Rock Radio - By Lisa Wainland Page 0,15
back over his outfit, then put it back in the closet. Larry slipped on a pair of white sweatpants. He had exactly twenty-four hours before he would see her. He figured he could take the time he had left to work out a bit more, tone up a bit more.
Besides, the exercise would help relieve his sexual tension.
“Oh, Dana,” he murmured, quickly grabbing his pillow, pretending it was her. Larry caressed the top of the pillowcase as he had done a million times, then kissed the sheet firmly.
Yes, Larry Carter was ready for Dana Drew.
He only hoped she was ready for him.
Chapter 7
Cody Blue Smith changed the locks on the house. It didn’t matter, his father never returned after the night with the gun. For all his drunken bravado, his father was a coward.
Cody’s mom was resentful of Cody’s actions, glad for the beatings and abuse to have stopped, but sad to see Kevin’s income disappear. She was forced to get a job as a waitress at the local truck stop. She earned some money, but not nearly enough.
“I’ll help support us, Momma,” Cody promised. He got a job at the local convenience store after school. It didn’t earn him much money, but it was enough to help pay for the basics. They had no car, his dad took that when he left. They did the best they could to make things work without a vehicle. They had to, there was no other option.
The house was his grandparent’s old place that his mom had inherited so there was no mortgage. The main expense was electricity and food which Cody and Jane’s meager paychecks barley covered. So they ate a lot of pasta, used the lights and air conditioner sparingly and tried to get by.
Cody’s job combined with track practice didn’t leave him much free time, but he wasn’t willing to give up track. He really enjoyed it and he was really good at it. His coach mentioned he might be good enough to get a scholarship for college. That was all Cody needed to hear. College was his ticket out of his small town. An education from a good school meant a good job and an even better paycheck. So he devoted himself to the track team, pushing himself harder and harder with each race, winning again and again. His persistence paid off. Senior year he was offered a full scholarship to the University of Florida in Gainesville, just a stone’s throw from Pinetree. It was perfect. He could go to school and still be near his mom. He knew she needed him.
He needed her too.
Jane was elated at her son’s acceptance into the university. She only wanted the best for him. A wish fueled by the guilt of his childhood. If he could make something of his life, then maybe her life wasn’t such a waste after all.
Cody started UF in the fall. It was the first time in his life that he was on his own. The first time he was free.
Now Cody could date. Really date.
He told the girls he met that he was from Waldo, a town just outside Jacksonville. Waldo was too far away for a quick visit with a new girlfriend, but close enough in similarities to his home in Pinetree that he could sound like he grew up there. No one at school knew him or his family. No one knew that he was lying. And no one had to.
College was freedom. Cody shed his skin and all its scars, all the horrors of the past and the shame of his poverty lay dead on the floor. He started school with a clean slate. All people knew was that he was an athlete. A title he was happy to have.
Cody made friends easily. He lived on campus for three years, unusual, as most students moved off campus after the first year, but living in the dorm was affordable. His senior year he moved into a house in the student ghetto, an area just north of campus. He was still walking distance to school, so the fact that he didn’t have a car didn’t matter. Cody’s roommates were three guys who had known each other since they were kids. They were from Fort Myers, on the West coast of Florida. They’d never heard of Waldo and didn’t care. They met Cody in one of their auditorium classes and became fast friends. Two hundred students in one room and they ended up next to each