Break Me (Brayshaw High) - Meagan Brandy Page 0,60
Me and Micah were thinking about checking things out, finding a waterhole or something somewhere. Want to come?”
Annoyance slams over me, erasing the last few minutes.
“Do I want to come with you and Micah?”
Her eyes tighten, but she nods.
I lick my suddenly dry lips, gripping my shirt near my chest and pulling the wet material away from my skin. “When’d you plan this?”
“On the ride home last night,” she tells me, glancing over her shoulder quickly as she drops the soiled gloves in a garbage bag.
“So you’re gonna run around town with Micah all day, huh?”
She looks my way, gliding her fingertips along her temple, a curious expression on her face. “And Valine.”
“Valine.”
She nods. “Tall, tan, curly brown hair,” she lays out her basics as if I don’t know who lives in our group homes and need a reminder. “Miss Maybell said she has the hardest time with her. I guess she’s tough to handle, doesn’t get along with the girls, but I taught her how to make omelets today and she didn’t try to burn me with the frying pan.”
“That’s how you decided she’s not a serial killer?”
Brielle laughs. “I think she needs some free minutes of careless fun, I know I do.”
“That’s weak-minded.”
She studies me and then starts walking backward for the house. “Right, well, you have fun doing whatever it is strong-minded people do, and maybe I’ll see you later.”
“Man, little Bishop, you’re on a fuckin’ roll, aren’t ya?” flies from my mouth before she can get a step farther. “Already got friends, plans, and a backbone.”
She gapes at me. “Are you serious right now?”
“Are you?” I snap.
Her head draws back.
“I’m sorry,” she drags out, tipping her head like a brat. “Am I supposed to feel bad right now, because that’s crap. I’ve spent four years studying, sitting in the dark, fixing things other people broke, all while having no choice but to go to a school I hated, in a town that hated me. So, if you’re trying to guilt me for wanting to spend a couple hours with someone my own age, who doesn’t look at me and assume they know who I am, and do something fun and simple, don’t. It won’t work.”
“You sure?” I walk toward the porch and call her out like an asshole. “‘Cause you look like you’re ‘bout to cry.”
She throws her hands up with a little growl and stomps her ass two steps down, bringing us eye level, face-to-fucking-face. Our mouths dangerously close and both curved with frowns.
“You know what, fine,” she forces past clenched teeth. “Call me a liar because now I do feel guilty, but only because for a split clearly wasted second I thought maybe I hurt your feelings for not asking you first. That’s dumb of me though because you’re the one who said I’m not here to be your friend.”
“You forget where I said don’t trust those who want to be yours?”
“Well, good thing for me, Valine isn’t interested. I’m pretty much forcing myself on her ‘cause sometimes that’s what helps break through to people. She’s alone in her mind, like I have been for years. Sue me for not wanting someone to deal with what I have.”
“Little Miss Fixer, huh?”
“I don’t want to fix anyone, and it’s not like we’re off to get matching flower tattoos or brushing each other’s hair. I only want to offer my company to someone who might actually want it, even if she says different.”
Maybe I want it.
Wait, no.
No. no...
I get us back on track. “And Micah? How’s he fit into this?”
“I’ve gone to school with him for years, Royce. I know him well.”
“Well,” I repeat. “Which kind of well, little Bishop?” I shuffle closer until my shoe has no more room against the step. “You know what kind of topping he likes on his pizza, or is it that you know the face he makes when he comes?”
I wait for her to shout, deny, or run away to cry, but she does none of this.
Instead, she calls me out.
“Don’t stand here and act like you didn’t ask him all this when you hired him, and no,” she bites out. “He didn’t tell me that. I knew I was being watched, and two and two makes four.”
Watching her?
“What do you mean watching you?”
She sighs. “There’s no reason to deny it now.”
I’m not denying shit. He was watching her, but for a fucking day to make sure no bullshit came her way because of me.