Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
“Chill out, Moe. What the hell?” Chase threw open the fire door and dragged me outside the school before the door banged shut behind us.
He held up his hands. “Damn, Moe.”
I drew in labored breaths, and my hands started to shake. I pressed my forehead to the cool brick wall, trying to calm my racing heart.
“What did he do to you?" Chase asked. Like he cared.
I was just some slut in his eyes, apparently. “Fuck you, Chase.” I yanked open the door and stormed back inside toward the girls’ restroom.
Jade spotted me in the hallway and silently followed me inside and locked the stall door behind us. I slid down the wall to the floor.
“Are you okay?” she asked, leaning against the divider
In a strange way, hitting Dale had been cathartic. “Yeah, I am.”
“You literally just broke Dale’s nose…”
“Yeah, well. He’s a dick.” It wasn’t an excuse. I knew I had come unhinged.
“Of course he’s a dick.” She glanced at my shirt. “Gross. His blood’s on you.”
I stared at the spots on my shirt. “Great.” The intercom system squeaked. “Can Dale Davison and Monroe James please report to the principal’s office.”
“Shit.” I pushed to my feet, heading to the door. “Probably going to get suspended.”
As I turned into the corridor that led to the office, I saw Dale approaching from the other end. His face looked bad. Really bad. His nose was crammed with tampons and his lip split. I couldn't believe I’d done that.
Dale didn’t say a word to the principal, other than he had walked into a locker. I knew that had nothing to with me and everything to do with Zepp and the fear he instilled. It felt like those little threads that pulled me to Zepp had just grown tighter. I was starting to feel like one of them, and while I knew that wasn’t a good thing, deep down, I longed for that sense of belonging.
21
Zepp
Green buds scattered the table. Wolf puffed on a joint while he stuffed a Ziploc bag with weed.
“Hey. You still hang out with Dizzy?” I asked.
Dizzy was the guy who first got us into selling weed—until he ended up in jail for an assault charge.
“Off and on. Why?”
I snatched the baggie, weighed it, sealed it, then tossed it into Wolf’s unzipped backpack. “Think he’d take a hundred bucks to beat the shit outta some guy?”
“Probably.” He passed me another bag. “Who?”
“Some guy that fucks around with Monroe’s mom.”
“Sure, Dizzy would do it. Want me to call him?”
I gave him a nod as a cloud of smoke drifted across the table.
We bundled up a few more dime bags before Wolf broke the silence. “You like her.”
I focused on the numbers flashing on the scale. Of course I liked Monroe, but something about admitting it seemed too personal. Even for Wolf.
“Dude, you kissed her in the parking lot.”
“And?” I chucked the bag into his backpack. “I’ve had girls give me blowjobs in the bathroom.”
“Zepp Hunt having anything to do with a girl outside of a bedroom is weird as hell.” He pushed up from the chair and went to the fridge. “She’s all right, though,” he said. And that was Wolf’s way of saying he wouldn’t give me any more grief about it.
* * *
Gravel crunched beneath the tires of Dizzy’s Cadillac when he backed out of Wolf’s drive.
Wolf propped the ladder against the side of the trailer. He made it up the first few rungs before he froze and looked back at me. “Wait. Why aren’t you just beating Jerry’s ass?”
Because I had promised Monroe I wouldn’t touch him. “It’s complicated.”
“Whatever, dude.”
We fell into the ratty lawn chairs, and my gaze locked on the license plate of a brown Camaro that read: DABIGBOSS.
“Da Big Boss, ‘bout to get his ass beat.”
Wolf chuckled before he leaned over to grab a drink from the mini-fridge. He sighed. “Dude, we haven’t had any parties since Monroe started hanging around.”
“There’s been a lot of shit going down.”
The deep gurgle of an engine echoed over the trailer park before a Mustang came flying down the road, a cloud of dust kicking up in the glow of the taillights. It idled to a stop outside Monroe’s trailer. The door swung open, and Monroe climbed out, then disappeared behind the trailer. Seconds later, she emerged from the shadows with a tarp.
Wolf coughed out a laugh. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. She beat the shit out of Dale Davison today.”
I swung my gaze from Monroe to him. “Why the hell are you just now telling me this?”
Wolf shrugged, holding up the joint permanently attached to his fingers. “Forgot.”
Jesus Christ. Blood pulsed through my temples, slowly building while the possibilities of why she would punch someone flipped like a Rolodex through my mind.
When Monroe started toward her door, I wet my lips and whistled. She froze, glancing down the street in our direction.