending time with you. I think about you when we’re apart, which is pretty much all the time. I just want you to know… You’re everything to me. When we’re apart, I want you to know I can’t wait to see your pretty face again. I just want you to know how I feel.
    Jace
     
    I fold it in half and draw a big heart on it with her name in the center and the date. Then I set it inside my backpack.
    While trying to fall asleep, I hear the front door open. I don’t pay much attention until I hear loud voices. I sit up in bed, but it gets quiet, so I lie back down. Within a minute, the loud voices are back, accompanied by a loud crash. I jump up and run out of my room. When I get to the cause of the noise, I freeze. It’s my mom and a guy. I’ve never seen him before, but he looks wasted. I look over at my mom, and she doesn’t look much better.
    “What are you doing?” I ask her.
    With a drunken slur, she commands, “Go to bed, Jace.”
    “Who is he?” I question, looking over at the guy who can barely stand up.
    “None of your business. I said go to bed,” she spits out.
    “It is my business,” I say sternly. “He’s in my house, and I don’t know who he is. I want him out of here, Mom.”
    She laughs bitterly at me. “You can’t tell me what to do, Jace.” As soon as she says that, the guy actually has the nerve to talk to me.
    “Listen to your mom, kid. Beat it.”
    Now I’m pissed. I’m so tired of the way she lives. I’m tired of her lack of love, her lack of respect, her lack of attention, and I’m tired of her fucked-up ways. I’m just sick of her.
    “I said to leave!” I yell.
    What happens next shouldn’t surprise me, but it does. The guy walks up to me. He’s around my height, and the closer he gets to me, the more I see. He’s a lot younger than my mom. He looks like a total druggie—someone she probably picked up at the bar where she spends most of her days either working or drinking. Scratch the working part; I’m sure her time there is spent getting drunk.
    He smells like both pot and booze. I want to step away from him so I don’t have to smell him, but I don’t want him to think he’s punking me. So, I stand tall, looking him right in the eyes.
    “I’m not leaving unless your mom says. Now, go to fucking bed, kid.”
    “No. Get the fuck out of my house!” He steps forward, invading my space. He’s close enough to see I’m not a young kid. Hell, I’m taller than he is. “Do I look like a fucking kid to you?” I say low and slow so the dumb ass can understand me.
    “Jace!” my mom yells. I look over at her, and as soon as I do, the guy blindsides me. It happens so fast I don’t see it coming. Right as I turn back to him, he cold cocks me. I stumble back.
    “You motherfucker,” I say, wrestling him to the dirty floor that my mom hasn’t vacuumed in a damn year. I go off on him and hit him over and over again until he spits blood. “Don’t. Ever. Come. Here. Again!” With my mom on my back, I get up, almost throwing her to the floor with the force of her pulling at me. I stand over him. He’s not getting up easy. Serves him right. I look at my mom and tell her, “Get him out, and don’t bring druggies here again. What’s wrong with you? Don’t you have any respect for yourself?”
    She looks at me wildly and huffs, like I ruined her damn night. As the guy gets up, I stare at him. He doesn’t even look at my mom. He just walks out the door. I go over and lock it. When I turn back to her, she’s gone, and I hear her bedroom door slam. I walk straight to the bathroom to check my eye. It’s already swollen and starting to bruise.
    That asshole.
    Great! Just fucking great. How the hell am I going to explain this to Shay?
     

     
    MY BLACK EYE is visible. I did everything I could to make the swelling go