ALL THINGS PRETTY PART TWO by M. Leighton Read Free Book Online Page A

to become of
my brother.   “He has only ever done
what I’ve asked him to do. He can’t be held responsible for any of this.   They all took advantage of him. We all took advantage of him.   I knew he’d go along with my plan. I
knew he’d do whatever I asked of him, as long as it would keep us safe and
together.   He’d have done anything
not to go back to juvie .   Not after what those boys did to him.”
    I wail so hysterically that I start to gag, so I push away
from the table and lay my chest flat against my thighs.   Oh God, how could things have gone so
wrong?   How can we be here?   Here, where nothing is within my control anymore?   Here, where Travis is at the mercy of people who don’t understand him?   Here where he stands only to get hurt?   How?
    “Please, please, please, Sig,” I plead, tears dripping off
my nose in a steady stream that splatters onto the concrete squares of the
floor.   “Please look out for him. If
you ever cared about me at all ,
please loo–”
    My words are cut off when strong hands wrap around my upper
arms and jerk me to my feet.   I’m
nose to nose with an angry, blurry Sig, my toes barely touching the
ground.  
    “I won’t let anything happen to either of you!   Don’t you dare give up! This isn’t
over.   I promised that you could
trust me, and you can. You might not believe me, but it’s true.”  
    I blink away the tears, the fingers of hysteria slowly
loosening their grip, and I focus on the handsome, determined face of my
betrayer.   I laugh, a bitter, arid
sound that comes from a soul as dry as desert sand.   “I did believe you.   And look where it
got me.”
    Sig shakes me.   Not
too hard, but enough to rattle my teeth.   “Stop it!   Just because I
didn’t plan it this way doesn’t mean that I’ll let it end here.   If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll get
you out of here and you’ll be with Travis.”
    “Why?” I ask miserably. “Why would you risk a damn thing for
us?   For me?”
    “Because.”
    “Because why?”
    “Because I think I’m falling in love with you, dammit!   I won’t leave you in here to rot.”
    Don’t listen, don’t
listen, don’t listen!   I caution myself, but the tiny,
nearly-suffocated part of me that has always wanted so desperately to hear
those words, to feel that love, clings to his claim as though it were a single
drop of rain after a lifetime of draught.  
    “No.”   I close my
eyes against him, against weakness, shaking my head.   “No. I don’t believe you.”
    “Then I’ll make you see,” he hisses.   “You won’t have any other choice than to
believe me.   Because
it’s true, Tommi.   Everything
I’ve said to you about us is
true.   I don’t blame you for not
believing me, but it doesn’t make it any less true.   That’s why I’m going to prove it to
you.   I promise.”
    The last is said with such sincerity, such heart-wrenching
determination that I open my eyes.   In so many ways, I want to see it,
to feel it, to believe it. I want for
him to prove it.   More than I ever
thought I could want something.
      “You can’t be
falling in love with me.   Love is
pretty, not ugly.   And I’m ugly,” I
tell him brokenly, the fight drained out of me, left lying on the floor with my
puddle of tears.
    “You’re wrong.   Sometimes
love is ugly . And not all things
pretty are loveable.   But you…you’re
not just pretty. You’re beautiful. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Inside and out.   You did all this for your brother.   Since you were nothing more than a kid yourself, you’ve fought for him
with whatever weapons you had.   That
makes you worthy of the best kind of love. The kind that’s
unconditional.   The kind that
never leaves you, no matter how hard you push back. The kind
that finds a way, against all odds.   You deserve that.   Actually,
you deserve more than that.   You deserve more than I can give
you, better than me.