Broken — Offer B

BROKEN 2: BROKEN, NOT SHATTERED

I thought leaving for college would be the hardest thing I'd ever do. Saying goodbye to my sisters, knowing they're stuck with our alcoholic mother while I get to escape. But that guilt was nothing compared to what happened thirty seconds before I drove away.

She slapped Tayla across the face.

My baby sister knocked the cigarette out of Mom's hand just to mess with her, and Mom responded by slapping her so hard the sound echoed off the houses. Before I knew what I was doing, I had my mother pinned against her car, my hands on her shoulders, rage flooding every cell in my body.

"Do it," Mom grinned up at me like a madwoman, too drunk to be scared. "Hit me. Do the only thing you're good at."

Tayla and Gemma screamed at me to stop, pulling at my arms, but they couldn't budge me. I'm twice Mom's size and three times as strong. I could

really fucking hurt her if I wanted to.

Right now, I really wanted to.

But it was the fear in my sisters' eyes that pulled me back. Not Mom's face—my sisters'. Because I don't ever want them to look at me the way they look at her. Like I'm someone to be afraid of. Like I'm something broken that can't be fixed.

So I let go. Stepped back. Swallowed every violent thing inside me.

"Knew you were too chickenshit to actually do anything," Mom muttered, trying to sound tough while shaking like a Chihuahua.

Now I'm driving to college with my knuckles white on the steering wheel and Lily's name lit up on my phone with twelve unanswered texts, and all I can think is: What kind of man drives away while his sisters are still in that house? What kind of man picks his future over their safety?

Maybe the kind who's more like his mother than he'll ever admit.

But there's a list in my pocket—a stupid, hopeful, beautiful list Lily and I wrote on top of a water tower—and the last thing on it says: *Still be deeply in love at the end of freshman year.* I'm holding onto that like it's the only thing keeping me human.

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