Free Love Hurts by Holly Hood

your sister? You said you had a sister once,” Delaney said. This was one person she had yet to meet along with his parents.
     
    “ Ellie. She’s the baby in the family. She really looked up to Frankie and I. The last I heard Ellie was in Europe. She’s a very stubborn girl. She takes after our father in a lot of ways, which is probably why she is all the way on the other side of the world. She doesn’t like to take any advice.”
     
    Delaney wondered how it would feel to be so far away from her family. She was close to everyone in her family. And she could never imagine not talking to them.
     
    “ How did you handle your parents? You always fail to mention that.” She twisted her entire body to face him. These were the moments she loved the most, when she could feel his breath against her face. When they simply stared into each other’s eyes and talked.
     
    “ My father and I never saw eye to eye. So I wasn’t to upset when we stopped talking to each other. I never felt like he understood me. He just wanted what he wanted from me and wasn’t willing to take anything less. My mother is a very compassionate person, who gives a lot of second chances to the ones she loves. But when you treat her badly she has a limit and she shuts you out.” This pained Sam to verbalize. He had wronged her and feared she had given up on him. This was the reason he had stayed away for so long. Shame was a hard thing to move past.
     
    Sam’s mother was a strong person. A lot stronger than anyone could imagine. But she also had a lot of emotions. He couldn’t begin to relate to her and her feelings for his father. Or her feelings for the other son that completely despised her to the point he wanted to kill her—and even tried.
     
    On occasions her image would plague his memory. Her dazzling smiles of what seemed like a million pearly white teeth, her soft graceful ways. And her light blue eyes that were exactly like his. She had a quiet way about her, and a voice that haunted his memory. She tried to understand everyone no matter who they were. No matter how horrible a person was she tried to understand them.
     
    “ Don’t you ever leave me,” Sam said out of the blue, squeezing Delaney tight, “no matter what I do. Just promise me you won’t ever leave me.”
     
    Delaney kissed his cheek, stroking his rough cheek with her fingertips. She didn’t speak.
     

What is love?
     

     
    Soft clinks of glass echoed around the bar. Dark and uninviting, it was Frankie’s paradise. As well as laughter, shouting and many forms of gaiety. Frankie nursed his beer, listening to the dialogue taking place next to him between two young girls. Any other time he wouldn’t have noticed. But tonight it seemed something was bothering him. Sam was bothering him.
     
    Frankie set his beer down on the bar and turned in his seat. “Excuse me. I’ve been sitting here for quite some time now listening to you two talk about Reggie and how much of an asshole he is to your friend.” The two girl’s expression was amusing to him. It was a cross between uncertainty and amusement. Frankie knew it was because of his looks that he wasn’t given the cold shoulder right off the bat.
     
    “ Well that’s because Reggie is an asshole,” The brunette said, licking her lips and staring Frankie down now. She planted her cheek on her fist giving him a bit of a smirk. Reggie who?
     
    “ But yet you still have this unrelenting need to find love, am I correct?” Frankie asked, moving closer, really getting into the banter. “You’re still willing to get shot down time and time again. Would you love me if I said I’d never leave you?” The two girls broke into a fit of sexually fused laughter.
     
    “ Oh hell yeah I would love you. I mean look at you,” The blonde said, shooting her friend a grin.
     
    Frankie drug his beer in front of him. “But you know nothing about me. See that’s your problem, you just want love. You don’t care about any