Page 10 of Them Bones

“There’s been worse than you, in this house,” she said, her voice like razors.

“Worse than a guy who punched you in the face in a parking lot?” His gut curdled horribly at the words, his knuckles tingling with regret.

She sighed. “Look, my brother is…” a shadow passed over her face, but she shook it off, “not here right now. Ma’s around, sometimes. She’s… a lot. But she won’t care. Just buy her a carton of menthols.”

“I don’t have any money,” Shane said bluntly, for once not bothering to pussyfoot around the reality of his circumstances.

“Take Dustin’s job,” Laney shot back. “For now, anyway. It's vacant, in case you didn’t notice the giant cast he’s hobbling around on.”

“Was it those twats at the bakery?”

“No.” She didn’t elaborate. “Andy pays him twenty bucks a shift, from 3:00am till 7:00am. Sometimes 7:30 or 8:00, if Andy doesn’t show up, and Dustin has to wait for the counter girl.”

“Do I get extra for that?”

“No.”

“That’s basically slave labour.”

“Dustin is ten years old. He does it for cash.”

“I’m seventeen, and I need more than twenty bucks a shift.”

“Okay high roller, what are you making right now at yourother job?”

Shane clenched his fists, but she wasn’t wrong.

“Right, well, that’s all sorted then.” No balk. She didn’t even blink. She just picked up the insanely large cereal bowl now full of sugar-milk with two hands and downed it like a keg stand.

“You’re very bossy,” he said with a grimace.

“I’m also very right.”

He chuckled, despite himself, and she smiled in earnest before she winced, slapping the bag of peas back to her face.

He hesitated for a moment before reaching across the counter, careful not to touch her hand, and pushed the peas up a little so that they were covering more of her cheek and eye.

“I really am sorry,” he said. His heart squeezed a little, thumping an uneven rhythm.

“I’ve had worse,” she shrugged.

And with a scowl, he decided it might not be such a bad idea for him to stay after all.

SABRINA

Sabrina had shown up to the bake shop to find it empty.

She considered calling Andy, to tell him that the weird kid who barely talked and shuffled around staring at his feet hadn’t shown up that morning and they had nothing to sell. But then Andy would make her close the shop, and she needed the hours.

She wondered briefly if the kid was okay, if she should call… someone. But she didn’t have his number, and he’d always beenso rudeto her.

She left the light turned off and the closed sign facing outward, propping up her feet and picking up a really old, dusty magazine with Edward Furlong on the cover.

Easy money,she thought.

SHANE

Shane had no idea what to do with himself. After chugging her nasty purplish sugar milk, Laney had led him down the hall and pushed open a crooked door hanging slightly off its hinges. There was nothing personal inside, just a mattress on the floor and an old beat-up dresser.

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