AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hey, Tiny?” I call as I step out of the cardboard box.
He stops in the store entrance and turns toward me. Sad brown eyes, tucked inside a frame of shoulder-length dreadlocks and bushy brown facial hair, stare back.
“Come see me in the tuxedo shop later, and I’ll take care of that for you.” I give him a sympathetic smile and glance down at the puncture wound he’s covering with his thick hand.
Tiny salutes me with two fingers before trudging off in the same direction as his friends.
Suddenly, it’s just Carter and me and the sound of the rain beating down on the roof. His eyes burn like liquid gold, molten hot with unexpressed rage, and are locked on me like I’m the void he wants to pour it all into.
“You okay?” he asks, stalking across the room toward me.
“I’m fine,” I snap, dusting the dirt off my ass. “Is she always that much of a bi—”
Before I can finish my insult, Carter stops a foot in front of me and claps a huge hand over my mouth.
He scans the room with wide eyes and then whispers, “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re the only other girl here her age. Q doesn’t like competition, so I suggest you keep your mouth shut and your head down if you want to stick around.”
“Ugh!” I jerk away from him and cross my arms over my chest. “So I just have to take her shit?”
Carter’s jaw clenches, and his nostrils flare. “Look, I don’t like it either, okay? You think it’s easy for me to sit back and watch somebody disrespect my friends like that? Fuck no. But we have nowhere else to go, do we? Not unless—”
“No,” I cut him off before he can say another word about places that no longer exist.
Carter closes his mouth and nods. I didn’t realize there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes until it was extinguished. “Okay then. Home sweet mall it is. Come on.”
He extends his hand to me, but I just stare at it.
“Where are we going?”
“To take a shower.”
“Shower?”
Carter rolls his eyes. “When it rains, everybody runs up to the roof to shower off. Q has a stash of soap and shampoo and shit up there. It’s”—he lifts a shoulder in a nonchalant half-shrug—“fun.”
“Q,” I spit her name out like it’s a bloody, cracked tooth before something occurs to me. “Wait. So, everybody up there is … naked?”
Carter chuckles and takes my hand even though I didn’t give it to him. “Told you it was fun.”
“But … what about your parents? What about Sophie?”
He starts walking backward toward the door, tugging on my hand with a playful, overconfident grin on his face. “It’s not really their scene. They duck out the back door of the shoe store and shower off behind the bushes.” He gives my hand a tug. “Come on, Rainbow Brite … if you’re lucky, I might let you wash my back.”
Suddenly, my hand is free, and my feet are moving, and my face is hot, and I can hear Carter’s smug voice behind me insisting that he was, “Just kidding.”
But I don’t stop. I don’t care about his stupid joke. I have a much, much bigger problem right now.
I run straight back to the tuxedo shop and practically scream at Lamar to take Quint up to the roof to shower off. They look at me like I have two heads, but I can’t rein in my panic. The walls are closing in, and I need them to get the hell out before I have a full-blown meltdown.
“Go!” I shout, shoving a finger in the direction of the door.
Quint is finally healthy enough to maybe handle a flight of stairs.
Maybe.
I hope.
“Just don’t touch his bandage!”
