Page 90 of Fireworks

“Wow, I see Katie has been working on her face painting skills. Nice work.”

My Uncle Landon came over, giving me a side hug and kissing me on the cheek.

“Thanks. I’ve decided if college doesn’t work out for me, I can always use this as a fall back, right?”

He laughed, but I could tell he was about to get serious with me.

“Yes, Katie girl, brilliant plan. Although I’m sure you won’t need a fallback. How have you been?”

Putting the finishing touches on Serena’s whiskers, I gave her a head nod to let her know she was done and should go off to play with her friends. Facing my uncle, my face contorted.

“Uh oh, I don’t like that look. Let’s go over here.”

He motioned toward the empty gazebo on the edge of the property. Stepping inside, we both sat on the bench lining the inside of the wooden structure. It was a wedding gift he had built for Becca. My uncle would have given her the moon if she asked for it. They were like a real-life fairytale.

“So what’s going on? Everything okay with Brandon?”

Absent-mindedly, I drew my lower lip in biting down, afraid to speak. My hands twisted the locket that Nate had given me between my fingers, trailing it along the chain, back and forth. I had been wearing the locket religiously since Nate had given it to me.

“Well, I didn’t know how to tell you this. Or anyone, but I broke up with Brandon a while ago. He wasn’t who I thought he was.”

His posture shifted as he listened to what I had to say without interjecting until he knew I was done.

“At first, things were great. I mean, you met him, but then he started drinking. He never touched me, but he got violent around me. You taught me better, and I knew I needed to end things.”

I took a deep breath in dreading having to continue this story, but I had promised Nate I would tell him what happened. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I swallowed down the lump that was lodged in my throat.

“Yesterday there was a party on campus, and he was there. He dragged me into his room and was screaming at me. He tried to…”

Unable to say it aloud what he planned to do, I cut myself off.

“I kicked him, just like you taught me, and got myself out of there. My roommate texted me later that he got into a fight and got arrested for assault. I don’t know what to do. There’s still a chance I can run into him on campus, and I don’t know if next time he’ll be worse.”

He pulled me into his arms, holding me close. Not a word passing between us. After a minute, he shifted back, looking me in the eye.

“I assume your parents don’t know about any of this?”

I shook my head no. There was no way I could ever tell them anything like this. They would immediately overreact.

“Asher?”

My eyes strayed down before coming back up.

“Asher doesn’t. Do you remember his friend Nate? He let me stay at his place last night so that I didn’t have to stay on campus alone. Please don’t tell Asher, though he will just overreact if he knew.”

Pushing my hair off my shoulder, he brought me in for another hug.

“Katie, you know your secrets are safe with me. I won’t say anything to anyone if you don’t want me to. I will make sure that he never comes near you again though, you got that?”

I smiled, wrapping my arms around him again. It was like I was a little girl again, leaning on him to solve my problems. Before my accident I could remember how close I was with him. Having him torn out of my life was hard to handle. I was so thankful that I had him back in my life.

“We better get back before the family wonders why we’re having such a long private conversation. You know your mom will want to know what it is.”

Agreeing we walked back toward the party. It felt like a giant weight lifted off me. Pulling my phone out of my back pocket, I noticed I had a missed call and two texts.

Ryder: packing party tonight? I got the snacks already.

I smiled, typing back a thumbs up emoji. By the middle of next week, we had to leave the dorms. We had it all planned out that we would pack while binging our favorite shows and eating as much junk food as we could tolerate. We had grown so close over the school year, and I felt like she was the sister I never had. I found it hard to believe she would have said anything to Paul like Brandon had said.