Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 136791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Then – Age Eleven
"You're not coming with us!" Titan yells, crossing his arms over his chest to glare at me. He looks so dumb with his hair all spiked up, wearing his baggie Adidas shirt and his jeans with pre-made holes in them.
"Mom said you can't leave me home alone!" I yell back, stomping my foot. He's always trying to leave me alone when she's working late so he can go flirt with Mandy Wright at the park at the end of the street. I don't like to stay home by myself. I'm not brave like he is. I'm eleven, but I get scared when I'm home alone.
"Dammit," he curses and kicks one of the plants on the front porch.
"It's fine, Titan," Cade says, trying to calm him down. He shoots me a wink that makes my stomach feel like there are butterflies in it.
"Why can't you ever just stay home?" Titan glares at me.
I bite my lip, refusing to tell him that I'm scared. He'll just call me a crybaby, and I don't want Cade to think I'm a chicken, even though I really am.
"She can come with us," Cade says with a shrug before I can think of a reason. He smiles, showing me his dimples. "You'll be good, right, baby girl?"
I nod and bounce up and down.
"Fine," Titan says with a scowl, "but I'm not playing any stupid baby games with you. And you can't follow me around."
"I don't play baby games, and I don't follow you around!" I stick my tongue out at him. I don't follow him around. Mostly, I follow Cade around, but I don't tell Titan that. He'd just laugh at me. Sometimes, he's a jerk.
"Whatever." Titan rolls his eyes and locks the front door before jumping from the porch to the sidewalk. He's such a showoff.
I don't know why he's so mean to me now. He used to like to play with me. Him and Cade always watched out for me and made sure no one messed with me. But ever since he started the eighth grade, he's been different. He's mean to me a lot. I don't know why, but I wish he was nice again. I miss him.
"Why are you so quiet, baby girl?" Cade asks, tugging on a strand of my hair as we follow Titan down the sidewalk.
"Why doesn't he like me anymore?" I whisper, staring down at the ground.
"He likes you," Cade promises me, reaching out to tug on my hair again. "He's just pissed because Mandy won't kiss him."
"He's always mean to me." I scrunch up my nose at the thought of my brother and Mandy kissing. She's pretty, but she's not very nice. She's always watching Cade like she'd rather have him flirting with her than Titan. But she holds my brother's hand and calls him all the time, so I think maybe she likes both of them.
"He loves you, baby girl. He's just a teenager. I'll talk to him and tell him he needs to be nicer to you."
"You're a teenager too, but you're nice to me."
He stares at me, his blue-gray eyes serious. "I will always be nice to you, January."
My stomach gets that floating feeling once more. I smile at him and then cast my eyes to the ground. We walk the rest of the way to the park in silence. When we get there, Mandy and some of Titan and Cade's friends are sitting on the basketball court.
There's an older guy wandering around on the other side of the park, but no one else is here.
"Let's go," Titan says to Cade and then jogs toward Mandy and their group of friends.
Cade hesitates.
"It's okay," I whisper even though I don't want him to go. "I'll be fine. I'm just going to swing for a little while."
"You sure?" he asks me, clearly not wanting to leave me alone.
I feel bad for that because he's with me more often than not. I used to get teased a lot because I'm short and a little chubby. But he made them all stop. I don't want him to stop liking me. What if he does, and the other kids start picking on me again? He said he'd always be nice to me. I believe him, but he should go with his friends. Just in case.
"Promise," I lie.
He peers at me for a minute and then nods before jogging toward Titan. I watch him until he's with them. He glances back at me and smiles, and then Mandy grabs his hand and pulls on it. He looks away from me to her and says something that makes everyone laugh.
I move my eyes away because I don't want to watch her flirt with him or see if he flirts with her, and then I mope toward the swings. The park is small and not very nice, but the swings are new. Someone broke all the old ones, and they had to put up new ones.