Page 57 of Waste of Worth

What if he gave it to her, and then he had to take it away?

That seemed unfair.

Cruel, even.

“Sometimes I’m not who I seem,” Dino finally said, bringing Karen’s attention back to him for the moment. “Sometimes shit happens and it reminds me that I have no business being here with you, no matter what I’m trying to tell myself. But I’m still here, and I keep coming back. You don’t tell me to go, after all, so why wouldn’t I stay when you haven’t given me a reason to go?”

Karen didn’t reply.

Dino didn’t really need her to.

“What I said before still stands—you tell me to go, and I will.”

Karen sighed, looking back out the window with what seemed like the weight of the world resting on her shoulders. “But you’re not going to let me in beyond that, are you?”

She didn’t seem to understand him.

“Why does it matter, Karen?”

“I—”

“You’ve already got the parts that matter.”

The rest never would.

“DINO.”

He could barely move, his body feeling as though a hundred-pound weight rested on top of his back, pinning him to a floor.

A wet floor.

His fingers were able to sink into the floor beneath his body, making claw-like marks in the damp dirt.

“Dino.”

Each movement was a little more painful than the last, his chest aching with every breath. He couldn’t remember, though he tried like hell to bring the events back, how he got in this place. This awful, dank place.

Again.

She’s just a girl, he remembered saying.

And with that single thought, it all came flying back like a wrecking ball straight to his brain, a force so destructive he had no chance to get out of the way.

She’s just a girl.

Ben had laughed, struck him again, broke another bone, and promised death.

She’s just a girl.

A girl that had caught Dino’s eye—the first girl to see there was something beyond the teenager in the corner who didn’t like to talk a lot. First it was just quiet chats in the hallways of the Trentini mansion, and then it moved on to bowls of soft ice-cream in the backseat of his car.

She had a pretty laugh, like the twinkling of wind chimes.

She wasn’t just a girl.

But because he had known Ben would never approve, because he didn’t want her to get in trouble because he liked her, Dino lied.

She’s just a girl.