Chapter 24 (1/2)

“Pull over!” he shouts back, a wide grin spreading across his face.

I pull Vance’s rental into the lot of an ice-cream shop, and he parks next to me. He’s out of his piece-of-shit car before I am and rushes over to yank my door open.

“You’re back and you didn’t even tell me?” he yells, patting me on the shoulder. “And, damn, tell me this Beemer is a rental, or did you get rich on me?”

I roll my eyes. “Long story, but it’s a rental.”

“Are you back for good, or what?” His brown hair is cropped short now, but his eyes are just as glazed over as they always were.

“Yeah, I’m back for good,” I answer, settling it. I’m staying here and she’s going back, simple as that.

He studies my face. “Where are your fucking rings? You took them out?”

“Yeah, I got sick of them.” I shrug, but examine his face. When he turns his head a little, the light catches two little studs beneath his lips. Damn, the kid got snakebites.

“Damn, Scott, you look so different. It’s fucking crazy. It’s been, what, two years?” He throws his hands up. “Three? Hell, I’ve been high for the last ten years, so I couldn’t tell you.” He laughs and digs into his pocket to pull out a pack of smokes.

I decline when he offers me one, which earns me a raised brow. “What, you like straight edge now?” he accuses.

“No, I just don’t want a fucking cigarette,” I snap.

He laughs the way he always did when I would get this way. He was always the leader of our little group of delinquents, older than me by a year, but enough that I always looked up to him in a way and wanted to be like him. That’s why when an even older guy named James came along and he and Mark started the games, I jumped right in. It didn’t bother me the way they treated girls, even when they taped them without their knowledge.

“You’re a bitch now, aren’t you?” He smiles, his lit cigarette between his teeth.

“Fuck off. You’re high right now, aren’t you?” I knew he would always remain this way, always high and stuck in his glory days of fucking loads of chicks and staying high.

“Nah, I’m coming off of a long night, though.” He grins, obviously proud of himself as he remembers whatever, or whoever, he did last night. “Where you headed now? You staying at your mum’s?”

My chest tightens at the mention of my mum and the house that I burned to the ground. I can feel the hot smoke on my cheeks and see the bright flames swallowing the house when I looked back before climbing into the car with Tessa. “No, I’m staying between places.”

“Oh, got it.” He doesn’t get it, though. “If you need a place to crash, you can stay at my place. James is my roommate now—he’d get a kick out of seeing your grown ass, too. All Americanized and shit.”

I can hear Tessa’s voice in my head now, begging me not to go down this familiar, easy road, but I ignore her protests and nod at Mark. “I need a favor, actually.”

“I can find you anything you need—James sells now!” Mark responds with some pride.