could, but my heart sank as I spotted him out front by his car, a few other tatted up gangsters lurking around as they looked beneath the hood.
"Lookin' good, sweet thing," Axel hollered as I sped by and I called some vague greeting as a shudder slipped down my spine. That guy had ‘run away’ stamped all over him, but I also couldn’t just tell him to go get fucked like I wanted to thanks to his Harlequin status. So I maintained the smallest amount of politeness I could get away with around him and mostly just tried to avoid him whenever I could.
With my cell dead and the night closing in, I quickly turned left at the end of the street and decided that JJ was my best bet. His house was closest, and his mom was pretty sweet when she wasn't too busy entertaining clients.
I raced down the familiar streets to his house, but just as I arrived, a guy strode up to the front door, swaggering like he thought he was the man even though he clearly had to pay for pussy if he wanted any.
I hung back as I watched JJ's mom answer the door and let him in, then I hurried ‘round back and found a few pebbles to toss up at his window.
I had to throw eight of the fuckers before he finally appeared, looking bleary eyed in his boxers as he shoved the window open to look down at me.
"What are you doing here, pretty girl?" JJ called.
"Rosie sold me down the river, so I'm on the run. I'm here for a sleepover," I said with a grin.
JJ cleared his throat, looking over his shoulder for a moment and the sound of his mom's moans coloured the air, letting me know why he was hesitating.
"Come on, J. You know I don't give a fuck about some sex noises, and it's not like I can go to any of the others' places."
Harlequin House was always out of the question unless Luther happened to be away which was approximately never, so I couldn’t go to Fox and Maverick’s and Chase would have a heart attack if I got within ten miles of his dickhead dad.
"Oh, so that's why you picked me?" JJ asked, half teasing, half frowning.
"No. I picked you because you're my favourite."
JJ grinned at that then nodded and I tossed my skateboard up for him to catch before grabbing hold of the drainpipe and scrambling up to his window.
He caught my hand and helped heave me inside and I grinned as I looked around his room. It wasn't exactly spotless, but JJ liked to keep the place clean, so the mess was more of the comic books and stolen hair products variety than there being any dirty clothes tossed about the place.
"Oh, baby, use me like you own me!" JJ's mom screamed from the room next door as the mystery man grunted like a pig.
JJ winced but I didn't give a shit. People did all kinds of things to survive in Sunset Cove.
"I was listening to some music to drown it out," JJ said, pointing to his bed where a set of headphones were plugged into an old school ghetto blaster.
I grinned at him and kicked off my boots before jumping onto his bed and patting the mattress beside me invitingly.
JJ pulled on a pair of shorts then grabbed a chair and wedged it beneath the door handle before joining me. The single bed wasn't really big enough for two, so our shoulders were jammed together and I was half crushed against the wall, but I didn't mind.
JJ offered me an earbud and I put one in while he claimed the other, the sound of Love the Way You Lie by Eminem and Rihanna reaching me and mixing with his mom's continued screams of, "You're so big, tear me apart, big boy, rip me open."
"Wow, she makes sex sound painful," I joked and JJ snorted, though his cheeks were pinking.
"I think she's stroking his ego. She told me once that all men love hearing how big their dicks are, especially if they're actually not at all. So..."
"So. Fucking. Big," his mom moaned and I giggled.
"You think he's actually got a tiny pecker then?" I whispered.
"I generally try really hard not to think about that at all."
I laughed and rearranged myself so that I was lying on my side as I tried to get more comfortable.
"Okay, so why don't we play a game?" I