“Yeah, I had a lot of those in my vocabulary too.” Though I’d never dared fling them at my parents.
“They forbade me to leave and wouldn’t help me get to Florida. I basically ran away from home. I hitchhiked and stowed away on freighter trains to get there.”
“I didn’t know that. At fourteen? You’re lucky you didn’t get mugged... or worse.”
“I know. There were a couple of scary incidents. When I got there, I handed over a parental release form with forged signatures. That first year, I kept waiting for the police to come and haul me back to New Mexico. I guess my parents never filed a missing person’s report though. I got the feeling they were waiting for me to fail and come back with my tail between my legs. That made me more determined than ever to succeed. I put an insane number of hours into my training, and when it paid off, and I started winning tournaments at the pro level... I don’t know. I thought they’d be happy, that they’d admit they were wrong, and that my choice had been right. That it’d all been worth it. But they always thought it was a crime to pay people money to play sports. And they never agreed with the jet-setter lifestyle, flying all over the world to compete. A waste of oil and the precious few resources the world has left.” This time she was imitating her dad’s voice—I’d known the family long enough to recognize the words without the impersonation though. “Even when I was succeeding beyond my own expectations... it didn’t matter to them. They never called or wrote, but I heard their words through my cousins’ mouths. They felt they hadn’t raised me right. They saw me as a failure.” Temi’s usual equanimity had faltered during her soliloquy, and she leaned back, blinking rapidly with her eyes toward the rafters. “I can’t go back there and prove them right.”
“Temi, you’re not a failure. It’s not a crime to go down a different path than the one your parents have in mind for you. It’s normal.” I probably should have patted her on the back and offered a sympathetic shoulder instead of a lecture, but I wasn’t good at comfort and commiseration. Besides, I didn’t know what she thought about our last meeting as teenagers, but I didn’t want her to think I was trying to hit on her.
“I’d believe that if they hadn’t been right in the end. The life I chose... I didn’t think it’d be so fleeting. I thought I’d have plenty of time to go back to school once I finished my pro career, and that I’d have enough money at that point and wouldn’t have to worry about finding a place to stay while I studied.”
I decided not to point out that she would have money now if she hadn’t been buying Jaguars and who knew what else. I probably would have made similar frivolous purchases if someone had handed me a few piles of cash.
“You could sell the car,” I said.
“I know. That’s on the table, but I wouldn’t get nearly what I paid for it two years ago.”
“Better sooner than later... like after it gets mauled by a rock-throwing monster. You keep hanging around with us and that’s liable to happen.”
Temi managed a smile. “Why do you think I opted for separate lodgings?”
“I assumed Zelda wasn’t up to your usual sleeping standards.”
“Oh, I don’t know. The van doesn’t seem much worse than the Motel 6, but you and your... friend are proving to be magnets for trouble.”
Before I could decide if I wanted to refute the comment, or explain that, yes, Simon and I were indeed just friends, my phone beeped. I pulled it out, expecting another “They haven’t moved yet” text message. Instead it read, Got something. Come get me?#p#分页标题#e#
Even though I was sure he had an ulterior motive in this tracking scheme, my heart rate still took a jump when I read the note. I grabbed the books and knickknacks I’d found. “Time to check out.”
“What does that entail in this industry?” Temi waved toward the items and their lack of price tags.
“Haggling with the owner until neither of us gets a price we’re happy with.”
“Ah.”
“Then we rush over to pick up Simon before he gets himself into trouble. More trouble.”
Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, Magic
CHAPTER 12
Business had picked up at the Raven Cafe by the time we returned, finding Simon at the same table, hunkered over my laptop. There weren’t yet enough people that the servers felt compelled to glare at him for hogging seats when he’d finished his meal hours earlier.