NINE

"I-I'm sorry." Letty's voice trembles and breaks as she backs away from her angry father.

"Sorry doesn't pay the bills." He growls through clenched teeth, advancing on the terrified teenager.

Neither do you. The teenager thinks to herself. "I was sick, but I-I'm feeling better now, and I have a shift at the store in half an hour."

"Then get to it." He orders, and then backhands her across the face. "That's for talking back." He tells her, and she quickly walks to the door and leaves.

Letty gets to the Market Giant, taking deep breaths most of the way there in order to keep her composure. She does her best to keep herself calm and then gets to work as soon as she makes it inside the building, hoping to distract herself so that she won't think about what happens at home basically every day. She's gotten pretty good at controlling her emotions when she has to, like when she's around other people.

"Hey, why is your cheek all red?" Eric asks as he walks over to his best friend.

"I just got here, and it's cold outside."

"But why is only one of your cheeks red like that?" He questions.

"Because that's the direction the wind was coming from." She mumbles, and then walks away from him, not wanting to talk anymore. Her lies keep getting worse and worse, and she knows it, but she doesn't know what she's supposed to do.

The next night, Miller walks into Letty's room and sits beside her on her bed. "You can't avoid him forever, you know?" The older boy says, and she continues staring up at the ceiling. She's been trying to keep Eric from asking her any more questions.

"What do you care? You hate him anyway."

"I don't hate him. I just think the guy's a putz." He argues, and she rolls her eyes. "Regardless of what I think, he's worried about you. And he has every right to be. He knows that something is up. I mean, he's kinda dumb, but he's not stupid."

"He's not dumb, Miller. Leave me alone." The brunette rolls over and faces the wall.

"What are you gonna do, Scar?" He asks as he looks down at her. "You gonna keep lying and coming up with barely believable stories forever?"

"I'll be eighteen soon enough."

"That's still years away." He shakes his head. "You're gonna end up pushing him away, Scar. And you and I both know how much you're gonna regret it."

"What am I supposed to do?" She questions as she sits up and turns to face him. "Tell him that my father beats me when I don't bring home a paycheck that he deems worth enough?"

"You'd rather risk losing your friend?"

"John's a dick too, and I don't see you rushing to get him out of your life for good." She argues.

"My dad doesn't do this to me." Miller tells her, looking at the light bruise on her cheek. "He's hit me when we were training, but he's never beaten me to the point that I had to lie about where the bruises came from. He doesn't physically abuse me like your father does."

"I don't want to talk about this." She says as she lays on her back again. "And I don't have to explain myself to you. Don't worry about me and Eric. Everything's fine."

Letty goes to Eric's house after school the next day, and she's not exactly in the best mood after having seen him making out with some girl up against the lockers. But she made a promise, and she intends to keep it. Plus, she knows it'll put her in a better mood.

As soon as the brunette walks in the front door at the Matthews' house, she sees Eric laughing at Cory. "No, I'm totally in my mind." The younger boy insists, making his brother laugh even more.

"Yeah, one of the best pitchers in major league baseball is in our house." Eric's nodding as he speaks sarcastically.

Mr. Matthews walks in from the kitchen then, and he's not alone as he enters the living room, looking at his sons. "Guys, somebody here I'd like you to meet." He tells his boys, and Jim Abbott walks in behind him.

Letty looks over at the two boys and chuckles at the stunned looks on their faces. And then the phone falls out of Eric's hand, landing on the couch cushion.

"Oh my God, Mr. Matthews, I think you killed 'em." Letty muses, and Jim chuckles as he looks over at the brunette.

"Cory, Eric — wouldn't you like to meet Jim Abbott?" Their father asks, but they still just sit there and stare at the man.

"Hey, if they don't — can I?"

Jim takes a step forward then, offering the teenage girl his hand. "It's nice to meet you. Are you a fan..." He trails off, not having caught her name.

"Letty." She tells him, reaching out to shake his hand. "Not as big a fan as they are, apparently, but I've been watching baseball since I was little. My friends and I have always been big fans of the Phillies."

The two boys suddenly start screaming, and Letty jumps as she turns to look at them. Cory runs around the couch as his brother quickly gets to his feet.

"Hi, guys." Jim steps forward, moving to shake Eric's hand. "How are you doing? You must be Cory." He turns to the younger boy, shaking his hand as well.

"I'm whoever you want me to be." Cory says, a wide smile on his face.

"Your dad's told me a lot about you." He says as Eric suddenly pulls Letty to his side. He's still excited, and trying not to freak out.

The teenage girl chuckles as she looks up at her best friend, turning her body so that she's facing him. Her fingers curl around the buttons on the open flannel that he's wearing, and his hand balls up into a fist around her shirt as it rests on her lower back.

"He has?" Cory asks, still wide-eyed with surprise. "But how did he— How did Dad— Why are you in my house?"

"Cory, don't bug the man with a lot of little boy questions." Eric speaks up, gaining Jim's attention. "So, Jim, why are you in our house?" He asks, making his voice sound deeper, and the brunette at his side turns her head and buries her face in his shoulder so she won't laugh at him.

"Well, I heard that Cory here wants to be in the big leagues someday." Jim says, looking back at the younger of the two Matthews boys.

"Who, me? Nah, stupid idea." Cory shakes his head, still looking up at the pro baseball player that he idolizes. "I gave up on that. Guys like me don't make it to the majors."

"As much as I'd love to stick around down here," Letty looks up at Eric again, gaining his attention. "I promised I'd paint with Morgan after my shift today. She wants me to teach her how to make a rose." She tells him, and he nods as he reluctantly lets go of her.

"She's in her room." Eric says, and she offers him a small smile before moving away from him.

A little while later, the teenage boy makes his way upstairs, and he hears Letty trying to tell Morgan that her painting does look as good as the one that she made. She's trying to explain that it just takes some practice, and Letty's been doing it a lot longer than the little one.

"Well, I think it's beautiful." Eric says as he kneels down in front of the girls, and his sister looks up at him.

"You do?" Morgan asks, and he nods.

"Of course I do." He smiles. "Yours looks different than Letty's, but that just makes it unique. And there's nothing cooler than that."

"Really?"

"You don't want to be like everyone else, do you?" Letty asks her. "Then everyone's roses would look the same. And that's no fun."

"I wanna go show Mommy!"

"Be careful with the paint!" The brunette calls after her as she runs out of the room, and Eric chuckles as he looks down at his best friend.

"How's it going, Picasso?" He asks, and she takes a deep breath as she gets to her feet.

"We're gonna need a bigger tarp next time, that's for sure." She tells him, and he smiles as he looks at her. "But it was fun. And I think I did okay."

"Yeah?"

"I'm more of a sketchpad kind of amateur artist." She nods. "But still, it's decent." Letty says as she looks at the painting in her hand. 

"I think it looks great." He tells her as he looks down at the single red rose on the white page. It has small thorns on the green stem; he likes the smaller details that she added to her painting.

"It's yours." She holds the paper out toward him, and he takes it.

"Are you sure?" Eric asks, and she nods.

"With Morgan's interest piqued, I'm seeing a lot of roses in my future." The brunette says, and he smiles as he looks at it. "Maybe I'll see if I can get her out of her Belle obsession just long enough to paint a daisy...or a sunflower. She likes yellow, doesn't she?"

"You really like art, don't you?" He asks as his gaze returns to her, and she nods.

"I do, yeah. It's a good distraction, and sometimes I get to make something I'm actually kinda proud of." She tells him.

"You should be proud. It's beautiful." Eric says, and she smiles as she looks up at him.