Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
I should’ve moved then. Maybe. But there was a line in this place. Women here needed room to parent their kids without every asshole with muscles stepping in like they knew best. We were security, not replacement fathers. I’d learned that quick because I had that big brother complex. So I stayed where I was and watched the whole room like I was supposed to.
Billy spun in a circle. Wandered two steps away. Came back. Leaned on his mother’s shoulder. Asked for a snack. Got told no. Asked if studying was almost over. Got told yes, even though it clearly wasn’t. He dragged his fingers down her sleeve again and made that high, thin whine kids made sometimes. Kind of like a puppy dog.
Tanya’s jaw went hard. That was the first warning. The second was Jade going still. She sensed the explosion same as I did and did her best to escape notice. Sweat beaded on her forehead and upper lip. I could see the faint shine against her skin from the doorway. She kept her neutral expression, but her body language told a whole different story.
Billy yanked at Tanya again. Her textbook slid off the table and hit the floor with a slap loud enough to crack across the room. Tanya snapped before the book stopped moving. “For fuck’s sake, Billy. Can’t you just sit still for five Goddamn minutes?”
The whole room stilled.
Tanya looked shocked at herself the second the words left her mouth. The boy froze, lower lip pushing out. Mia paused in front of the whiteboard, marker still in hand. The other woman at Jade’s table stared down at her workbook like she’d rather be anywhere else.
Jade didn’t move. Her fingers had gone white where she gripped the workbook in her hand. Her chest rose shallow and fast under her shirt. A fine sheen of sweat now showed along her collarbone. She kept her gaze down and stayed perfectly still.
I set my coffee down on a shelf and moved. Screw not interfering. If I helped Jade fight off a panic attack, Knuckles could take me to task later and I’d accept whatever punishment I had to.
The rec closet sat ten feet down the hall. Donated sports shit lived in there in a rolling bin because somebody thought children needed enrichment and not just survival. They were right. I grabbed the first two decent baseball mitts I found and a scuffed ball from the bottom of the bin.
By the time I hit the classroom doorway, Tanya was already crouching with her son in her arms. She cried and apologized over and over. Billy patted her shoulder and told her it was OK even as he cried right with her.
“Hey, kid.” I tossed the ball up in the air and caught it while I spoke. When he wiped his nose on his sleeve and turned around, I tossed the mitt underhand toward him. He caught it against his chest more by luck than skill. His eyes went wide.
“You ever played catch?” I asked.
He looked at the mitt, then at me. “No.”
“Good. Means you got no bad habits.” I lifted the baseball. “How about we go run off some of that energy.”
A couple of the kids near Mia stirred, looking at us longingly. Even Tanya let out a breath that sounded half like shame and half like relief. Billy looked at his mother. Tanya looked wrecked and grateful all at once. “It’s OK if you want to go play. It’s what you should be doing anyway, honey.”
I nodded at her. “Come out back to the courtyard when you’re done studying. I’ve got this.”
She opened her mouth like maybe she meant to protest on principle, then shut it and just nodded. “Thank you.”
I didn’t wait around to make it bigger than it was. “C’mon.”
As we left the room, I looked back once. Mia had already turned to redirect the rest of the children with minimal effort. The woman really did have the whole teacher vibe down to a science.
Jade had loosened one hand from the workbook. Barely. Her breathing still looked off. She kept her eyes down, but I caught the little swallow in her throat and the strain around her mouth. She was holding herself together by the skin of her teeth. I knew it had everything to do with the small confrontation. If that bastard, Eric, ever got near this place she’d never have to worry about him again. I’d end the son of a bitch.
Outside in the courtyard, I tossed the ball to Billy. He missed it, of course, but I just laughed and encouraged him to follow me a little farther away from the windows. Kids plus baseballs plus windows nearby always equaled broken windows.
I showed him how to throw. Teaching him to catch took more effort, but Billy threw himself into the game, so to speak. After a few throws, the boy forgot to be sulky. After a few more, he forgot his mother had snapped at him. That was the thing with kids. Sometimes they could pivot so fast it made your head spin. Adults held onto their damage whether they wanted to or not. Kids still had the ability to see past the hurt. To a point.