Page 75 of Genesis

I nod. “Damn right.”

Her phone vibrates, and she takes it from her purse.

“Who’s that?” I ask.

“I don’t know. I haven’t looked yet. Nosy.” She flips open the Razr I bought her last year and reads the text message.

“Well?”

“Geez. It’s none of your business who it is.”

I narrow my eyes. “Actually, it is.”

She closes the phone and puts it back into her bag.

“Actually, it’s not.”

“Are you trying to pick a fight?” I ask.

She narrows her eyes, lifting her menu just as the server walks up.

She asks us what we want, and we tell her before she walks off.

I sit back in the booth, looking at the girl who won’t tell me who messaged her and trying to figure out why she doesn’t feel the need to tell me. I bought her that fucking phone. I pay the bill on it. I’ll cut the damn thing off if she wants to play this game, although she could pay her own bill. She started working at a flower shop on the north side of town last year. There’s no need for her to work, but just like she’s doing now, she fought me on it. I recall the argument.

“I’m seventeen, Danny. I need my own money.”

“I can give you money if you need it.”

She shook her head at me in annoyance. “I don’t want your dirty money. If I want something, I want to be able to buy it myself.”

“So some days, I’m just not going to be able to see you? I mean, you go to school until three and then you’ll be at the flower shop until it closes.”

“We’ll see each other still. Don’t be so dramatic.”

It hurt that she was just shrugging this off. Did she not want to spend time with me? But I didn’t want her to see how she’d turned me into a little needy bitch.

“Whatever, Bex. Do what you want. You will anyway.”

I didn’t win that argument, but I’m not dropping this one. We’ll get through dinner first because I am starving.

We don’t speak throughout the whole thing. I eat and she picks at her food.

“You done?” I ask.

She nods.

I sigh, toss down some money for the bill, and stand. She looks up at me before standing and we head out to the car, me lighting a smoke along the way.

She opens her door and I start the car after I climb in, too. After rolling down the window, I look down at the wheel, trying to figure out what I’m going to say here. Why does she feel the need to keep this from me?

How often is she talking to other people? I shake my head slightly. I don’t mean other people. I mean guys. She’s with them all day at school. She’s a fucking catch, too, so what’s stopping them from trying to pursue her? Why wouldn’t she pick someone her age who’s got a better future planned out for himself? Not some street kid who does things that are on the wrong side of the law.

I hit my smoke as the engine idles, and then I press the clutch, shift into reverse, and back us out of the parking lot, heading to my house where her car is.

Chapter Thirty-One

Danny

---