Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
“I’m just angry.” She turned to face me, cheeks red and tears welling in her eyes. “I know better than to trust anyone. Guess I was due a reminder.” She took a heavy breath. “Everyone wants something, right?”
I had no idea what to say or do, so I stood there for a second, watching her fight emotions until something in my chest went tight, and I couldn’t take it anymore.
That had always been my motto: Don’t believe in anything or anyone. Not to get my hopes up, because, given a chance, people let you down. Every time. I stared at the angry colors of the setting sun reflecting from the lake. “If they say they don’t, they’re liars.”
“I know.”
I could almost see her thinking, most likely wondering what it was I wanted from her. And had she asked me that a week ago, there would have been an easy answer to that question. But now, it was way more complicated. Sure, I could kiss her—fist her hair and give her a quick fuck, but outside of that, I had nothing to offer a girl like Monroe. Feelings tried to creep up in my chest, and I quickly snuffed them out, turning away from her and starting toward the gravel road. “We’re gonna have to walk.”
We passed lake houses and a string of RVs without a word. I zoned out to the crunch of gravel beneath my feet, thinking about how shit this must have been for Monroe, knowing that those guy’s family names meant more than a girl’s dignity.
“God, this place is a shit hole.” She kicked a crumpled beer can into the overgrown brush. “I can’t wait until the day I leave.”
There was her hopeless hope, and I hated it for her. Dayton was like a spiderweb, and the harder someone fought to get free of it, the more tangled up they got in its invisible, sticky threads. I scrubbed a hand over my jaw.
“You ever think about leaving?” she asked.
I snorted. “No.” We waited for a string of cars to pass before we jogged to the other side of the road. “No one gets out of Dayton, Monroe.”
“No one fights to get out. There’s a difference.”
My mom did. And look where that got her. An uncomfortable feeling settled in my chest, like rats stirring in a nest. We crossed into an abandoned Piggly Wiggly parking lot, and I checked my phone again for service, dialing Hendrix’s number when I saw I had a single bar and telling him to come get us. I sat on the curb, and Monroe dropped down beside me, pulling her knees to her chest and resting her forehead on them. “Did you get in trouble at the pep rally?”
“Suspended for a few days.” I placed a cigarette to my lips, staring at an ant crawling across the pavement.
“If it’s any consolation, it was a very committed performance.”
I snorted a laugh. “I meant it. Brown can suck my dick.”
“I’m sure you have better offers.”
I focused on her, inhaling a puff of smoke. “Not the one I want.”
“Well, thank you.” She snatched a weed growing from a crack in the concrete, tying it in knots. “Tell me something about you, Zepp.”
Way to change the subject, I thought, and I took another pull of smoke. “You gonna tell me who hits you yet?”
She dropped the twisted weed from her fingers. “No. Because it’s not a big deal. And that look”—she pointed at me—“tells me you’ll make it one.”
No matter what she wanted to think, it was already a big deal. “Don’t want to tell me? Fine.” I chucked the cigarette across the vacant parking lot, and it rolled to a stop by an abandoned crate. “Think I won’t find out, though?”
“It’s Dayton. My mom’s an addict and a whore. I live in the roughest trailer park in town.” She shrugged. “Why do you care?”
Because I knew what could happen. I had watched it happen to my mom, and I didn’t want anything to happen to Monroe. “Doesn’t matter.” I pushed up from the curb, walking to the side of the road while I fought the emotions screaming to surface. Of course, she followed me.
“You know you’re cryptic as fuck, right?”
“And you’re stubborn as fuck.”
“I didn’t ask you to get involved in my life.”
I spun around, pissed that she wouldn’t tell me. Pissed about everything to do with our shitty lives in this shitty town. “But you sure as hell showed up in my drive. With a stolen car.” I stepped toward her, my voice rising. “That belonged to the guy I nearly killed!”
“Oh my God. Yes, I stole the car. Let it go already.”
My jaw cracked. I was pretty sure my eye was twitching. This girl was un-fucking-believable. “Let it go?” I exhaled, shaking my head. “Let it fucking go? Sure, I’ll let the fact that you almost cost me a lifetime in prison go, Roe.” I tossed my hands in the air. “No problem.”