Reading Online Novel

Flowering Judas(27)



Kenny didn’t think it was natural.

Now he pulled his car into the Frasier Hall parking lot and turned the engine off. If there was anything good that had come of the last couple of weeks, it was definitely that this situation had turned him into a much more conscientious student. School was the only place he could go with a completely clear conscience, and the only place he could say he’d been without everybody at home being ready to kill him.

He got his books off the passenger seat and got out of the car. It was a good car, a BMW, and even if it was old, it ran well. He’d bought it to resell about a year ago, and then he hadn’t been able to let it go.

He locked up carefully when he got out, and as he did he saw two girls coming up the long walk that led to the building itself. There was a pretty one and an odd one. He was sure they were both in his English class. The odd one was very odd, but he liked the look of the pretty one. There was something—comforting—about her face.

Comforting was the wrong word.

“Hey,” he said.

The girls stopped. They both looked exhausted, and the odd one looked like she was about to burst out of her clothes. They all seemed to be made of Spandex.

“You’re in Dr. London’s English class, aren’t you?” he said. It sounded to him like he was trying too hard. Maybe it was just that he wasn’t used to the sound of his own voice. He’d been trying really hard not to say anything his mother could hear.

“That’s right,” the odd one said. “Not that I would be if it wasn’t for Haydee here. I mean, for God’s sake, it took four years to get out of high school, and now we’re here. Does that make any sense to you?”

“I’m Kenny,” Kenny said.

“I’m Desiree,” the odd one said. “This is Haydee. We’ve been walking for an hour. I’m about to fall the fuck down—”

“Desiree,” Haydee said.

“I’m not supposed to cuss anymore,” Desiree said. “That’s her idea. Dr. London doesn’t cuss, so I’m not supposed to cuss anymore.”

“Why have you been walking for an hour?” Kenny said.

Haydee took a deep breath. “We don’t have a car, and there isn’t a bus that’s convenient. So we walk here.”

“Walk here from where?”

“From Thomaston Avenue,” Haydee said.

It took Kenny a minute to put it together. “From the trailer park there? You live in the trailer park? And you walk all the way here? That has to be five miles. What do you do when class gets out?”

“We walk back,” Desiree said.

Haydee blushed. “I’m saving up for a car. I mean, I almost do have enough, for a used one, you know. But I want to be careful. I mean—”

“You walk back in the dark?” Kenny said.

“I know,” Desiree said. “We’re going to get mugged. Or murdered. Oh, wait. I mean, I’m sorry, you know, I didn’t mean—”

Kenny sighed. They knew who he was. He should have expected that. On the other hand, neither of them had brought it up, so maybe that was a good sign.

“We’re not really going to get mugged,” Haydee said. “If you ask me, it’s more dangerous at the park than it is here. And it’s good for us, walking. It keeps the weight off.”

Kenny did not say that walking had not kept the weight off for the odd-looking one. “I think she’s right,” he said to Haydee. “I think it’s dangerous. There isn’t a bus or anything you could use instead?”

“It’s not convenient,” Haydee said.

“She means it costs a dollar and a half,” Desiree said. “You wouldn’t believe this girl. She won’t spend money on anything.”

“I’m saving up for a car.” Haydee looked near tears. “And it really isn’t dangerous. It really isn’t. Not as long as we’re together.”

“So what if I get sick?” Desiree said. “What if I get sick and tired? What happens if I can’t come? For God’s sake, Haydee, I’m sick of this already and you know it.”

Haydee looked one or two breaths from breaking down. Kenny watched her carefully. He didn’t really believe that she was only shaken and out of breath because she’d just walked a long way. There was definitely something else happening. He knew all about something else happening.

“Listen,” he said. “I’ll take you home. Tonight, you know, and any other night I’m in class. I try to be in class, you know, so that would be all right.”

“She won’t miss classes at all,” Desiree said. “She comes in when she hasn’t had any sleep or she’s just worked twenty hours straight or any of it. She’s crazy.”