“Remember, Erin’s coming back on Monday.”
The surly girl he shares his apartment with. “Sure.” Today’s Saturday. Still have two days to recover.
“Just warning you so she won’t catch you dancing naked in the living room.”
I laugh. “As if. Relax, man. You worry like an old woman.” I make light of it, even though it’s no secret Erin dislikes me.
“Somebody’s gotta worry about you, fucker,” Zane says quietly. “Might as well be me.”
I swallow hard as I flip him off. Might as well be him because there isn’t anyone else who gives a damn, is there? “Have fun with your sis.”
He leaves the room and I watch him go, absently rubbing an old scar on my upper arm. Zane would never throw me out, but I can’t stay and cause him trouble. It’s about time I left and returned to hell.
Despite my bold resolution, I stay until Monday. I borrow Zane’s laptop—he gave me the green light some time ago—and I surf the net, looking for a job. My options are limited without a high school diploma. Waiting on tables. Cleaning offices. The usual.
I’ve done it plenty of times before. In fact, I’ve just lost one such job, because I had to lie low and lick my wounds for a few days. I didn’t come directly to Zane’s, but after two days on the streets, I called him and he immediately invited me over.
Zane has saved my ass too many times to count. I’ve been on the streets before, running away. Is that what I do best? Run?
The dream returns to torture me.
I rub my chest and call the numbers in the ads. Turns out the positions have already been filled. No big deal, at least that’s what I tell myself. I’ll try again tomorrow and the day after, again and again, until I find something. Another thing I’m good at: not giving up, no matter how lost the cause seems.
Except for Audrey. I gave up on her and now it’s too late to get her back.
Dammit.
Erin is a diminutive brunette, a pixie with large dark eyes and many silver hoops on her ears. My older brother, Tyler, used to hang out with her before he left never to return. Back then I thought she liked me, or at least didn’t mind me.
These days, though, hatred for me emanates from every pore of her being. Maybe it’s because she’s friends with Audrey and Dylan. Dylan certainly isn’t carrying a fucking banner for me.
Well, it’s that or she’s fed up with me hogging the sofa so often. I can understand that. I’m pretty much fed up with myself most of the time. For not fighting enough. For fighting too hard. For running away. For staying and taking it.
For not seeing the way out.
When she arrives and finds me in the apartment, she lifts her chin and frowns. “Hey, Ash,” she says in her most bored voice as she lugs her duffel bag to her room. “Didn’t know you’d still be here.”
Right. “I won’t be after today. I’m leaving in about an hour, in fact.”
A light flickers in her dark eyes. She’s pleased, is that it?
That makes me angry, but what right do I have to be? It’s her apartment. She pays for it. I’m a squatter, and she hasn’t agreed to an impromptu sofa hugger.
All of a sudden feeling tired, I gather my few things—my change of clothes, my toothbrush and toothpaste, my socks, and stuff them in my beaten rucksack.
I have to go back home. I don’t have money to rent a place. My temporary jigs don’t pay much and all I earn goes into Dad’s pockets for his drinking debts. I have to stick it out, get my shit together, find a better job.
Maybe Zane can help me. I should talk to him; open up, tell him the whole story, the whole problem—not just the bits and pieces he’s gathered. Maybe he’s
got better ideas than I can come up with.
But I’m not sure I want to open up. Or that I can move out of Dad’s house. Who will take care of him when he passes out drinking? He’s the only family I have left. He’s still my dad when he’s sober.
Meanwhile, I take my leave from Zane’s apartment. I am, once more, on my own.
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Candy Boys (SAMPLE)