Reclaim - Aly Martinez Page 0,25

all the reasons why it would be beneficial for me to stay. None of those reasons mentioned Nora. I didn’t figure confessing that my first, only, and best friend was an eleven-year-old girl was going to win me any points with him.

Without any other way to convince them, I’d accepted defeat, asked my mom for a double serving of banana pudding, and then browbeat her into letting me stay out past curfew. She had a million questions about what I was doing and where I was going. I lied, telling her I needed to turn in the last of my worms and clean up all the stuff I’d left behind at the creek.

Based on her squinted glare, she didn’t totally believe me, but as she wrapped two spoons in two napkins and set them on top of the plastic container filled to the brim with banana pudding, she gave me all the permission I needed.

“Thanks, Mom.”

She smiled and shot me a wink. “Now, go on. Get out of here before your dad sees you leave.”

She did not have to tell me twice. After taking the container and spoons, I darted past her to the door, slowing only long enough to sling on my backpack.

It sucked knowing this would be the last time I saw Nora for a while, but I had five hours and the excitement of finally seeing her face when she tasted my mom’s banana pudding in my future before I had to deal with any of the hard stuff.

“Camden, where you running off to grinning like that?” Grandma called as I ran past her and my aunt, who were sipping coffee on the front porch.

“Wor—” That was all I got out before I went sailing through the air.

Now, I was well aware that I was not the most coordinated person in the world, but there was always a reason when I fell. A tree stump, a sidewalk, a dip in the grass. Something. As I landed face-first, the banana pudding smashed against my chest, pain exploding at my knees and hands, I had not one single clue how I’d gotten there.

Until I heard their laughter. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Any time our families got together, the mocking laughter of my cousins was something of the soundtrack of my life.

“Come on, Johnny!” my aunt yelled from the porch. “He has enough trouble running without you tripping him. Help him up.”

My cousin continued to laugh, but he extended a hand down to me, muttering, “Pussy.”

Stunned, I sat up, spitting out grass, and looked at my hands. A mixture of crushed vanilla wafers and blood covered my palms, and acorns fell to the ground as they dislodged from my bloody knees.

And the banana pudding I’d promised to bring Nora lay in an inedible pile of mush on the grass.

It was all I could take. No, it was more than I could take.

It started as a burning ball of flame ricocheting in my chest, each strike searing me at the core, until I felt like I was on fire. My body began to vibrate like an angry hornet’s nest, years of torment and frustration warring for a way out.

I was tired.

Tired of all the snide comments.

Tired of the never-ending judgment.

Exhausted of being the punchline to every joke my entire family had ever thought to tell.

And now this? This…asshole had tripped me and ruined not only my dessert, but Mom’s famous banana pudding I’d promised Nora—my Nora. The girl I had to leave for a whole damn year, not knowing if she was eating or if her dad was putting his hands on her again. All because life wasn’t fair and my parents thought it was better for me to go to a school that made me miserable instead of staying with her and having even one single drop of happiness.

“Jesus, Camden. Get the hell up and quit embarrassing me,” Dad rumbled from somewhere nearby.

And that was it. A match thrown into a can of gasoline.

I exploded off the ground. “Fuck you!” I roared at Johnny, charging toward him. His eyes flashed wide just before my fist landed on his chin.

He fell like a tree in the forest. The thud of his body hitting the ground was the most satisfying sound I’d ever heard. I followed him down, swinging, cussing, and screaming incoherently.

Dad was on me in the next second, hooking me around the hips and lifting me off my cousin with ease, but it only made my blinding anger turn