Page 36 of Second Draft

Safe.

And the worst, lust.

It’s foolish to even think about it.

But he makes me want things I never wanted before. Craving something I can never let myself have.

“He’s just so…”Confident. Sexy. Strong. Gorgeous.

“Yeah. You’re not into him at all,” Kira teases, obviously reading my thoughts on my face.

I sigh, heavily. “I can’t afford to be.”

Her lips tug down and she shakes her head, expression suddenly serious. There’s something else on her mind. Something she’s been wanting to say since she got here. I can see it in her eyes.

“What?”

“Nothing.” She fidgets with the throw pillow she’s holding in her lap.

I know the look she’s giving me and it’s definitely not nothing.

“Tell me,” I demand, narrowing my eyes. “Is it Max?”

“No. Max and I are great. It’s…” Her face scrunches when she winces, then takes a deep breath. Apology is written all over her pretty features when she says, “Your parents were asking about you the last time I went home.”

Oh.

Little prickles of warning bite at my flesh.

“You saw them?”

“At church.”

I exhale a shaky breath, my insides twisting thinking about them, about Kira talking to them. Almost like it’s a betrayal of our friendship, even though I know it’s not. I shouldn’t be surprised that she spoke with them.

We grew up an hour and a half north of here in a small town, attending the same fundamentalist church. She still goes whenever she’s home, which isn’t very often, especially since her family found out she was working in a bar and had a major flip out. They practically threatened to disown her if she didn’t quit.

That’s the type of people the town breeds.

Judgmental.

Critical.

People that shun anyone who disobeys any one of their million rules.

Like me.

Kira got out of there as soon as she had the chance. The day after graduating, she hitched a ride out of town. It was luck, or fate, that she started working in the same small diner that I rented an apartment above.

We reconnected. Our friendship bonded on our rebellion.

I didn’t have to tell her all my dirty secrets, because she already knew them – everyone in Springcreek new.

It’s the reason I left at fifteen. Stole a hundred dollars from my Dad’s underwear drawer and hitchhiked to the first town where I could find a job.

The first few months I was afraid that my father would show up and try to drag me back home. But it soon became obvious that he wasn’t looking for me. Nobody was.

“You should go see them,” Kira says.

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