Step Scandal - Part 3 Read Free Page B

sound.”
    The bone-chilling look she gave me was the kind I knew I’d never forget as long as I lived. I knew she and Big Nash were having problems, but it was nothing new. They fought like cats and dogs since the day they met. The constant screaming and yelling in our trailer was normal. It was the way we lived. Big Nash was a drunk with a temper, and when he was done beating on her, he’d always come looking for Gray.
    Though Gray was just a kid of fifteen, he was already taller than his daddy. He was going to be a behemoth someday, and I just hoped one day he’d get to clock Big Nash so hard it’d send him sailing across the room. Maybe then Big Nash would never touch him again.
    My mother’s long nails dug into the flesh of my arm as she led me towards the creaky screen door. Two packed bags rested against the wall. She hoisted one over her bony shoulder and shoved the other into my arms.
    I turned around, scanning the dark living room and trying to take a mental snapshot. We weren’t coming back, that much I knew. I inhaled the scent of the place I’d called home since I was seven years old. Stale cigarettes. Cheap, cinnamon candle. Dirty carpet.
    Snoring in the broken armchair in the corner was Big Nash, passed out drunk. I glanced back at my mother who studied him for a second, as if she were wondering just how passed out he was. He’d been known to come flying out of a dead sleep and start wailing on whoever was in his vicinity before. Mom called them his night terrors. They always seemed to happen the most when he was drinking Jack Daniels. She took a deep breath and opened the screen door with a painfully slow-motioned push, and then she nodded towards our old Buick that was sitting at the end of the driveway.
    Orange glow peeked over the horizon and mixed with lavender clouds. I’d never seen such a pretty sky before. I turned to look at our little blue trailer with the leaky tin roof one last time, my eyes landing on the window to the bedroom I shared with the boys who were my stepbrothers, my family , for as long as I could remember.
    “Everly! Get in the car!” my mother yelled, though her voice was still very much a whisper.
    I threw my backpack over the back of the seat and shut the door. She popped the shifter into neutral and pushed the rusting Buick to the end of the street. She was a skinny little thing, but no one ever accused Tammy-Dawn Conners of being weak.
    Only slightly breathless, she climbed in and started the car up. The muffler popped, startling us both, and my mother’s hands flew to her chest like she was about to have a heart attack. Her eyes darted to the rearview, as if she were making sure Big Nash wasn’t coming after us.
    I stayed quiet, taking everything in. The night before, Gray had tucked me in with a promise that he’d take me to the municipal pool on Saturday. Had I known it would be the last time we’d be around each other, I’d have done something special for him. He was always thinking of us, and it occurred to me in that moment, as we drove far away from Bolton, Nevada, that no one ever thought about Gray.
    My breath caught in my chest, and I stifled the sobs that tried to force their way past my lips as I mourned the loss of my big brother. My protector. My angel. The only person who ever truly looked out for me.
    “Everly, stop crying,” my mom huffed as her bony hands gripped the wheel. “We Conners girls are tough. We don’t cry. We do what we have to do and we get the fuck over it.”
    “I-I just wanted to say goodbye to my brothers,” I sniffled, wiping my eyes on the back of my hand.
    She scrunched her face. “They weren’t even really your brothers.”
    I faced the window to my right, unable to look at her as if that was supposed to make me feel better.
    “I was never married to Big Nash, you know that,” she said. She pulled down the visor as she drove, checking out the remnants of a shiner on her left eye. Big Nash had socked her in the face