Page 34 of White Hole

“I don’t want you here.”

“Yeah, well, too bad.” I grabbed trash bags and cleaned up. Opening a window, I let the fresh fall air do its work.

“Shut that window! It’s freezing!”

“No. It reeks of death in here.”

“Good.”

I reached into my bag and pulled out a novel. Mom used to love to read. Tossing the book on her lap, I went back to work. She flinched.

“What’s this?”

“Great Expectations. You’ll like it.”

She harrumphed at me.

Usually, she cascaded me with insults. Today, she was being stoic.

“Anything wrong?” I asked.

“I told you I don’t want you here.”

“Who will take care of you?”

“George, I do that myself. Besides, you can’t even take care of yourself. Aaron was helpful. You’re useless. All you’re good for is running to tell your father about everything I do. He doesn’t need to know about me.”

There she was. I nodded, finished up my work, and made sure her groceries were put away. Then I left to a barrage of insults.

Xavier

Warehouse at 11

Looks like I was heading to the club again. I wasnotgoing to see if Kinsley would show. But if she did, I could keep an eye on her. Maybe get a read on if she was trying to use me.

Would definitely not have sex with her. Probably not. Most likely. Maybe not have sex with her. Who was I kidding? I was going to fuck her into the next year.

I may have spent a little extra time getting ready. Not that I was expecting anything. But I did put on a white button-down with my black dress pants. And sprayed my cologne. That was a normal thing for Friday night club nights. Really.

Somehow, I got stuck driving Mason to the club. Levi had been missing in action and Xavier was taking his girl. If I was hoping for silence on the trip, Mason always disappointed me.

“Get any good lays lately?” Mason asked me when he jumped into my truck. He wasn’t in TRZ. Not sure why he didn’t drive himself and meet us there.

I turned up the volume on the radio.

“Fine, fine. You don’t want to talk.” He looked out his window, and I thought that was the end of it. “Man, I hooked up with this one chick with the mayor’s son. Barrett Grant? Yep. Both of us fucked her at the same time.” He made some weird seal laugh.

Didn’t surprise me that Barrett Grant was into that kind of thing, but I wondered how close Mason was with him. “You friends?”

“With Barrett? Nah. Just happened to be at his parents’ party with my parents and the Cardells.” Mason was Xavier’s cousin. Mason’s mother was Malcolm Cardell’s sister. Cardell Enterprises owned the town and everyone in it. My father had probably been invited, as well. I stopped being a showcase son in middle school.

“And?”

“And we hooked up with this girl… Layla, I think her name was. She wanted to fuck the mayor’s son. I tagged along.”

“Good for you.” I hoped to God Almighty that was the end of the story.

“You ever do DVP?”

---