Page 36 of Wrath

I wake to knocking and a sunlit bedroom. Find myself on top of my duvet, still in my pants from last night.

My head hurts like a bitch.

"Open up the fucking door! I need to get a shower!"Millsy.

I roll off the bed, gather the bottles, stuff them back into the box spring.

"What?" I manage.

"Wake up! We have to get ready for school!"

I shut my eyes. "Are we gonna car pool, Millsy?"

I walk into the bathroom and unlock his door. "Me first," I shout. I'm grinning as I start the shower, picturing his wide-eyed, blue-eyed baby face in my head.

Ten

Josh

Idon’t know what the hell is wrong with this prick, but I’m not going to be his ride to school.

I grab his wrist and jerk his hand away from the passenger door handle.It gives me a twisted kick of satisfaction—that shocked look on his face.

“Whoa, Mills.Forget to eat your Wheaties?"

My heart pounds so hard that I can feel the heat in my face. "You're not getting in my car, dickface."

"Until?"

"Until?" I make a sound like a laugh. "You arenevergetting in my car. I heard you talking to my mom as I came down the stairs and sorry that your car's not registered like it should have been. The time to do that was last week, so it sounds like your problem."

Ezra’s pretty face is careful. "No one told me."

I drag air into my lungs, my eyes lingering on the straps of his black backpack. Fucking bastard doesn’t even have a normal backpack. I grit my teeth and wave at his car. "Go, Masters."

"Oh, so I'm Masters now?" He lifts a brow. Out here in the driveway in the morning light, I can confirm that he looks like a different person than he did a few weeks ago—bulked up, tanned, and showered, in a fitted black T-shirt and the gray shorts my mother bought him.

I give him a scoff. "You're no one."

A mean smile’s twisting my lips as I slide into the driver’s seat. I put the key in the ignition, and he moves into my line of sight. He’s standing right in front of my car—because of course he fucking is.

I crack the window just enough so he can hear me say, “You want another black eye, dickface?"

He steps toward the window. "I won't talk to you."

I'm clenching my jaw so tightly it aches. That's when I hear my mother's voice call, "Joshua?"

Through the passenger’s side window, I see her waving from the porch, and I know how this will end.Dammit.

I crack my window slightly more. "Get in thebackseat, dickface."

I'm surprised when he does. He sets his backpack beside him, rolls his window down, and waves at my mom, and she waves back at the two of us like we’re the fuckingBrady Bunch. A little while ago, she took a picture of us both in the kitchen, as if we're real brothers. Ezra’s got a shiner, so he told my mom and Carl that he rolled off the bed last night and hit his face on the nightstand.

"You're a fuck," I say as I pull out of the driveway.

"I know."

I'm so surprised by his agreement that my eyes fly to the rearview mirror. Ezra lifts his brows. He must be in a rush to show me what a fuck he is, because as I'm processing that exchange, I hear a click-like sound and glance back again to find him lighting up a cigarette.

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