Unbroken

There was a magazine in the folder, and on the front was a woman scantily dressed.

Leo’s cheeks burned—from anger, from confusion, from he didn’t know what. He flipped the pages, his breath held in his lungs as he grasped the fact that his mother had personally delivered to him a magazine of naked women. What was she hoping for right now? That he’d stare at the women and suddenly lose all interest in Skye? Was her opinion of him that little?

“She thinks I’m an idiot,” he muttered, and now he felt insulted. Did she—honestly, what in God’s name—did she think he was so insipid, so dim-witted enough to be swayed by pages of tits and pussy?

Maybe a boy his age might have been, he considered. Maybe this was a decent ploy, a well thought out strategy. Throw some “diverse” women his way, until he was lusting after big tits and little waists and whatever cheap thrills these magazines offered.

And, sure, he felt attracted to the images. He could settle on a page and appreciate the female body—

But he didn’t find himselfexcitedfor it. Which was insane, it was weird, it went against—shit, it went against a boy’s nature, didn’t it? Shouldn’t he feel something more than just a mild warmth in the pit of him?

So, the moral of this fucked up situation was perhaps he wasn’t normal.

He continued through the magazine, his lack of desire palpable despite that warmth in the pit of him. What was wrong with him? He felt this was unnatural. He felt that he should want to explore more of this, but he didn’t.

What had Skye done to him?

Because the second he thought of her, that mild warmth turned into a blazing inferno.

This was her fault.

In the end, he threw the magazine into the drawer of his bedside table and returned to his book. And—ugh, fuck, he wondered what Skye might think of him if she knew he had flicked through that garbage in the first place.

*

It took only a few days for Loraine to realize the magazine had not gained her the response she had sought. So on and on she went, this time more demanding than before, and still Leo said, “No.”

His father suddenly blew it one evening, his face marred with stress lines and tension. He’d been in and out of the house a lot lately, busy minding the business which was suddenly under a lot of pressure. Something about a sudden biker presence in Brown Bay that he was unhappy about.

“Oh, would you quit it already!” he’d hollered, and it was the first time Leo had ever seen his father truly lose his shit at Loraine. “If he wants to go to that public fucking school, let him!”

Loraine was gobsmacked, face red with anger. “I hope you’re not serious, George.”

“I’m serious,” he retorted, staring right into her eyes. “I’ve had it with your dramatics. You’re carrying on like a banshee.”

“He needs to go to Kentwood—”

“He can go wherever the fuck he wants, Loraine. There is nothing wrong with having that boy exposed to that system. I’d rather he harden the fuck up around those rancid kids than around those preppy little cunts at that private school you keep frothing about.”

“You would allow that?”

“I would.”

“Well, I won’t!” she growled out, leaning forward, her light eyes drilled on him. “I need your support on this—”

“I’m not supporting it—”

“Like fuck you’re not!”

George had truly lost it. Was even standing up from the dining table, staring down at his wife, spitting saliva as he roared. “You’re so obsessed with what everyone is seeing, you’ve forgotten where you come from. You’re nothing but a gutter rat I took in from the streets and dolled up. I gave up a lot just to have you, and I did it because I wanted someone that was nothing like those snotty bitches! But you’re exactly like them, and I’m putting my fucking foot down because you seem to think you have more of a final say than me. Need I remind you that I’m the one in charge, that I get to have the final say—”

Loraine shrieked haughtily, “I’ll fucking leave you if you think for one second that you get the final say—”

“You arrogant fucking bitch, you know I do!”

“You don’t control me—”

“I fucking do, and you’re not going anywhere—”