Maybe This Is Love, |✔️

Chapter 26

The car rumbles on in silence as Parker drives. There's a knot in my stomach that I just can't get rid of. Parker hasn't spoken since we got back into the car and we've been driving for at least 20 minutes.

There have been so many times where I had wanted to open my mouth and say something. Where are we going? What are we doing? But I just couldn't. The upset in his eyes when his father had spoken to him in such a horrible way broke my heart. I didn't understand how there could be so many cruel people out there in the world.

Parker grunts and stops the car, abruptly. He opens his door and gets out without saying a single word to me.

He walks about 9 steps into the distance, raises his arms above his head and screams at the top of his lungs.

I quickly unloosen my seatbelt and rush out of the car towards him. He doesn't stop screaming until I wrap my arms around him, pulling him into an embrace.

"It hurts, I know." I comfort him. He's crying now, sobbing into my neck. I could feel his stomach tensing every time he let out another howl. He finally accepts the hug and embraces me back. "It will get better. I promise. I should know. I would know."

We're two sides of the same coin, Parker and I.

I know this feeling all too well. The point where you scream and scream until even your ears are numb to the sound of your own voice. The point where you feel so abandoned and alone, you feel like you're doing the world a favour by not speaking anymore.

"Me and you, we're the same you know." He turns and looks at me. His eyes are fire red but his face was suddenly straight and unreadable. "Your dad is dead and I wish mine was." He laughs a sick kind of laugh where his mouth smiles but his eyes don't.

I blink at him. I know I didn't just hear those words come out of his mouth. "Parker, what the fuck?"

"No, you're right. A bad choice of words." He retracts without a hint of an apologetic tone in his voice. His whole body is tense with anger and his hands are balled into a fist so tight, I can see the veins popping out of his skin.

"Why are you being like this?" My eye twitches as I let go of him and stand with my hands straight by my side. They're trembling. This wasn't how the day was supposed to go. We were meant to be happy.

I knew why he was being like this. People say harmful things when they were upset. I just never thought Parker would be one of those people.

"Oh, come off it, Harls." He spits. He looks like a completely different person right now. His eyes are glassy and his lips are all curled up like a man on a rampage. "Why am I being like this? You saw what was going on in there. Playing happy families looking like a fucking Tesco ad while he forgets all about his real kids! Not even a card or a measly text all...these...years. He forgot about me. He forgot about us, Harley."

"How could he forget?" Tears are streaming down his face and the rough exterior was starting to break down again. "Zach did say I was going to ruin you, just like I ruined Crescent. He was right. I've driven you out to the middle of bloody nowhere away from your family on Christmas fucking day!"

"I wanted to." I say, in a small voice. I don't want to believe what I'm hearing right now. I want to turn around and cover my ears like I used to do whenever Papa would get into his rages and Silas wasn't around to protect me. I feel like a kid again, caught in the misfire of someone I loves misplaced anger.