“Shannon?” I whispered, depleted.
“Yes?”
“It’s not safe for me at home anymore. I have to leave.”
Her eyes instantly filled with tears. “I know you do, Samantha.”
I turned one of her spectacular spiral curls through my fingertips. “You will forever be the best friend any girl could ever ask for.”
“I know,” she replied. “I’m pretty special.”
“Yes, you are.” I wiped the tears rolling down her cheeks.
Her voice heavy, she asked, “Where will you go?”
“My aunt was already contacted, and she agreed to take me in. By next week, I’ll probably be gone.”
“Okay, then,” she said, putting on a brave face. “If that’s the case, we need to find Keith and let him know.”
“How would I do that, Shan? I’ve been looking for him for weeks. He doesn’t want to be found. Maybe… maybe it’s best to just go.”
“But you love him.”
“Yes. But sometimes that’s not enough.”
“That’s not how romance novels end, Samantha.”
“Yeah, well, mine sucks. The end.” I gripped Shannon’s hands and looked her in the eyes. “But enough about Keith. I need to know if you’ll be okay by yourself at school. I hate the thought of you sitting at the lunch tables by yourself. Can you sit with Mia or Nicole maybe?”
Shannon lowered her gaze and looked away.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she hesitated. “It’s just… I’ve sort of been lying to you. I don’t have a fifth period class. I can actually leave school before lunch. I just stayed so you wouldn’t have to eat alone.”
The space in my heart reserved just for her expanded. I might have been unlucky in family and unlucky in love, but I was a winner when it came to Shannon O’Malley.
17
Keith: The Debt
Iwas too out of it to hear him coming. It wasn’t until his hands were lifting me off the sofa and throwing me across the room that I got the memo that Steve was in the house. After hitting the wall and sliding to the floor, I struggled to pick myself back up, but it was useless. I was too wasted.
“Where is it?” he demanded, before the toe of his boot connected to my stomach. I could pretend I didn’t know what he was talking about, but we’d both know it was a lie. I owed him money, which he in turn owed to his bosses and so on and so forth. We were all heads on the same totem pole, mine being the one at the very bottom.
Placing my hands in front of me in hopes of calming him down a little, I said, “I was given three days, dude, and I still have one to go.”
“No, idiot,Iwas given three days.Youwere given two. The way it works is you pay me, I pay them, and everyone’s happy. But see, now you’re breaking the pattern, and that doesn’t make anyone happy.”
Once I’d started using again, I found it wasn’t as easy to get my supply as before. Brett Valentine was bitter over my abandonment and resistant to feed the newly resurrected habit of his rival. He’d all but driven me out of his district, forcing me to go straight to the source for my stash. And sadly, that source was a smarmy dude named Steve who was always there to offer bigger and better highs, all at a price that was getting harder and harder to afford. But I was willing to do anything to ease the pain and keep my brain in a perpetual state of lethargy. I’d found my way out… but at what cost? Because cannabis wasn’t doing it for me anymore, I’d been forced to move on to opiates, and from there, I’d worked my way down the ladder to hell.
Another swift kick to my ribs smacked the breath clean out of me.
“Get up so I can beat your ass to the ground again.”
“Come on, man,” I tried reasoning. “Look, you know I’ve got issues right now. My brother, he’s missing, and I’m doing my best to keep it all together. I promise, Steve. Tomorrow you’ll have your money.”
Jake. I hated myself for dragging his good name into my mess like it was some excuse. He deserved better… so much better. Weeks had passed with nothing. No miraculous reunion. No waking up from a horrendous dream. Not even a body to bury with a proper goodbye. Jake’s absence had left a gaping hole that was getting wider every day.
