Free Breaking Out by Lydia Michaels

his plans.
    Scout gasped, and Parker immediately turned and cursed. The woman gave Scout a nasty look that haunted her for days. She now was old enough to know that Parker was having sex. That afternoon, a world of mixed emotions opened up inside of her over the span of a minute. She supposed she’d always looked up to Parker in a way, found him admirable. She wasn’t jealous of the woman. Sex scared Scout and she wanted nothing to do with it. Yet, there came a twinge of something she couldn’t name when she realized Parker was doing it with that woman.
    He chased after her, completely discarding the other woman. When he caught up to her, he grabbed her arm.
    â€œScout, what are you doing here?”
    â€œI . . . I was looking for you.”
    His face was creased with frustration, and his cheeks were flushed. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
    His words irritated her. She jerked her arm away. “I’m not a child, Parker. I know what you were doing.”
    â€œI know you’re not a child. I just . . . I didn’t want you to see that.”
    â€œWhy?” She was truly curious about his reasons.
    He frowned and wedged his hands in his pocket. Looking away, he mumbled, “It’s dirty.”
    She frowned as well. “You aren’t the only person who does that, Parker.”
    â€œI know. But I don’t like it.”
    â€œThen why do you do it?”
    He shrugged. “Guys are different. We need . . .”
    She waited quietly for him to continue. His cheeks grew redder and he said nothing. She touched his arm. “It’s okay, Park. I get it.”
    He shook his head and curved his lips into a barely there smile. “No, you don’t, but thanks for trying.”
    Her hand dropped from his arm. “Thanks.” She was insulted. “You know, you aren’t much older than me—”
    â€œI know that! God, Scout, I know that.”
    â€œThen why do you say things like that, like I’m some dumb kid?”
    â€œBecause you’re a good girl and a good girl shouldn’t see two people going at it like animals!” he hissed.
    She drew back. Her understanding of sex was twisted. She’d seen her mother and other men. There was no modesty. She saw things no child should probably witness. She only needed to see it once to determine she never needed to see it again. But to her knowledge, there was no way to have sex that wasn’t animalistic.
    After they stood awkwardly silent for a while and the woman he had been with slunk away, he said, “Come on. I’ll walk you back.”
    They walked in silence, she playing back what she’d seen, and Parker scowling about what he had inadvertently showed her. One thing she was sure of, he did not see her as a sexual being, but as more of a little sister. This pleased and irritated her for reasons she didn’t understand.
    Evelyn smiled, remembering how, after that, he made a point to read adult stories to her. They were never graphic, but sometimes they mentioned some of those less animalistic couplings he must have been referring to. He would sometimes blush when he read her the more adult parts of those classics.
    That day at the alley was never mentioned again, but from then on, on those days he would sometimes disappear, she’d smirk and avoid his eyes upon his return, knowing exactly where he’d been and what he’d been doing.
    Parker had definitely been her friend, the only one she ever had before Lucian.
    Her present-day mind jumped to visions of her and Lucian. They could be quite animalistic, yet she loved being with him in that way. She preferred him intense and raw and holding nothing back. When he acted as such, she seemed to break out of her rigid skin and surrender, allowing him to guide her somewhere dark and freeing where only the two of them existed.
    â€œWhat are you grinning about?”
    At Lucian’s question,