I glanced up to look at his face as I wiped my palms over my cheeks. His eyebrows pulled together, and his stormy gray eyes reflected my own sadness.
“Stop that,” I whispered. “Stop looking at me like you pity me.” My gut twisted in embarrassment, and I wished I could run away from here. I let my long hair fall in front of my face so I could hide behind it.
“I’m not. I swear. I just want to make it better. Are you missing home again?”
I shrugged as my eyes danced over his hair because I didn’t want to look him in the eye when he answered with some rude remark.
“If your mom is so damn mean to you, why aren’t you happy to be away from her?” he continued. “You’re here with me.”
“I’m not crying over my mom, and trading one cage for another isn’t exactly a step up.”
“Then why are you crying? You’ve got give me something. It’s not like you can run away.” His muscles tightened in his face as he clenched his jaw. I remained silent as I looked him over. He was cute, and it pissed me off, because I knew outside of this hellhole he wouldn’t give me a second glance, and soon we’d both be out in the real world.
“Fine. Have it your way.” He moved next to me and took a seat on the floor, groaning as he relaxed his head against the wall.
“Just go away.” I whispered, and he turned his head to face me.
“So you still can talk. I was worried you’d stroked out on me for a second, Bird.”
I smiled despite trying to keep my scowl in place.
“She smiles too.” His hand went over his chest. “Now I’m the one who’s speechless.”
“Oh, wow. That was lame.” I rolled my eyes, but my smile grew, and I glanced at him as I tucked my hair behind my ear.
“You’re harsh. I didn’t know you had it in you, Bird.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For talking to me,” I told him. “I know you didn’t need to waste your time in here with me.”
“Is that what you think? I’ve wasted my time?” He stretched out his legs, but his face didn’t relax.
“You know you have. I’m going to be out of here soon, and it would be social suicide for you to show your face with me in school.”
He laughed loudly, and I couldn’t help join in. People turned to look at us as we disrupted whatever mundane activity they were doing. “You think I give a fuck what anyone thinks about me?”
“You honestly don’t care if people make fun of you for being around me?”
He smiled as he shook his head. “All I care about is what you think. What do you think, Bird?”
“I think you’ll change your mind once we’re out of here.” My eyes drifted over his black shirt, which was stretched tautly across his thick chest.
I ran my fingers through my dark hair, my fingers getting snagged in a snarl, and I groaned in frustration.
“It’s that quail soap or whatever the hell they call it. All the girls walk around here with messy‐ ass hair. Don’t worry about it.”
“Mine kind of always looks like this.” I raised an eyebrow.
“It suits you. Makes you look wicked crazy,” he joked, and I smiled, despite my sadness.
“I’m not crazy.”
“You sure? Well, I’ll make you a promise. I won’t tell anyone you aren’t bonkers if you don’t tell them I’m really a nice guy.”
“People are only nice if they want something.” I pushed myself to my feet and stretched. Brock stood up beside me, and I walked back around the corner and down the long hallway that housed the bathrooms and bedrooms.
“This again? What do you think I want from you?” His gaze flicked to mine, and my cheeks burned under his stare.
“I don’t know,” I said. “We barely know each other.”
“What do you want to know?” he asked, as he watched one of the girls walk by us and down the hall to the main lounge.
“Why did you run away?”
He sighed and ran his hand over his face as he slowed his pace. “This really isn’t going to help my case in making me look like a good guy, Bird.” He chuckled. “Well, I ran with a pretty crazy group of guys in Boston. They liked to take shit, cause fights. It was a tough neighborhood. You had to either fit in with them or be one of the pussies who got their asses beat to fund the next ripper.”
I drew my eyebrows together a she shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “A ripper is a mad‐cool party.”
“Wow, sounds like a great place. I can see why you wanted to go back.”
“It’s all I know, and after Laurie…this place is too…quiet.”