Loving His Broken Luna

Chapter 5

Of all the stupid things she’d heard, that was certainly the topper.

“I’m not dangerous!” Renee seethed.

“Loners aren’t dangerous,” he agreed, “but you’re unpredictable enough to be.”

“How?” Renee couldn’t believe her ears.

Jason drove them through town carefully, among the morning rush. Ice still battered his car. It’s oddly soothing her past their heated argument. Almost enough to drown him out.

“Don’t even try to be innocent with me,” Jason demanded.

Renee shook her head. Their rants always went around in circles. This would be no different. Control? Dominance? Guilt? It didn’t matter what his end desire was. He’d reach it with her silent defeat.

Renee tightened her lip.

“Do you have any idea how much you’ve jeopardized my own life?” Jason continued to blame her.

Her ability to show emotion drained from her body.

“You really don’t have a clue do you?”

Her brow couldn’t even bend in faux response.

“I had a life before you!”

Ringing in her ears began to build. First dull, then blaring.

“I had a way in; a job! Right after high school!”

Renee’s muscles all began to contract, feeling the way this was going.

“And you!” He roared.

Renee nearly flinched, preprogrammed to this behavior.

“You ripped it out of my hands!” Jason snapped, parking abruptly, jerking her attention forward.

They were at school. His usual spot, the furthest from campus.

This time his hand lunged forward, flicking the switch to heat the cabin.

“Don’t,” she yelped, her body shaking.

“Why do you do that?” Jason asked, his voice gruff.

But all she could do was shake her head.

“You aren’t some victim,” he spat. “I’m the fvcking best candidate you could have received! If anyone, I’m the victim!”

Jason cupped the air until he was sure they too were hot. All the while, Renee’s eyes filled with tears. His movements were jerky and unexpected. Not one flowed into the next.

“Hold still,” he commanded as he reached over into her passenger’s side.

Her breaths shuttered out of her at the same rate that her muscles quaked.

“Why do you make me look like I’m such a villain?” he cooed. “Do you shake like this just for me?”

Renee shook her head, unable to make a sound. Bile in her stomach rolled around angrily overtop of its perpetually empty state.

“I think you do,” Jason muttered, amused. “You have no trouble fighting me in public. Out here or on our own, things are different. Care to tell me why, pet?”

Renee shook her head. His new addition; the three letter word burned her deeply. Whatever care came from this creature wasn’t truly for her. It’s why she didn’t trust him in the first place. It’s why she said whatever she could to get away…

“Please don’t,” she shuddered hard this time as he ran his fingers through her damp hair.

His long, hot digits hardly snagged on any knots despite how many she pulled out releasing her messy bun in the first place.

“Stop, please…” Renee asked for Jason to listen.

“Not until you answer my question,” he pulled his finger through to her ends, only to start again.

“I’m scared,” she blurted out on the undertone of a burp.

Jason frowned.

“Not of me,” he scoffed.

“I smell…” she hiccuped, her breath lodged in her throat.

“Uh huh… chlorine does follow you around,” he agreed.

“I can’t…” Renee popped the door handle, then shouldered into it.

The release came all too quickly, dumping Renee out and onto her knees. Slush seeped into her sweatpants automatically, as if it were drawn into the fabric by some magical method.

Her head spun, a hiccup ground her, forcing Renee to hurl her worries into the parking lot.

“Oh my gods,” Jason muttered.

Renee welcomed their distance, ignoring the sight she clearly turned into.

“You have to be kidding me,” he added as he turned off the ignition. “I swear on your life, if you make this about me…” he trailed.

The thought never sprouted in her mind. Simply telling Ms. Zuronz she didn’t feel safe with Jason didn’t help at all. It made things worse. It made it this level of s**t.

Renee spit at the ground, then wiped her face on her sleeve. Her head throbbed and her body felt weaker by the second. She had to eat, Renee thought. If she didn’t, she panicked as she scrambled for her gym bag. If she didn’t, she’d pass out. Passing out meant change… and if it was one thing she hated more than Jason, it was change.

No matter which way her gym bag was tossed Renee knew exactly where her ration bars would be. Sure she’d work on the names and flavors later, but her career’s work over the last four years in Advanced Chemistry hit clinical trials last fall.

It had to be enough to pick her back up.

It had to be enough to make sure she black out.

Renee secretly pulled a pouch, her eyes darted around at the collecting snow around her worried it wouldn’t work. The temperature alone added more queries to her list. Time was of the essence, however, Renee urged herself on.

She lunged down to collect it, warming it in her hand. The ice and snow burned in her hand.

“Don’t you dare throw that at me,” Jason warned. “You don’t want another mark on your record do you?”

Renee grunted in response while other students started filling in around them. Water collected in her hand, finally ready to be released in her pouch.

“Hey!” Jason barked,” slamming his door shut. He quickly approached hers, doing the same.

More caught in his throat as his buddies rolled up.

“Crazy weather,” Renee barely heard one comment.

A chick squealed, “You couldn’t drop me off at the door?”

“What? You don’t think this is romantic?”

“It would be if I was dressed for it.”

Renee didn’t bother looking around for him. He’d find her, he’d find out and he’d make her life worse. It didn’t matter now, she thought as she downed the fist sized loaf of bread science helped her conjure.

The next three packets could be done in stealth, each providing a plant-rich protein that also needed a masking flavor to put away faster, but the effects of consumption made it easier to stay alert, and that’s exactly what she needed.

“Hey sis!” Bruce called from their parent’s car as he was delivered to the side entrance, exactly where Renee was headed in.

“Hey,” Renee faked her enjoyment of his addition.

“Long walk?” he gloated.

“You could say that,” she agreed, taking another bite of her plant jerky.

Bruce’s eyes widened.

“Don’t tell me you got into edibles,” he hollered, loudly.

“Is it your mission in life to try to get me killed?” Renee bit out, feeling more like herself.

“I mean,” Bruce shrugged. “I’m your younger brother.”

“Nowhere in there was an answer.”

“It was, actually,” he claimed as he snatched her plant pattie out of her hand. “This is bad for you,” he mocked her as he took a bite.

“It’s not what you think,” Renee watched in horror as he took her food and ate it too. “You i***t!”

“Oh this is disgusting,” Bruce muffled, distraught. He spit all he could at the ground, scraping his tongue for extra emphasis.

All of that work, destroyed. Her gut doing flips to salvage what might not have been chewed, only to feel the depth of her defeat as people watched her next move.

Was that new?

Or was it in her head?

“Seriously, Nee-Nee. What was that? A spell?” Bruce urged her to answer the question. “Are you playing with magic to spite me?”

“You ate my food, Bruce. It’s a salad bar,” she stopped, noting the name for patenting.

“It tastes like compost. Like literal s**t,” he ramped himself up.

“You eat s**t?” Renee smirked.

She’d pay for that, but at the moment, it felt amazing to land a one-liner.

“You eat s**t!” a group of freshmen who passed them started to chirp.

She could always count on the young, she thought. Except for her sister. Karri was a fine example of how the apple never left the tree. Too much was lost on that one.

Still, her brother threatened what she still had in hand. His huge hands swatted at hers, tossing her supply all over the innards of her bag.

“What is your problem!?” Renee growled, angrier now.

“You let me eat that s**t! Why didn’t you stop me?”

“You wouldn’t have listened anyway!”

Students stopped flowing into school, gathering around them instead.

There was nothing to see but still any reason to chant fight seemed to be up their alley.

“And now my f-“ she saved herself to try to land another hit on Bruce, “s**t is all over the sidewalk.”

Laughter encircled her. The reverse broke free, each one redelivering their remixed line:

“Renee s**t the sidewalk!”

Bruce grinned. The tables had turned and this was very clearly just beginning. His hand dove into his pocket for his phone, his fingers flew around on the touch screen effortlessly.

“Who wants a Nee-Nee inspired s**t-tee?” he laughed, pulling in sales left and right.

“I’m going to end you,” Renee promised.

“My s**t says that too, usually after seafood!” some kid chimed in.

“Why do you have to be such a…” Bruce grinned as he shoved her down.

“Such a what?” Bruce challenged. “Such a pro at this?”

Peers looked on but didn’t stop to help. They made comments about how ruined Renee looked while others aided Bruce’s claims of s**t, only to be blown off.

All the while, her body burned. The stages she’d been through, hurling, the pain she endured through practice and Jason’s bullshit alike sapped her or energy she could barely replenish.

In her mind, Renee could see lashing out. She could see rushing for her brother, tackling him and choking on him with all the food she had left. Her hatred of him spilled over in one underwhelming “go fvck yourself.”

“Break it up,” came Jason’s voice, concretely behind her.

“Mind your own business,” Bruce acknowledged Jason, only slightly.

Jason, however, stood his ground. His arms folded carefully across his chest, while ice turned to heavy clumps of snow.

“Getting involved in family s**t now, Jay?” her brother taunted. “Not good enough for the big leagues?”

Renee could feel the way Jason wanted to stare her down for that. Instead, he challenged Bruce.

“Leave her alone,” Jason demanded. “Clear out,” he told off the rest of the students who stayed for the show.

“Or what?” Bruce pushed. “You gonna teach me a lesson?”

As terrible as the thought passed through her, “Yes, teach him,” ecstatically tumbled through her, pulling Jason’s attention back to her.

“If I have to,” Jason promised.

Renee’s eyes widened.

“No, no… no,” she lunged back at them. “Do not…”