Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 121578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 608(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 608(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Jezzie cranes her neck to peek at them, then quickly drops her head and focuses on her plate.
I frown. “You know those guys?”
She nods, eyes still locked on her food. “I have a class with one of them.”
The tallest one leans sideways, angling himself to get a better look at Jezzie. His gaze flicks to me and he freezes in midair—like he’s Bambi staring into a semi’s headlights on a midnight highway.
Then, like someone hit his unpause button, he swaggers toward us, hands stuffed into the pockets of his sagging, oversized jeans. The whole outfit looks like it was stolen from the skater kids I went to high school with. “Jay, that you?”
Jay?
Red spreads over her cheeks as she quickly grabs a napkin and swipes it over her mouth. “Oh, hi, Colt,” she says in a forced, breezy tone.
She throws a please-don’t-embarrass-me glare at me.
I shrug. I’ll do my best but can’t make any promises.
Colt stops at the edge of our table and nervously glances between Jezzie and me, then runs his hand over his light-brown buzz cut.
“How are ya?” he finally says to her.
“Good.” She lifts her chin. “My brother’s visiting, so I’m showing him all the best spots.”
Colt’s shoulders ease down, and his mouth curves up—like he’s relieved to find out I’m her brother and not a boyfriend. If my little sister wasn’t involved, I’d find this whole situation funny as fuck. Their interaction is so…innocently awkward.
Now I feel like a dick for the way I overreacted to her talking to Remy at the track. Maybe she hadn’t been as into him as I’d feared. And, on second thought, maybe she’d be better off with Remy, so I could terrorize him on a regular basis.
Colt clears his throat. “Hi, I’m Colt.” He waves his hand in the air like a Muppet getting his strings pulled.
“Jensen.” I nod and resist my natural inclination to poke fun at him.
“I, uh…” He jerks his thumb over his shoulder. “Well, I saw you and wanted to say hi.”
“Yeah.” Jezzie stares up at him with a goofy, wide-eyed expression.
I bite the inside of my cheeks. Must not laugh.
“Nice to meet you.” Colt does the awkward Muppet wave again, then shuffles back to his friends, the bottoms of his ridiculous pants dragging along the floor.
“Don’t,” Jezzie growls under her breath.
“What?” I widen my eyes. “I didn’t say a word.”
She mashes her lips into a flat line. “Yeah, I guess you were pretty decent.”
“Later, Jay!” Colt calls out as he and his friends swagger out the door.
She whips around. “Bye!”
As soon as the door swings shut behind him, I squeeze my eyes shut and snicker in short bursts.
“Shut up!” Jezzie slaps my hand.
“What’s with the Jay and J-bird?” I ask, still grinning.
She lifts one shoulder, twisting a piece of pizza crust between her fingers. “I dunno. I kinda hate my name. It’s always embarrassing when people ask me what ‘Jezzie’ is short for. Who the fuck names their kid Jezebel?” She lets out a short, dry, humorless laugh. “She was supposed to be a whore.”
The bluntness of that knocks the smirk right off my face.
I exhale and lean back. “Nah, I always thought she was kind of a badass who stayed true to herself. Whoever wrote about her in the Bible was kinda biased.”
She frowns. “Yeah?”
Tugging on ideas and half-buried memories I haven’t thought about in over a decade, I add, “Sure. The people writing about her were all men in power. She pissed them off. So they turned her into the villain.”
A pained smile stretches across her face. “You remember Dad lecturing us about how Jezebel was the epitome of a bad woman. That used to make me feel like pig shit. Then he’d harp on modesty and obedience, controlling everything we wore, ate, learned…” She stares out the window.
I remember all too well. “Meanwhile, Ahab was out there being a weak-ass king and worshipping idols, but somehow, she was the problem. They couldn’t see the double standard.”
I reach over and touch her hand, drawing her attention away from the window. “She was a queen who was smart and strategic. Ruthless when she needed to be. But they reduced her to a harlot and used her name as an insult.”
She pierces me with soulful eyes. “And I get to carry that insult around for life.”
“They were all just stories he twisted and weaponized to keep us in line. But yeah, I know it was worse for you.”
She picks at the cheese on her pizza. “You’re lucky you got named before our parents went full-tilt Christo-crazy.”
Relieved we’re moving away from the Bible talk, I snort. “Jensen? You’re kidding, right? You know how many kids picked on me in school? I got called Jenny, Jennifer, you name it.”
A sly smile spreads over her lips. “Yeah, but if you ran into those bullies today, you’d make them piss their pants.”