The Day I Kissed An Older Man

In the end, Phoebe said sulkily, “Wait here. I’ll go check if he’s woken up from his nap.”

Corinne smiled, satisfied. “Okay. Thank you, Miss Phoebe.”

After a while, Phoebe came back with Joey.

Joey looked fearfully around the room. His eyes immediately lit up when he saw Corinne, but they quickly dimmed again.

Even though growing up in the orphanage turned Joey into a sensitive and insecure child, Corinne still remembered the look of awe in his eyes when she first met him.

That was why it was especially jarring for her to realize Joey had become so fearful through his stay with Anya and Phoebe that he did not even dare to look others in the eye anymore. His whole body language screamed how he wished he was dead.

not help but

over. “Come

instinctively took a few steps back before turning up

him there, so she said sarcastically to Joey, “What

a grown-up was sarcastic. He thought Phoebe meant what she

stroked his bony cheeks. “Look at how scrawny you’ve become. Are you not eating

but to look at Phoebe to see whether he was allowed to say

Joey immediately knew that was his cue to keep his mouth shut. Scared, he shrank back

frowned when she saw the many bruises

get all those bruises and cuts?” she