Page 46 of Amethyst Flame
With a fifteen-year-old? Oh hell no. “My money goes to help pay for my mom and me, and it’s been tight.”
“Well, I could sleep on the couch.”
It was occupied already by a wannabe spy. And a real one was on my ass 24/7. “Look,” I said again, “there’s no way—”
“Fine.” She cut me off like she didn’t care. “Forget I asked. I’ll stay with my friend.”
Yeah, but that wasn’t going to last. Not long term. “You could try opening negotiations with your father.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“It was a suggestion, dumbass.”
She sat back, matching my stance. “Rude again.”
“Dumb again,” I agreed.
She smirked as I dug a few wrinkled bills out of my wallet and threw them down on the table. I had to get out of there. This was way too much drama for me right now.
Poking at them fussily to reveal the lone twenty, she scowled. “That won’t get me far.”
“You’re not going anywhere anyway.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Sure I do. You’re just following in your big sister’s footsteps.” I grabbed my drink and the bag holding the remnants of my pretzel and started to stroll away. Eventually, Bri and her dad would work it out. I had enough problems.
“Hey,” she called. “Aren’t you going to try to make me go home?”
I glanced back at her. Without changing the angle of my head, I noted the rainbow bracelet curled around her wrist. “Do you want me to?”
She lifted her chin in a defiant way I mighta had some passing familiarity with. “Of course not.”
I shot her one of her own smirks. “Then you’re on your own.”
She grabbed the money and stuffed it in the front pocket of her baggy black jeans. “I know what reverse psychology is. I looked it up after my first court-ordered psych eval.”
“It’s only reverse if you’re going the wrong way,” I said as I sauntered away.
On the escalator down, my phone pinged.
Rude AGAIN
Don’t be dumb, I typed.AGAIN
But even if she was, the moths I’d sunk into the metal of the bracelet would help me find her.
It was a cluster of a situation though.
Seemed like my fatherwasan asshole. I’d suspected it all my life—based on the abandonment and yawning void of silence from him—and now it was confirmed.
Why then were my guts twisted into painful knots?
At least I had my mom.
I slowed… Maybe I should’ve invited the kid over for a sleepover or something. Or at least told her to come by the Freeze for a free smoothie.
No. I picked up speed again crossing the parking lot. I had no time for sleepovers. And being around me was dangerous anyway. I was a fucking spy on a mission.
