A Thousand Words | ✓

Chapter Thirty Six: A Thousand Hurtful Things Said and Done

this chapter practically flowed out of me even if it was hurting my heart to do so :( dedicated to hannah for being a lovely support and for making the cute banner on the side! happy belated valentine's day! ignore weird mistakes and typos, enjoy the chapter xx

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Chapter Thirty Six: A Thousand Hurtful Things Said and Done

 

In the days that followed, I became pretty distant from the world. It wasn’t normal for me to dwell so much on something, and everyone knew how much I was doing that after I realized that my dad wasn’t in jail anymore. He wasn’t rotting in a cell like I thought he was – no. Apparently, he’s building his life back up. Sober. Clean.

 

I caved into reading just one letter, which was the one I ripped into pieces and found sitting on my desk, badly taped back together. My suspicions went to Chris.

 

The casual tone that he wrote in made me wonder what else he wrote in the past letters. It’s like he’s been doing this for a while and that telling me one of his coworkers has become a newly father was a normal occurrence to report back to the son you neglected for half his life and haven’t seen in the other half.

 

I mean, I’m pretty sure he has been writing for a while. I stole the box back the other night and eyed the amount inside the shoe box made for riding boots. There were a couple dozen letters in there.

 

I breathed out a sigh as I approached the ladder leading to Jessica’s back door. I’ve been kinda distant with her, too. Having been enveloped by thoughts and curious urges has drove me insane and being without her for so long, especially since I was gone a short while before I started keeping my distance, has been pushing the limit. She tried to contact me after I snapped at her for being a part of Rebecca and Mark’s plan, but I was still on edge from that night’s conversation. When I told her I needed time on my own to think, she let me.

 

But damn, I really missed her.

 

Lifting my knuckle to the rusty door, I knocked. Remembering that she could be somewhere with the kids, I took my phone out to call her, then paused as I heard the familiar scrape of the wardrobe being moved aside.

 

My heart palpated in my chest when I saw her, wearing the same exact hoodie from our adventure around New York, and I dropped the box of letters to reach for her.

 

“Reece,” she murmured, wrapping her arms tightly around me as I pulled her into my arms and lifted her off the floor.

 

“Hey, sunshine,” I said, sighing quietly. I’m a fucking mad man for depriving myself of this comfort. “I missed you.”

 

Jessica pulled away and let her eyes roam around me. “You okay? Kyle said you left during your free period for the last couple days, so I got worried.”

 

“Yeah, no, I’m fine. I just didn’t want to stick around. People have been pissing me off.”