“Do you mind me asking how much you have right now?”
“Including what’s in my bank account? About twenty grand.”
Her jaw dropped open. “Wow. Then, yes. We need to get you to a bank or something.”
“Not a bank.”
“Why not? Don’t you have a bank account?”
“I do, but my father can access it at any time.”
She paused. “Wait, your father still has access to your bank account?”
I nodded. “He does. I’m working on that, though. I placed a call today to a completely separate bank. I wanted to open up an account and I’ve already got an electronic transfer in the works. Come tomorrow morning, the account I have right now should have all my funds transferred into this new account my father can’t touch. Then I’ll put this money in my account.”
“Once you know your father can’t access it.”
“Exactly.”
She puffed out her cheeks. “It makes me sick you even have to go to these lengths.”
“My father’s a control freak. Any amount of control I can rip away from him puts me in a much better position.”
“Is it bad that I kind of want to wring his neck?”
I chuckled. “You and me both.”
I worried that being seen with me would be bad for Rae. But she didn’t seem to give a shit at all. We got to talking so much that we weren’t paying attention to where we were walking. It wasn’t until the smell of her neighborhood caught my nose and I realized I’d walked her to her doorstep that I understood why I had aimlessly walked here with her.
Because for days, all I’d wanted was to come over and lie down with her.
“I probably should’ve walked you back to school, huh?”
She snickered. “I’m kind of over school right now.”
I furrowed my brow. “Why?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Just not resonating with me right now.”
“Rae, you can’t let your—”
“I know, I know. Clint, my grades aren’t slipping. I’m not behind on work. In the whole of my high school career, I’ve had four absences. I’m good. I promise.”
I sighed. “Okay, then.”
“I just don’t want to be bad for you. And I feel like the more I’m around you, the worse for you I become.”
She opened her front door. “I mean, if you want to get technical, none of this shit started happening until you broke up with me. So, I guess I have an argument for how not being with you is bad for me.”
“Do you always have an argument for everything?”
“When people try to dictate what’s best for me instead of letting me do that? Yes. Come on in.”
I stood my ground. “I’m not sure if that’s smart.”
Rae snickered. “Stop denying yourself what you want and get the hell inside. No one’s home.”
“Which is the issue. I’m bad news, Rae. And the more wrapped up in me you get, the more of my life you get with it.”