Although I could no longer see him, I knew Keith was staring at me, intrigued. I’d just given away more than I’d intended to part with.
“Sam?”
I didn’t look up.
“Saaamm.” This time he sang out my name and nudged me with the toe of his sneaker. I looked up only to find him assaulting me with that heartthrob smile of his. I didn’t stand a chance.
I made a scene of laying down my pencil and sighing. “What, Keith?”
He leaned in, his hot breath inches from my tingling skin. “I feel like you’re keeping secrets from me, babe. I mean if you can’t trust a reformed drug dealer, then who can you trust, am I right?”
Despite all my reservations, I laughed. “Fine. I’ll tell you my secret if you tell me why you’re always looking over your shoulder.”
Pulling away from me, Keith returned to his crisscross applesauce position on top of the library table. I wasn’t certain, but I thought I saw him flinch. For all his positivity, the past few weeks had not been easy for him. He had an addiction that needed breaking, and that wasn’t something that disappeared overnight. And as if that weren’t bad enough, he also had to untangle himself from the drug trade. Keith talked a good game, but I knew him well enough to know when his insecurities came calling.
“You know who Brett Valentine is, right?” he began.
“Yeah, your friend.”
“Well…” Keith grimaced. “I’m not sure I’d call him that anymore. You know how when a dictator comes into power, he executes anyone who poses a threat to his authority? Well, if Valentine is the new ruler, where does that leave me?”
My eyes widened in response to his question, but then fear overlapped the surprise. “You think he wants toexecuteyou?”
“Well, not in the chop your head off kind of way – at least I hope not – but Valentine wants me gone. And he has the backing of my former boss. So, yeah, I’m a little freaked out.”
“Keith, this isn’t a joke. You need to say something.”
“Right, because tattling on the bully is absolutely the best thing to do in a situation like this. No, I just need to lie low and not draw attention to myself, that’s all. Okay. Your turn. Who are you trying to get away from?”
My shoulders slumped as I spoke the words. “My mother.”
“Your mother? Why? Does she not cut the crust off your sandwiches?”
“She’s not a good person is all. Now let’s drop it and get back to work.”
“Well now, hold up. You want to move thousands of miles away because your mom’s a bitch? If that were the criteria, there’d be an annual pilgrimage into the heartland.”
“She’s worse than a bitch, Keith.”
I fought the tears pushing their way to the surface. I couldn’t let him see me cry. Exposing my weaknesses would give Keith the ammunition he needed to destroy me, if that was his desire.
“Hey…” He reached over and touched the back of my hand with his fingertips. It was just the quickest little contact, but it meant more to me than he knew. “You okay? I didn’t mean to make you cry. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s not you. My mother… she just – she makes me feel worthless.”
His fingers now slipped around my hand. Keith stared deep into my eyes before lowering his voice. “Why haven’t you said anything?”
“To you?” Telling someone like Keith, who had what seemed to be the perfect family, that my mother was verbally abusive... and worse… well, that would just bring all kinds of shame to an already embarrassing situation. If he only knew what a coward I’d been.
“Yes, to me,” he replied seeming slightly offended. He dropped my hand, making me long for the warmth of his touch. “Why not to me? We’re friends, aren’t we?”
“I…”
Even though he hid me from everyone in his life, he’d been more a friend to me than every other student in the school, with the exception of one curly-haired superhero.
“Yes,” I smiled. “We’re friends. And I guess I haven’t said anything to you for the same reason you haven’t told me about your dictator issue. I’m just lying low and not drawing attention to myself until I get into college and…”
“Move as far away from her as possible.” Keith caught my eye as he finished my sentence. Did I hear disappointment?
