Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 101254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Me. Not the jocks, of course. They’re the big men on campus.
I did. The blue-collar brainiac who was trying to save a kid from three bullies who think they own the freaking school.
I didn’t end up getting in trouble, but only because the principal believed my story. When I asked what would happen to the jocks, I got no answer.
Wrong. I did get an answer. Just not in words.
Nothing.
Big fat nothing would happen to those Neanderthals who tormented that poor geek.
I’m sick and tired of what my life has become.
So I don’t go.
I don’t go to work.
I’m sick of it.
Braden, the good son, always went straight to work when he was in high school.
But I’m not the good son.
I never wanted to be the good son.
I miss my mother, but I don’t have a lot of memories from before the fire. I was only three.
Now? This is the life I lead. Working my ass off while I’m still expected to go to school and maintain perfect grades and attendance.
Today I’m not going.
Instead, I walk to the convenience store to get some beef jerky. I’ve got a few bucks in my pocket, and beef jerky is what I’m craving.
Dirk Conrad and his two minions, Jerry Thompson and Carlos Ortiz, stand on the side of the store, smoking cigarettes.
“Hey, Black,” Dirk says to me.
“Hey.” I walk past them.
“Come here,” he says.
These three are no good, and I know that. Still, I turn. I turn because I’m curious. What the hell do they want with me?
“What is it?” I ask.
He offers me a cigarette. “Want a smoke?”
“Sure.” I grab one.
I haven’t smoked a cigarette in years. Last time was in middle school with my friend Junior, who later moved away. We coughed and hacked the first time, but then that nicotine high drifted over us and we lit up again.
By the third cigarette, we had stopped coughing, and by the fifth, we no longer felt the high, so I stopped.
Just to be on the safe side, I hold the smoke in my mouth before I exhale. I don’t want to hack in front of Dirk and his cronies.
“What are you guys up to?” I ask.
“Hanging. Looking for some fun.” He blows a puff of smoke toward me. “What are you doing? We never see you around here.”
“Playing hooky from work.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I’m supposed to work with my brother and father at their construction site after school every day. Didn’t feel like going today.”
“Good on you, Black,” Carlos says. “This is senior year. You should be having fun.”
“You know what, Carlos? I couldn’t fucking agree more.” I take a drag on the cigarette, this time inhaling.
I don’t choke or hack.
And since it’s been so long since I’ve had a cigarette, I feel the nicotine high.
I take another drag.
“You’re just the kind of guy we need, Black,” Dirk says.
“You think, huh?”
“You’ve got brains and brawn. We need some brains.”
“What the fuck for?”
“We’re going to rob the convenience store,” he says, “and you’re going to help us.”
…
Darkness. One childhood caper can go wrong.
So very wrong.
“You don’t know anything about me,” I say to Tessa.
“I know enough about you,” she replies hotly. “You’re in the news all the time.”
I cock my head, ready to scowl, but I hold it back. “You think what you hear about me in the news and the internet and the brag rags is all there is to me? That’s what you think I am? A fucking caricature?”
She widens her beautiful eyes, and my God, I could get lost in them so easily. Even though I’m kind of irritated with her at the moment.
“I…I’m sorry,” she says. “I guess I just thought—”
“No. You didn’t think, Tessa. You didn’t think at all. I never have to worry about money another day in my life. But don’t think for one minute that I don’t spend every day being grateful for that. Don’t think I haven’t seen or felt pain in my life.”
She looks down at her plate. “I didn’t think that.”
“You asked me what kind of demons I’ve ever had to fight.” I shake my head. “Maybe one day I’ll tell you, but not now. Not today.”
All I wanted to do was make her happy, and instead I’ve taken a mental detour onto the dark road of my past.
Fuck.
Good going, Black.
Chapter Seven
Tessa
I look up at Ben Black. His face is twisted. He’s still the most handsome man I’ve ever seen, but I’ve dislodged something in his brain.
I can’t believe I said something so cruel. I know about the fire that destroyed his home when he was only a kid. A really young kid. I know his mother was burned badly and scarred in the fire and died years later. I know about his father’s drinking.
Is that what he’s talking about? Because that’s common knowledge, and I should have remembered it.