Page 43 of Worth the Trouble

This is why I don’t step past the point of one night with a woman. I know what I’m good for—what I’m worth. No point thinking beyond it when I learned it at such a young age.

“You feel so good.” Maxine moans and rolls off me.

She reaches for a joint on the nightstand and lights it up. The glow of the lighter turns her red hair orange.

“Here.” She takes a drag and then holds it, handing the joint out to me.

I take it and let the smoke take me away. Besides music, there’s nothing more relaxing than smoking and fucking. Especially when Dad’s on a bender and hasn’t been home in a few days.

“Feel better now?”

“You know it.” I grin at her. “But I’d feel better if we went again.”

Maxine swats at me as I try to reach for her. She’s always too quick and one inch out of my grasp.

“I can’t. My parents are going to flip if I’m not home by midnight.”

She leans in and takes a hit of the joint straight from my hand before hopping off the bed and reaching for her jeans.

“Just stay. Who cares.”

“Some of us have responsibilities.” Maxine buttons her pants and narrows her eyes. “Besides, if they even knew where I was, they’d kill me.”

“God forbid Miss Honor Roll gets fucked by trailer park trash, right?”

She frowns and pauses putting on her shirt, looking from me to my room. We both know I’m right, even if the truth is ugly. Her parents still think she’s dating that douche from the basketball team who comes from the same kind of money and bullshit she does.

“Rome…” Maxine climbs back onto my bed and crawls across it to me. “Don’t say shit like that. You know I like you.”

“You like to fuck me,” I correct her.

“Well yeah, but I also like you as a person.” She straddles my lap and plants her hands on my shoulders. “Don’t pretend you aren’t in it for the same reason. You were fucking Sarah just last week.”

She’s not lying. I was. Except I didn’t like Sarah.

I’m not even sure if I like Maxine or if it’s just that she’s willing to come over, and I feel less alone in this dump of a house when she’s here. But it doesn’t matter. She’s right.

“Come on, Rome.” She swivels her hips in my lap.

A distraction.

I’m not smart, but it doesn’t mean I’m an idiot either. For all the crap I get at school about using women, people don’t realize it goes both ways.

“Fun,” I say, planting my hands on her hips and wishing it meant I was actually holding a person and not just an idea I’ll never fully realize.

“Exactly.” She leans in and plants a barely-there kiss on my lips before hopping off me. “Tomorrow at eight?”

“Sure thing, babe,” I say as she grabs her shit and barrels out the door, leaving me once more alone in my own personal hell.

I take a hit of the joint, but even that isn’t enough to carry me away from my thoughts. Because she’s right, if I’m honest with myself, I don’t like her any more than she likes me.

She’s here for the same reasons Sarah was—to fuck the bad boy and whisper to their cheerleader friends about it. And I’m here to get lost in anything that feels better than what my body’s been conditioned to for my entire childhood.

So why can’t I just accept that’s all I have to offer? Not like there’s anything good if they dug deeper down.

Use me, lose me. Doesn’t matter. At least sex is something I’m good for.

“Expecting a call?” Merry nudges my shoulder.

---