They always looked the same, like kids who’d raided their fathers’ closets. In baggy dress pants and shirts.
They’d tell their stories in a shaky way, filled with fear. Like little boys describing the monster they had seen under their beds.
For a long time, that’s what James saw as he presented their one mistake before the jury.
That was before he saw the bruised face of the girl he’d kissed on the forehead each night as he tucked her into bed.
He clutched her sleeping fingers. Watching the nurse tuck her in, he saw the true capability of a boy.
“Boys will be boys.”
“If he pulls your hair, it means he likes you.”
Heartbreaking and vivid.
Love this, in a dark macabre way. It’s always the way, people don’t realize the depths of the issue until it happens in their own life.