I have no way to reach out to my new clients and tell them I can’t tutor them anymore. Somehow, that brings me more pain than almost anything else about this situation. I was proud of myself. I had a plan laid out. I was going to do this for myself, earn a little independence. There was something I was good at, and people appreciated me for it.

Shouldn’t I have known it would be short-lived? Every good thing in my life seems to be. The clicking of the lock leaves me bracing myself. What’s it going to be this time?

It’s only Colt, holding a plate with a sandwich on it. “I figured you would be hungry. You never did have breakfast.”

“You care about that all of a sudden?”

“Yeah—and I don’t have to.” He leaves the plate on the desk, but I’ll be damned if I take a bite.

“You must really think I’m stupid,” I mutter, eyeing the food.

“What’s that mean?”

“I mean, what’s it going to do to me this time? Knock me out? Again?”

He seems to get the message, but that doesn’t change anything. “Whatever. Eat it or don’t.” He lifts his shoulder and turns away like he’s about to leave.

I can’t let him do it. I have to at least try. “You know, I had a tutoring session scheduled for fifteen minutes from now. I really hate to miss it. Please, I can’t lose everything here, you know?”

“Seems to me that isn’t my problem.”

“Please, Colt. It really means a lot to me.” My words fall on deaf ears since he leaves the room without a backward glance. I’m barely able to stifle a whimper as tears fall onto my cheeks. How can they be like this? What happens to a person to make them this way? I never did a damn thing to deserve this—nobody deserves this. I don’t care who they are.

It’s not another few minutes before the door opens again. He’s back.

And he’s holding a laptop. “Here. My internet still works. Can you do your work from my computer?”

“Yes! Thank you.” It’s kind of gross, thanking him after everything he’s done to me, but I can’t afford pride right now.

“Of course, I’m not going to leave you alone. I’ll be here the whole time, so don’t get any ideas.” The sad part is I hadn’t even thought about that yet. I’m sure I would have eventually, but I’m too busy relieved that I can keep my promise.

“Okay, whatever. Just, you know, don’t interrupt.”