I Shouldn’t Love Him (Book 2) – Chapter 48
He studied me for a few seconds, then nodded toward my parents’ house.
“Was that your sister yesterday?”
Of course he wanted to know about Tiffany. I should have realized sooner that she was the reason he spoke to me, but that wasn’t the case . Even though I was pretty sure he was Tiffany’s age, he seemed more mature.
I nodded.
w do you know?”
s a lot of
eyebrows fell.
ou know who she’s d
e told me.”
she likes and other things.”
d my chin. He spoke like my father, except when Dad said it, it was an order, not a suggestion
oked at my feet. “You dropped it again.”
d to put it back again.
et me do.”
h.
What?”
said.
insides tightened. The tips slipped from between his fingers again and again.
s knee brushed against my ribs, and
aid.
s and sticking them on her wall—Andrew Keegan, Luke Perry, Kurt Cobain—and this man was as wall-worthy as he was sweaty, dusty, and silent.
more than half of my white forearm.
sure.
d to connect the two pieces.
ow
was secure.
d, I t
alk home from school?”
What?”
y backpack.
ver walked?”
y was the first time.”
ead back, looking
et.”
anged the heel of his
ou old enough?”
ty of waiting for boobs.
aid. He seemed to expect me to
but I haven’t had time la
— You didn’t hav
until after seven. Mom must have been showing houses or attending a meeting. I had time now , but there were a hundred other things I had to do, like reading the list, studying for exams, or volunteering.
l have
16-year-old so busy?”
college,”
go to school?”
ening.”
Like a community college?”
ome up here? This backpack is as big as you.”
hing me.
“I d
at his feet, he took off my backpack and dropped i
What’s in there? Stones?”
of Wrath away and showed him inside.
ike me.
ook out a paperback book small enough to
hat is it about
rowed.
you know.”
eacher and classmates always used words like abstract, poignant, or metaphorica
any warning, not even a grunt
t was, but that wasn’t the point. He was strong, all dirt and grime, long and thin, his face and arms tanned by the sun. He could lift me. He could throw me away if he wanted. He could probably put me on his shoulder and walk thousands of miles without gett
se where men like him only existed in my glossy magazines.
man. I didn’t consider my father a man, and the boys I went to school with certainly weren’t. The sun was beating down on us, and it smelled of heat and sweat. It wasn’t bad.
name?” he asked.
?”
s jeans.
u?”
.
g.”
thing but smoke it.
” I asked.
?”
like you really want to smoke it.
tossed it behind his ear.
me?”
— I hate h
ds me.
— Tell me.”
gly.
“How can a nam
me, it can,” I said si
name, and it was no better than the stuffy-sounding Dolores from which it came.
of his mouth turning up. It was the first time I saw his straight white teeth. My heart skipped a beat. Underneath the dirt, the sweat, the callu
lines.
time,” he said.
cond to realize that I had wrapped my bracelet aro
ht not give back,” he said
y, before I could think about it. But it was probably the most brazen thing I’d ever said. “The what
asked, spread
s look. You said you would take him to a porn store.
awn” , he uttered slowly. “Pawn.”
ill confused. “I don’t know what it is.
ky.
u can take valuables for quick m
” “Oh.” My embarrassment was palpable,
ngs worse.
my impulses had oscillated between smiling, shaking, and many other things. Everything seemed dif
ant me to do it?
yes fixed on him.
ve one.
— When?
earlier. I had suggested that he might have given the bracelet to
t’
come check on me. I wasn’t ready to go home either.
r back, sitting as still as possible, hoping to blend in. After all, Tiffany was always looking at me.
looking attractive men .