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B ANG. BANG. BANG. I’m startled awake by the loud noise that shakes through my body.

When my eyes open, I see that I’m still on the floor, propped up against the door, with the girl my brother was in love with curled up against me.

I take a few short seconds to appreciate how perfect she looks, and when that banging starts again, I carefully untangle her arms from my body and stand up.

“Corey!” she gasps, her eyes shooting open like she’s scared, and when she looks up and sees me hovering over her, she bites her bottom lip awkwardly. “We must of, ummm…I was so tired. Yesterday was?—.”

“Millie, are you in there?” An angry voice calls out from the other side of the door, and it makes her big, green eyes stretch even wider.

“Shit, that’s my dad,” she whispers, scurrying to stand up and fidgeting with her hands nervously.

“And?” I stare back at her.

“And…I was supposed to go straight home from the club yesterday. He’s gonna be so mad.” Her hand shakes as she places it over her forehead and looks around the room helplessly. “Make him go away,” she pleads with me.

“How the fuck am I supposed to do that?” I whisper-yell back at her.

“I don’t know. The way you do everything else…

Be intimidating. Just tell him I’m not here.

” She offers me an embarrassed smile, darting off to Corey’s room and shutting the door behind her.

It leaves me to deal with her angry, very loud father, so I slap my cheeks a few times to wake myself up before opening the door.

I don’t know why Frank Dawson looks so shocked when I answer the door, this is my fuckin’ house he’s knockin’. I follow his eye line when it drops down to the boxers I’m wearing and realize what's got him so intimidated.

“What d’ya expect when you drag a man outta bed first thing in the mornin’?” I frown at him. Trying to ignore the fact that my morning wood was probably on full display to his daughter, too.

“I know this isn’t a good time, but I’m looking for Millie. She’s your brot–I mean, she was?—”

“Relax, she’s here.” I put the guy outta his misery and open the door wider, leading him toward Corey's room where Millie’s hiding. A woman, who I assume is his wife, rushes down the path, stepping through the door and looking unimpressed by her surroundings as she follows him in.

“Millie? Where is she? What did you do to her?” she calls out dramatically, and I cock my brow at her hysteria before opening the door to reveal their daughter sitting on Corey’s bed.

“I knew you’d rat me out.” Millie shakes her head as if she’s disappointed in me.

“Darling, you're okay.” Her mother runs toward her. “We’ve been worried out of our minds.” Grabbing her face in her hands, she searches her over as if she’s expecting her to be hurt.

“I’m fine, I just needed some space.” Millie remains blank as her mother wraps her up in her arms.

“I’ve been talking to Wanda, and she’s going to get you an appointment with her therapist. We’ll get you through this.”

“I don’t need a therapist, Mom.” Millie keeps her eyes fixed on mine, trying to make me feel guilty. It ain’t gonna work.

“We’ll talk about that when we get you home. Come on, darling, you don’t belong here.” Her mother urges her to stand up, leading her toward the door, and I hate the helpless look Millie gives me as she passes me.

I hate how comforting it felt having her in my arms when I woke up, and suddenly, I hate that they’re here to take her away from me.

I need to rid myself of any thoughts like that, immediately.

“I’m sorry about your brother.” Her dad clears his throat as I watch Millie get ushered out the door and down the path.

“He was a good kid.” He taps my shoulder before following his wife and daughter, and I wait until he’s closed the door before I unleash all my rage.

I swipe up the lamp from the side table, ripping it from the socket when I launch it at the door.

I slam my boot into the coffee table, sliding it across the room before I lift it up and toss that too.

Then, taking a chair from the kitchen, I slam it against the basin, over and over until the wood splits and it falls apart in my hands.

I march into Corey’s room and rip the posters from his wall.

I sweep everything off the top of his dresser onto the floor before crashing onto his bed and screaming into his pillow.

There’s a pain rooted inside me now. A hollowness that I know is gonna keep on growing, and when it all starts to get too much and I feel like I won’t catch my next breath, I smell a trace of her on his pillow, and somehow it makes that breath come just a little easier.