Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas

my name.
“Clay,” she says. “Come here.”
I look inside, seeing her press buttons on the treadmill and come to a stop.
I remain at the door.
“Come here,” she says again.
I shift on my feet, seeing the red rings around her eyes, telling me that she
probably cried more than slept last night.
“Just cut me a break, will you?” she says, stepping off the machine.
“Come here for a minute?”
She doesn’t snap. She just sounds…tired. I glance down the hall, Liv’s
waiting for me, but I walk into the room.
She sits down on an exercise ball, breathing hard. “I’m sorry about last
night,” she tells me. “I know we were loud, and I’m sorry. I just….” She
stops, thinking. “I’m just sorry.”
Water bottles sit on the glass table next to me, along with some towels
and a prescription bottle.
“I’m almost happy you’re going off to North Carolina soon,” she says.
“Your dad and I will fix this. I promise.”
She can’t promise that. She’s saying that so I’ll concentrate on my senior
year and being young and all that.
I look over at her, seeing the sixteen-year-old from the picture at Mimi’s
house yesterday. She had no idea then that this was where she’d end up. She
thought she knew everything, probably.
North Carolina is hundreds of miles from where Liv will be. Hundreds.
“Maybe you should go away,” I tell her, my voice soft. “Take Dad and
just get away for a while.”
We lost Henry, but for some reason, I don’t want to lose everything else.
Even if it’s broken, it’s all I know.
“You should leave and take him,” I whisper. “Get out of this town,
somewhere where you both can see something new, away from distractions.”
Her head falls, and I see a tear spill.
“I abandoned him,” she finally says, shocking me. “He’s right. I couldn’t
think about anything else other than my pain, and I couldn’t muster a care for
my daughter or my husband.”
I listen, having wanted to see her façade crack for so long, but I’m not
sure I like it now that it is.
“He’s going to leave me, Clay,” she says matter-of-factly. “And part of