“She is.”
“She’s cute.”
Watch it…
“She is.”
“You guys are in the same homeroom.”
“What’s your point, Asher?” I snap, not knowing what he’s getting at.
Asher sighs loudly, grumbling under his breath.
“Seriously, what the hell is going on?”I slip into Spanish easily, throwing the words at him like he understands. We’ve been friends for a few years now and he’s still not well-versed.
“Nothing is going on!” he says roughly, an eye-roll clear in his voice.
My eyebrows shoot up.
“I’m impressed you knew that,” I say. We’re getting closer to the edge of the road, where if we turn north and follow the road for about ten minutes, we’ll be in town and another ten minutes from Asher’s apartment. I always get nervous walking this road. If someone sees us walking on the side of the road, they could report it and get the cops involved. Being fifteen means they’d have to contact parents or get the government involved. Not only that, but making this trek while one or both of us are injured is abitch.
“Seriously, why do you care about what I think of Roxie so much?”
Asher sighs and in the darkness, I can see him shrug.
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yes, if it gets you to stop asking me every two seconds what I think about her.”
“I think you’ve been dealt a hard hand in life. We both have, I know,” he says quickly when I immediately try to rebuttal that. “But you seemed happier today at lunchtime eating shitty fifty cent ramen then I have seen you in…a long fucking time. She was sitting there and you tried your best to keep your eyes off her, but the moment you looked at her, your whole face lit up.”
I shake my head, sighing. “Here I thought you weren’t the observant one.”
“I mean, when your energy shifts from broody, dark, asshole to love-sick puppy dog, it’s pretty drastic,” he says with a teasing tone, and I shove him roughly making him fall off-balance. “Damn it, Ty!”
“Oh don’t be a baby. Come on.” I hold my hand out and help him up, his dramatic ass looking at me like I punched him out. We start walking again and I think about what he says. “Sheneeds someone. A friend. A protector. Someone. And she’s this picture of rough and tough in a small little 5’5” lithe frame with black hair and combat boots, but I can’t tell if it’s a front or not.”
“And you want to be that someone?” he asks in that way that suggests he doesn’t actually expect an answer, dropping the metaphorical mic, and going to the treeline so we can walk into town with some coverage from cars driving by.
“I…I think I do.”
CHAPTER 5
It’sinsane how a few workouts can completely change your life. I’m hooked on boxing.
I want to feel this powerful for the rest of my life.
“Roxie, could you come here please?” Becky, my foster mom, calls up the stairs and I can hear tears in her voice. My stomach drops.
“Yeah, sure. Let me just grab a sweater,” I call back and the unsettling dread creeps over me.I’m being moved.
Whatever.
Fuck them.
Fuck this place.
I walk down the stairs with my head held high, and come to a stop at the bottom where Tom and Becky stand anxiously awaiting me.
