Page 7 of The Delivery

“You a sponsor?” he asks, crossing his arms in front of his chest, all of his fingers coming to rest under his armpits except for his thumbs.

“No!” I say, eyeing all of his bracelets, made of cloth, string and leather. There are a few silver bangles that clang together when he gestures. I wonder if he showers with them or if they’re the kind that never come off— each one symbolic of something to him. It doesn’t take much to imagine him in the shower. Water running down that beautiful body. I can’t stop the images. Sure, I’m a sexual person, but I’m not usually so brazen.

The bracelets. Sometimes kids in the system become extremely attached to material things, endowing them with huge emotional significance. It gives them something to hold onto when their lives are unstable and people are taken away from them. A bear, a blanket, a picture of family.

“Janey is, Jennifer is, even Pedro at the front desk. Practically everyone who works here is. Except for me.”

He nods his head and then jerks his chin toward me.

“Pick someone for me. Whoever you think would be a good match.”

“I’d say Brigitta. She’s from Germany, popular with everybody. All the participants love her. She’s really easy to talk to.”

“Is she as pretty as you are?” he asks, leaning further forward, his elbows coming to the edge of his knees. He interweaves his fingers and cracks all of his knuckles. His eyes are dark and smoky and roaming all over me. He’s challenging me, feeling out my responsiveness.

My sympathetic nervous system shoots into overdrive. I try to form words, but his abrupt come-on has left me speechless.

“We don’t, we don’t… at Pathways we don’t value people based on physical appearance. We don’t, you can’t… We adhere to a code of mutual respect that upholds specific and important boundaries.”

Mozey rises as I stutter like the nervous bird he’s turned me into. He pulls his arms behind his back, then yanks on one wrist and pulls on the other until I hear his whole spine crack. He’s loosening up while every one of my muscles is seizing up.

“Never mind, Lana. I take it back. You’re not pretty,” he says with annoying ease and walks right out of my office without looking back.

My mouth is hanging open. I can barely form thoughts let alone sentences. Did he just tell me I was pretty and then take it right back?

I slam my head down on my desk. Again. I’m defenseless against the effect he has on me. Mozey makes me want to crawl away into the sand and disappear. (With him, preferably with him.)

CHAPTER 4

Janey comes dashing in seconds later, sloshing coffee out of her mug all over the carpet.

“Watch it, Janey!” I say, regaining my composure.

“What the hell—sorry, I heard all that on speaker phone.

“Great. Why, can I ask, are you spying on me?”

I dialed to let you know he was coming in and then you pressed the button—and I didn’t hang up.”

“It’s fine. Nothing happened. He just makes me flustered. The kid knows how to get under my skin.”

“Yeah, well he’s hot, and H-O-T spells trouble.”

I snort on the sip of coffee out of the mug Janey’s just handed me.

“Should I try to see if they’ll transfer him to another program?”

“You’re overreacting, Janey! I swear. I think I can handle it. Remember last year? The kid who threatened me with a knife? The one who got my home address?”

“Yeah, but that was a knife. This guy is threatening you with hotness, which could start all sorts of problems.”

“I’m not afraid. He’s just a cocky kid. But, we have to keep him—he’s incredibly talented.”

“He’s trouble. He kind of looks like a girl. A hot, muscly girl. He’s got better hair, longer lashes and bigger pec tits than me. He’s basically a hotter girl than I am, and he’s a dude. Could he maybe be gay?”

“So not gay. Not at all gay.” But now that I think about it, Mozey somehow seems so voraciously sexual he could consume both men and women, like his appetite would be insatiable. Hell, maybe he is kind of gay. What do I know? Can you even be kind of gay? Sometimes I think my brother is.

“Why is he so forward with you? If you ask me, he’s already way too comfortable.”

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