Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 113837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
The speaker cut off, and a car zoomed around the corner of the building. When I went back to the fryer, Nikki smirked at me like she knew something I didn’t. I flipped her off even though she probably would make good on her promise to cut me, but whatever.
I already anticipated that between her and Bellamy, tomorrow would be absolute hell.
At this point, my life was becoming a joke. After my shift, I didn’t even bother going home. What was the point? I was just going to sit in that house alone, watching TV, eating Push-Pops, and feeling sorry for myself. Because after my afternoon at Rockbottom High, I was definitely throwing a pity party.
I pulled up in Olivia Bennett’s drive, then knocked on her front door. She was one of the few girls I’d befriended in my brief stays here during holidays. Without Genevieve here to console me, she was the next best thing. It was kind of shitty of me that I hadn’t contacted her until now, but I’d been wallowing, mourning.
A huge smile shaped her face when she opened the door. “Drew? What are you doing in town?” Her gaze dropped to my Frank’s Famous Chicken shirt. “And why are you in that shirt?”
“I’m back for the rest of the school year. And dad made me get a job.” I left out the part about him making me get a job to pay him back. It was too depressing. I’d done the math, and with the eight dollars I made per hour, it would take me three years to pay back the twenty thousand in tuition Dad said I owed him.
“Ew.” She snarled her lip at the shirt as I stepped inside. “So, wait, are you coming to Barrington?”
I let out a sigh. “Do you have wine?”
Two glasses of wine later, I was sprawled on Olivia’s plush bed, surrounded by a mountain of throw pillows while she stared at me like I’d grown two heads.
“Dayton?” She looked repulsed. “Your dad is sending you to Dayton?”
“Yep.” I sat up and took another swig of wine, but there wasn’t enough wine in the world to drown out the shit show that was my life.
“I…” Her mouth opened, then closed. “You’re going from Black Mountain to Dayton?”
I nodded.
And the look on her face told me I was in for a horror show. “Just don’t go.”
“That’s what he wants, Olivia. He wants me to be a brat about it, so he’s justified in his bullshit.”
“It’s your funeral.” She sat up, pulling her long, blond hair into a ponytail. “Just stay away from the gangs and the girls. And don’t use the bathrooms.”
“Gangs? They have gangs?” Dear God, was I going to leave with a teardrop tattoo on my cheek?
“Yeah. It’s inner-city, babe. There are drug dealers, and if you piss off the wrong girl, they will absolutely, one hundred percent, come at you with a razor blade. Like, they are going to hate you.” Shaking her head, she took the wine bottle and brought it to her lips. “Like hate.”
I fell back onto the bed, staring at the sparkling chandelier. “Great. Just great.” And I wasn’t even going to tell her about my slutty little rendezvous with the token bad guy.
“Last semester there was a rumor that they found a dead body behind some of the lockers at Dayton. And I wouldn’t doubt it.”
“That’s going to be me,” I said, fighting back tears. “Killed and shoved into a locker.” I needed more wine. “And then I’m going to come back and haunt my dad’s ass.”
I could have dealt with Barrington for two months, where I at least knew Olivia and her brother, Jackson—I could at least blend in. I knew Dayton was bad, but by the sounds of it, I might not survive two months there. There had to be a way out of this.
* * *
The next morning I woke to the distinct smell of bacon cooking. I found my father in the kitchen, a frying pan in hand. . My gaze trailed from his graying hair to the ridiculous-looking apron covering his dress shirt and slacks.
“Oh, hey. Good of you to show up,” I mumbled, then went to the coffee machine and started it. “So, have you actually seen that school you decided to send me to? Do you care if I get shanked in a hallway?” It wasn’t even a stretch.
He flipped a piece of meat. “Have you always been this dramatic?”
“Only when my wonderful father sends me to what is basically one step up from reform school.”
“As far as I’m concerned, Dayton is reform school for you before you go to college.”
A flash of anger jolted through me. I’d been kicked out of Black Mountain for “cheating” on a test. Which was bullshit. I’d never cheated on anything in my life.