When To Let Go by J.M. Sevilla Read Free Book Online

his other hand, they switched to sitting cross-legged.
    Tears slipped down Violet's cheeks as she remained focused on her task.
    “I'm sorry,” he murmured, wiping them away.
    Violet didn't know how to respond, so she didn't.
    “I had a friend at my last foster home,” he explained, swallowing. “He was really more of a brother. I didn't know I was getting adopted so I never got to say goodbye. I tried calling him a couple weeks after but he was gone from the place we shared. Nobody would tell me where he went. I couldn't find him, Violet,” he choked on the last sentence. “He and Ava are the only family I ever knew, and he's out there. Alone. Without us. He has issues and I'm afraid of what others will do to him when they find out. He's not the type to fight back, he just takes it.”
    Parker paused, seeming lost in the way Violet wrapped his knuckles.
    Violet didn't speak, hoping he would keep going. That seemed to always work when her mom was comforting her father.
    “I kept trying to find him, but I couldn’t,” Parker revealed, almost as an apology. “That woman works with my old social worker. She promised she'd get me the information. In return she needed a few things from me. I never would have let her touch me otherwise, Violet.” His head fell back into his hands, mumbling into them, “I never would have touched her.”
    Violet remained quiet, chewing on her lips and trying to figure out a way to help him. She was in this now. She had to help him find his friend. It was obviously causing him a lot of pain and she didn't want him having to do whatever he did for that woman again, because she wasn't too young to know what it was, and it was wrong. Very wrong.
    “Why couldn’t your old foster home tell you were he went?” She asked.
    “Oh, they could,” Parker replied with bitterness. “But they're a bunch of dicks who won't say, only because they can.”
    Violet frowned, “Well, that's not very nice.”
    She was happy to see Parker grin, “It's not very nice is it?”
    She shook her head, “Nope.”
    His grin got wider and it helped Violet relax.
    “What happened to him?”
    “He got caught stealing car parts and landed in juvie. I'm worried about him, Vi,” he stared off at a space behind her. “He won't have a window to open at night. He needs windows to be open. What if his room is really small?”
    Violet didn't understand why these things mattered, but she didn't ask.
    “I can't even go and check in on him.”
    “How come?”
    “I have no money for a bus ticket to get me there. It's over a day’s travel.”
    “I bet your moms would take you,” she suggested. They were cool like that.
    “Maybe, but then Ava would want to see him too. There is no way I can take her. What if he's not okay? She wouldn't be able to handle it.”
    Ava was sensitive. Seeing another person get a paper cut hurt her just as bad. Plus, Violet knew Wes would insist on going too. He considered himself Ava's personal protector and never left her side. Wesley sometimes called her “his.” Violet thought that was weird, and Maggie didn't like that very much either. She said Ava was her best friend. Their mom got mad at them when they fought over her.
    “I have money,” Violet offered. She'd been saving her money ever since she got her baby, knowing it would cost a lot to fix.
    “No way.”
    “Why not?”
    “It feels wrong to take your money.”
    “I'm not giving it to you, silly. It's a loan.”
    His clear blue eyes that were normally hard, softened, “You would do that?”
    At that moment Violet knew she would do anything for Parker. Of course, she wasn't stupid enough to tell him that. She just nodded her head yes.
    Before either of them knew it was happening, Parker leaned over and kissed her. It wasn't the kind of peck she gave her mom or dad. This one lasted longer and put butterflies in her tummy.
    Her eyes remained closed even after their lips parted. She always thought it was gross when she saw