Ice (Regulators MC 1)

The last year hasn’t been easy, but she has made it through. After her attendance was beyond recovery, she dropped out of high school. Although I offered to let her finish online in a homeschool program, she refused.

I feel the prick of tears, yet manage to hold them back. Madyson does not like it when someone looks at her in pity, and she really does not like it when I cry. Her new attitude is that of a survivor. The past is the past, and all she wants to do is look forward to her future.

“You know I’m proud of you, right, Mady?”

“Yes, Morgan, you tell me all the damn time,” she huffs in mock exasperation.

“Not many girls could do what you did. After everything, you went back to school, knowing people were talking. You held your head high and focused on your studies. A lot of women would’ve tucked their tail between their legs and stayed home, never venturing out of their house again. Mady, I can’t say I could do what you’ve done.”

I wipe the tears that finally leak from my eyes as I stare at my sister in awe of her courage and strength to endure and overcome. She is the strongest person I have ever met, though still so young. I thank God every day that He gave me the chance to have her in my life after her ordeal.

We have grown very close in the past year, learning how family is supposed to love instead of acting how our parents raised us.

She rushes over to me, dropping the bag, and wraps her arms tightly around my body. We both cry together for a few moments until she pulls away to look up at me.

“I wouldn’t have survived without you, Morgan. My strength comes from you. No one else would’ve stuck by my side, yet you never left me. Today is as much about you as it is me. When I walk across that stage, I take every step knowing you are stepping with me. Every day I wake up, I wake up knowing you wake up for me. You took care of me when our parents wouldn’t, loved me when they wouldn’t. You lost your job because you wouldn’t give up on finding me. You did all this for me; so today, I get that diploma for us both. Without you, I would’ve died. There were days, while I was going through withdrawals that I wanted to die. The only thing that kept me going was the squeeze of your hand around my own to remind me that I wasn’t alone.”

Sniffling, I try to compose myself. “Remember when we were little? When Mallory would get on our nerves, we would say ‘It’s you and me against the world’ and run away from her?” She nods her head against me, squeezing me tightly. “It’s always you and me against the world, Mady. Only now, we will say it’s us against the world and take Mallory with us.” I smile sweetly at her, knowing that Mallory will soon be with us.

Madyson going back to school gave them daily opportunities to talk. I couldn’t take on Mallory with Madyson still recovering; however, now that she is rock solid, thanks to the help of an amazing therapist Coal found, we are planning to have Mallory move in over the summer. Mom and Dad are losing their house to foreclosure, anyway. Mal says Mom is threatening divorce.

It won’t be easy taking on another teenager, but it will be worth it to have my other sister with us.

Madyson reaches up and wipes my tears away as she smiles back at me. “Let’s go,” she whispers happily.

We pack my car with everything she needs before driving over to Ice’s house. By the time we get there, I see Ice’s eye twitching as he opens the front door. I can hear Brooke in the background, yelling about something.

Reaching out with both hands, he grabs each of us around our wrists then pulls us into the house. After slamming the door, he looks at Madyson and barks, “Love my baby girl, but honest to God, if you don’t go back there and calm her shit down, I’m going to duct tape her mouth shut.”

Madyson bites her bottom lip in an effort not to giggle and nods her head at him before scurrying to the back of the house.

When she disappears out of sight, Ice looks back to me, takes one look at my smiling face, and growls. “This shit ain’t funny. And, if I catch you laughing at me, I’m gonna make you regret it.”

Propping my hands on my hips, I egg him on. “Yeah? How you gonna do that, big boy?”

“By cutting you down from gettin’ my dick three times a day to once a week. Then we’ll see who’s laughin’.” The gleam in his eyes tells me he is dead serious about that threat.