For3ver Read Free Page A

beans!" He snapped at her. 
    The tears were in her eyes; she was always crying, and I'm not saying she didn't have reasons to, but I hated it and there was nothing I could do. I learned that after the belt incident. 
      "Liam, where's that little girl today?" He looked around the table like Ryley sat down to dinner with us nightly or something. 
      "She's home," I growled. 
      "Maybe I'll visit her there then." He smirked and I jerked to look at my mom who was grinning at her cell phone, probably oblivious to us even being in the same room. 
    Grabbing my plate, I was getting out of there. I was gonna tell Ryley we had to run away; she couldn't be anywhere around Rod. While I carried my plate to the sink, he tripped me. My plate shattered and the sound of breaking glass made me snap. I jumped at him and began wailing away.
      "I'll kill you!" I kept screaming while hitting him over and over.
    He was so drunk it took him a few minutes to fight me off. He tossed me across the kitchen and Gage quickly grabbed me, yanking me to our bedroom, slamming the door and locking it. Grandma came in our room and told us stories about Grandpa; she did this when she was sad or thought we were. We could hear my mom and Rod screaming back and forth and I wondered about Megan, but I knew if I went out there, Rod would have killed me. 
    Rod was rapping at the bedroom door a while later and when grandma opened it, she told him to leave us alone. 
      "You little punk," he seethed, pointing at me. "You'll pay for this." He pointed to his swollen cheek and red eye. 
      "Get out of here, Rod!" Gage growled, slamming the door in his face. 
    Gage fell asleep first, but I couldn't find sleep because the look on Ryley's face from earlier that day kept taunting my brain. Not only was I heartbroken, but I was scared because Rod was going to make me pay and he always meant it when he said it. 
      "Macy!" I whispered as loudly as I could without waking my mom asleep on the couch. "Here, girl. Macy!" I whistled softly, but she didn't come. 
    My eyes shot around the living room, there was no sign of Rod so I rushed to the back door. 
      "Macy!" I called out into the dark yard. 
      "Who you lookin' for?" Rod's voice came from the darkness. 
      "Macy!" I called for her again, ignoring him. 
      "She's dead." He walked toward me; the lights from inside the house illuminated his bloody hands. "Coyote." He chuckled and pushed past me, rubbing his bloody hands together. 
    I booked it out the back door toward her doghouse, calling her name while I sprinted. The image of her laying next to her doghouse appeared, but she wasn't responding to my calls. As I got closer, her golden fur was stained red and I knew he wasn't lying. He stabbed our dog seven times. I hadn't cried so hard in my life and when I could pull myself from the still warm mass of my long time pet, I stumbled my way to Ryley's window. 
    She shoved the window open and immediately started yanking me inside. Bloody and in tears, I was in such shock I couldn't think straight. She didn't even ask me what happened. It was like it didn't matter what I did, she'd always be there, and she pulled me into one of those hugs that told me this was the girl that would never hurt me. We sat on her floor and I cried into her neck while she held me, eventually slipping her bracelet off my wrist and putting it back on hers. 
      "I'm sorry," I cried at her and I meant for breaking up with her. 
      "It's okay, Liam," she softly told me, not letting go. "We'll always be best friends. Forever and always, right?"
    All I could do was nod, praying that was the truth. 
    That next day grandma kicked my mom and Rod out again and I didn't have to convince Ryley to run away with me. Part of me didn't want them to move out because that meant Megan had to go too and though I didn't know her well, she was still my sister and I knew she wasn't safe with him. I told people about our dog, Gage told people,