Page 9 of Genesis

“You closed your eyes while you were flying down a hill on a skateboard?” he says.

“That’s what I said.”

He shakes his head. “You really do have a death wish, boy.”

“She lives next door,” Samuel says, looking after her like he’s seen an angel or some shit.

I smirk. “Looks like Samuel’s got a crush.”

“Do not,” he says, his face turning as red as the fire hydrant. I look toward the girl’s house, something inside of me oddly wishing I could tell Samuel I met her first, but I shove that shit away as I look over my shoulder, trying to see my back. It’s burning like crazy.

Paul spins me around. “Come on,” he says. “We need to clean you up.”

I reach down and scoop the board up before we four start to walk up to the house, forgetting about busted fire hydrants when we hear the sirens approaching. Someone must have reported the water.

Johnny pulls open the metal door, wincing when he does. His arm is still sore.

“You might need to get that checked out,” Paul says.

“Nah, I’d know if it was broken,” Johnny replies. Over a year ago, Johnny’s dad snapped that same arm with a baseball bat. But that’s not all that’s happened. The boy’s been choked, punched, and even had a rib fractured. He took it all like a champ, but it was sick and twisted.

I have zero regrets about what we did.

My brothers haven’t suspected a thing, and so far, Bexley has kept her word.

“I guess you’d know,” Paul says. I drop the board in the foyer and we four kick our shoes off.

“Go wash up, boys,” Ma yells from the kitchen.

I shove Samuel into the wall and take off running up the stairs with him right on my tail. At the top of the step, he grabs my foot and trips me. I bite my tongue when my cheek lands on the old hardwood, but turn around and yank his arm down before twisting him so his back is on my front. I wrap my legs around his waist and put him in a chokehold as he taps my arm repeatedly.

“Cut. It. Out,” Paul says to us, giving me a kick in the ribs, hard enough for me to loosen my grip on my younger brother. “We gotta clean your back. Come on.”

Samuel coughs and takes a deep breath as I stand up, wincing from my back and my bleeding tongue.

“You’re such a fart-knocker,” he says, grabbing the stair railing. “One of these days you won’t be able to do that anymore, Danny.”

I grin, looking at Johnny. “We’ll see about that.”

Johnny smirks as I walk into the bathroom after Paul, looking in the toothpaste-splattered mirror. Crimson shines on my teeth and I spit into the sink as Paul gets out the peroxide and Neosporin. Around here, we go through this shit like candy on Halloween.

“Warn me bef— OUCH,” I say, jerking away from him. “Dude!”

“My bad.” He chuckles. “You got some major road rash.”

Samuel stands at the doorway. “That’s what you get for being an idiot.”

I reach my hand out to grab him, but Paul yanks my arm as Samuel stumbles backward and falls on his butt. “Will you two stop?” Paul barks.

I grin because my little brother is on his ass. He gets up, sticking his tongue out at me.

I wince when Paul pours more peroxide onto my back. Straightening my spine and arms, I ball my fists. This isn’t the first time I’ve fallen on the skateboard, but it’s the first time I fell because of a person.

Bexley Walker has stumbled into our lives out of nowhere. I think about a few nights ago when I was sitting on the roof watching the house burn and the firemen do their best to try to stop it. I wondered when they would discover Johnny’s dad was in there.

I wondered what his body smelled like as his skin sizzled, and then I saw her run out of the house next door. She looked upset. When she took off running, I only had one thought.

Where is she going?

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