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"You’re my whole world."
It sounded so strange, in such an older voice. Corey could murmur that phrase probably before he was old enough to know what it meant, completely. But it always sounded truthful, reverent. And no matter how shocked Trina was to hear it after so long, she new he meant it.
She looked away from her phone to look at him, lying next to her on her bedroom floor. His broken arm, hidden away in a cast, rested on his stomach. It was the reason she was letting him stay at all, letting him look at her like that, his eyes all shiny and wide.
She smiled, soft, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t seem to expect her to. He cut his eyes down awkwardly after a moment.
"Thanks again." He touched his cast, scratching at the surface.
She didn’t answer that, either. How was she supposed to? Sure? You’re welcome? Any time? She’d broken his arm because he’d asked her to. She let him come to her with shallow breaths and teary eyes, managing to choke out a weird chorus of “please”es. She heard “break something it feels wrong” more than a few times, enough to be sure that she was hearing correctly. And she did it. It was weirdly easy, and he hugged her afterwards, as best he could. She let him, because she wasn’t entirely sure what she had just done, or why.
The first time he’d done this, she punched him in the face. He was grabbing at her with his grubby little hands and blubbering about how he couldn’t do this gig, so she punched him, hard enough to knock him over.
He laid still on the floor, gears clearly turning in his head.
She kneeled down next to him. “You can’t sing if your jaw is messed up.” And then she punched him, actually aiming for his jaw this time. She punched him a third time, but the fourth he moved away, rolling onto his stomach. He stayed still for a moment, then clutched at his face and whined.
"That okay?" Trina was genuinely curious. She didn’t even question the words coming out of her own mouth. He nodded against the floor, and she found herself smiling, all warm. "You want me to tell them I shoved you over and accidentally broke your jaw?" It kind of scared her how easily the excuse came to her, and how Corey rolled back to face her and smiled, nodding like he was three and she’d just suggested they go get ice cream.
She leaned down and kissed his cheek, and he didn’t seem surprised at all.
So when Corey said, “Thanks again,” she smiled. She put her phone down and sat up, leaning over to kiss his cheek.
She pulled away, expecting a little smile that managed to not annoy her and then for Corey to go back to staring at the ceiling. Instead, he’s turned his head toward her, his eyes somewhat concentrated on her lips and his face slightly scrunched up. She searched him for any kind of expectant expression, and found none, so she smiled, leaned down again and kissed him on his lips.
He reacted a little better than the first couple times. Before, he would get very still and keep his eyes wide open, like if he moved or took his eyes off of Trina she would get spooked and run off. Maybe she would’ve. Trina wasn’t entirely sure. And it wasn’t like the time he had kissed her on his own, blood streaming out of her nose and him biting like he wanted to rip her lips off. She’d scratched him hard enough to leave scars and told him he opened his mouth too wide afterwards.
This time, though, his eyelids slid down and he tilted his head to accommodate Trina’s slightly awkward angle. She didn’t feel much when she put her hands around the sides of his head and kept kissing him, even when it reminded her too much of the time she’d kept smacking his head against the concrete and didn’t stop until Dad pried her off of him. She lifted his head, almost by reflex, but ended up just deepening the kiss. When she let go of him, he did smack back down a little, but it was just against the carpet. Some part of her wanted to hear that sick crack of his head against concrete again, but she wasn’t entirely sure how to make it happen.
She shoved his broken arm over to his side and moved up to straddle his stomach. She felt safe here, especially with Corey’s arm out of commission. He couldn’t grab at her so much but he could shove her away if he wanted to.
She had to scoot down to reach Corey’s lips again, and the little whiny noise he made when she moved her hips was nice. He was blushing a little, and he put his non-casted hand on her stomach in a ridiculously innocent way. She leaned down to kiss him again, then brushed her lips against his neck. Trina moved back to his lips, but he suddenly flinched. His entire face had changed, something cold and uncomfortable. She felt his entire body tense under her, and jumped up as fast as she could. His hand ended up clutching at her shirt, and he had this awkward moment where he was both trying to hit her with his broken arm and let go of her. He ended up letting go without striking her at all. She knew from experience that when Corey needed her to stop touching him, she had to stop. He’d hit and scratch and scream even if she waited a second. He could handle it better with the ankle-biters who hung around him, but he’d always been that way with Trina and their dad.
She gave him space for a while, surprised he hadn’t dodged out of her room the second he could. He was just kind of hugging himself and breathing, not even concerned with her presence.
“Corey! You home?”
Corey somehow tensed up even more, freezing and screwing his eyes shut. Trina marched to the door that led out to the garage and screamed for whoever was there to go away. Luckily it was just Kon, one of the better listeners in Corey’s group of friends. If it had been that Penny girl there might have been more of a struggle.
When she got back to Corey, he was back to his position when they were just lying on the floor together. He’d gotten her phone and placed it a few inches away from him. He was kind of smiling and staring at the ceiling.
“You’re my whole world, too.” It was weird to say with Nick staring at her from every angle, but she kind of forgot Nick even existed, for just a moment. The words felt familiar to say. She had taught them to Corey, after all.
She wanted to kiss him again. It seemed like the right thing to do. But he flinched when she sat down, well within the parameters he’d set with his placement of her phone. She tilted her head. “Can I sign your cast?”
He actually paused for a moment, but then nodded. She got up and dug around for a marker, and he sat up and held his arm out. This felt strangely wrong, much more wrong than breaking his arm or kissing him or leaving hickies all over his neck or him punching her in the face and giving her a bloody nose. But she signed her name, drawing a heart around it for good measure.
The uneasy feeling didn’t leave her, even when she picked up her phone and started texting Mina about Nick’s new toothpaste. Corey was left to stare at the signature curiously, turning his arm back and forth like he needed to view Trina’s tiny name and heart within the whole scope of his otherwise blank cast.