Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93723 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93723 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
“Five minutes, son. Just find out what happened so I know if I need to deal with someone or if it’s just stupid friend stuff.”
Deal with someone …
Calling me “son” only tightened his grip on me, on my loyalty to him.
“Five minutes. But if she’s really upset, she might not talk to me either.” My shoulders curled inward while making my way to the door.
“I appreciate you trying.”
“Mmm-hmm …”
As soon as I shut the door behind me, I froze. Josie stood in the kitchen, a glass of milk in one hand, a cookie in her other hand, and that same evil glare boring a hole into my head.
I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could get a word out, her head shook several times in a sharp motion while making her way to me. “I hope Tessa has herpes or crabs or something that kills you. Then I’m going to dissect you and bury you in the woods next to my favorite tree so I can spit on you every day for the rest of my life.” She tossed her whole glass of milk in my face.
And I stood there and said nothing while she took a slow bite of her cookie, giving me a blank expression for a few seconds before pivoting and heading upstairs.
“She’s not in the mood to talk to anyone,” I said to Chief Watts, not skipping a beat as I trod my way past him.
“Colten, what’s all over you?”
“Milk.” And rage. I kept walking.
“She threw her milk on you?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
I managed to sneak past my mom without her focusing on my milk face.
“Sorry I missed your game, sweetie. How’d you do?” she called from the laundry room next to the kitchen.
My feet stomped their way upstairs. “Fine.”
“Hungry?”
“I don’t know.”
It was a stupid question but so was my answer. I was always hungry. There was only one force stronger than my hunger— Josephine Watts’s wrath.
The second I emerged from the bathroom, freshly showered, Mom shouted upstairs. “Colten? Tessa called and Josie’s here.”
That sentence rubbed along my nerves to the point of making me shudder. Tessa and Josie in the same sentence just didn’t belong. Oil and water. Heaven and Hell.
“Go on up, Josie. Tell him I put a frozen pizza in the oven for him, and it will take about ten minutes,” Mom said as I stood at the top of the stairs contemplating going down them or climbing out my window, risking my fate from a second story jump and hoping I could wobble my way as far from home as possible.
Instead, I crossed the hall into my bedroom and took a seat at my keyboard, playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.
Josie stood silent in my doorway.
Then she sat on my bed.
Finally, she made her way to the piano bench beside me, sitting in the opposite direction as usual.
I didn’t skip a beat. Not a single note.
“My dad said I had to come apologize to you for the milk incident.”
I ignored her, my fingers caressing the keys as my body swayed ever so slightly like the easy bob of my head.
“But I’m not going to apologize, and we both know why.”
Did I though? I wasn’t so sure.
After I played a few more measures, she sighed. “I’m not ready to have sex, so you can’t have sex with Tessa. Sorry.”
For the first time since she came into my bedroom, I lost track of my location in the song, and my fingers stopped, idly hovering over the keys for a few breaths until they dropped to my thighs.
“Tessa’s here!” Mom called, an official declaration of God’s contempt for me.
“Oh …” Tessa’s voice chimed at my back. “What are you doing here?” she asked Josie in a catty tone.
“Whatever I want.”
I grimaced at Josie’s response even if it made me want to puff out my chest in pride that she stood up for herself with another girl from school, an older classman at that.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tessa moved in on us.
I glanced over my shoulder and started to speak, but Josie cut me off.
“You are a placeholder. A stand-in. A knockoff of the real thing. Go before you embarrass yourself anymore,” Josie said while standing, hands planted on her hips, chin up.
Tessa’s jaw unhinged as she looked to me for confirmation that Josie was my official spokesperson. “Colten, are you and her a thing?”
We were something.
“Can I call you later, Tessa?”
“No,” Tessa and Josie replied in unison.
Gritting her teeth, Tessa pointed a stiff finger at Josie. “I am not a placeholder. A knockoff. I am the real thing. So why don’t you go home and find a better way to stuff your little training bra so it doesn’t make your chest look so lumpy. Then go ask your boyfriend to take a little pity on you and tell you about the birds and the bees. Colten, tell her to go home and leave us alone.”