Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 90564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“Look at him, Wolf.” I grabbed another fry, using it to point at Bellamy. “Can’t deal with the truth. He’s gone all soft.”
“Speaking of soft…” Wolf grinned, jutting his chin toward me. “Found Romeo here over by Lola’s tonight.”
I socked him before Bellamy called me a hypocritical fuck.
“He was all up in her guts in the restroom at school, too.”
“I wasn’t in her guts, and I wasn’t at her house.” I wasn’t about to let either of them know how deep down the Lola rabbit hole I’d fallen. Which was why I leaned back in the booth and tried to look smug as shit.
Bellamy drummed his fingers over the table, cocking a brow. “Whose house were you at then?”
“I didn’t get her name.” I took the plastic menu from behind the napkin dispenser and glanced over it like I didn’t already know what I was getting.
“Or did you just forget her name?” Wolf shoved out of the booth and went to the jukebox by the entrance.
Seconds later, the beginning notes of “Lola” by The Kinks blasted through the crappy Waffle Hut speakers.
Wolf plopped back down in the booth just as the chorus hit, and I felt my eye twitch. “Maybe that will jog your baby-batter-drained memory,” he said on a cackle, then cracked his imaginary whip. “Whipah. Still, pussy whipped.”
I smacked the side of his face with the greasy menu. “I’m—” I smacked it again— “the pussy whipper.”
The godawful noise of Bellamy’s seven-year-old brother, Arlo, belting out “Baby Shark” came from the direction of the restroom.
He swiped a hand down his face on a groan. “He’s been singing that song for three weeks straight because Drew taught it to him.”
Drew taught it to him because she was diamond-encrusted-evil incarnate. That song could be used for straight-up torture, and I would have put money on her knowing it. “See the crap being with one girl gets you? ‘Baby Shark’ and one, boring pus—”
“No more p-u-s-s-y comments, asshole.” He pulled his arm back like he was going to throw a punch across the table just before Arlo hopped into the empty seat beside him.
“Uncle Hendrix isn’t an asshole.” Arlo frowned. That kid could be serious as shit. “He’s a motherfuckin’ baller.”
My chest lit up with pride. Wolf cackled.
Bellamy glared at me. “Stop teaching my brother crap like that.”
Crap like that. It was Dayton. And it was the truth. “So, you want me to teach him lies?”
Arlo shook his head. “Lying isn’t nice.” Then he took a massive pull from his half-melted milkshake.
“Unless it’s to who?” I took the fork from the table and pointed it in his direction.
“The cops.”
“And what do you never, ever do, Arlo?”
“Let a girl know you like her because she’ll poop on your heart.”
The kid would be thanking me later. “That’s right.” I glanced at Bellamy. “You should listen to him before Drewbers takes a massive, rich-girl shit on your white-trash heart.”
Sighing, Bell grabbed the milkshake and motioned Arlo out of the booth. “Come on.”
“But I want to stay with Uncle Hendrix.”
“No.”
I heard the kid ask if he had a white-trash heart on their way out the door. I almost felt sorry for him, but the truth was, every one of us did
Chapter 10
LOLA
One of the college-aged waiters had called while I was getting ready for school this morning, begging me to cover their shift. I figured the tips were worth one skipped day of school. And if I was honest, I’d jumped at the idea of avoiding Hendrix.
My feet ached from working a double, and my phone was dead. At least Chad offered to give me a ride again.
The truck rolled to a stop at a red light, and I glanced over the console. “Thanks again for giving me a lift.”
“No problem.” Chad flashed a perfect smile at me from behind the wheel. A smile that was far too shiny for the filthy streets we passed through.
He didn’t belong here. Did that mean that Gracie didn’t belong here anymore, either? The thought stung, but I couldn’t be mad about it. I didn’t want my little sister to belong in Dayton. Hell, I didn’t want to be anywhere near the place.
He turned off the dark highway, the wheels bumping over a pothole. “So… Stacey said Hunt came into the restaurant looking for you when you were on your break earlier. Wanted to know where you were.”
I stilled. It shouldn’t surprise me Hendrix knew where I worked. Bellamy came in with some Barrington girl the other day, pretending he didn’t know who I was. But why in the hell would Hendrix be looking for me?
The neon light of Velma’s whizzed by, and the realization crept over me. Hendrix walked me home last night—to my mom’s. He thought I lived there, and when I’d lived with her before, I did anything and everything to get out of that house. The only time I skipped school was when Mom had gotten drunk and given me a bruise I couldn’t hide. She didn’t want anyone calling social services and risk having Gracie and me taken away. Not because she cared. She just didn’t want to lose the welfare checks she got for us.