Page 5 of Don't Love Me

There were times when he was even nice to me, before he forgot he wasn’t supposed to like me.

So I didn’t want him to leave. I didn’t want him to go back with his mom and forget that he’d ever lived here.

It was selfish, but I didn’t want to be alone again. Even a grumpy Marc was better than no Marc at all.

I heard the rumble of the SUV and stood. George had barely brought the car to a stop when Marc jumped out and slammed the passenger door closed. He stormed by me and growled as he did.

“Do. Not. Follow. Me.”

I whipped around prepared to do exactly that. I knew what was happening. This was angry Marc and I was always really good at calming him down.

Then I felt George’s hand on my shoulder stopping me.

“Let him go, Peanut.”

“But—”

“No,” he cut me off. “He needs time to work it out of his system and I don’t want you around when that happens. He’ll only hurt you, and then later regret he did it.”

“What happened?”

“His mom wasn’t there,” George said, his eyes sad.

“What do you mean? Did she forget he was supposed to be visiting today?”

He shook his head. “No. She left the halfway house a few days ago. No one has seen her since.”

I understood. Maybe too much for my age, but I knew what that meant. She wasn’t allowed to leave the halfway house. She had to stay there while she got a job and stayed clean, so she could prove to the court she could be Marc’s mom again.

Instead she ran away.

I was sad for Marc. I was. But also, I was a little happy inside. Because I knew what this really meant.

Marc was going to stay with us forever.