Page 34 of Sweet
“What I have to do. I’m going to run. Again.”
And again.
And again.
And again, until the memory of the dumb kid named Spider who was pretty good at tattooing disappeared from everyone’s mind. Hopefully he wouldn’t be an old man before that happened.
“Spider, that’s not a solution. You can’t live like this,” Betsy said. “You’re never going to have a future if you keep running. You’re always going to be looking over your shoulder.”
“Tell me what the hell I’m supposed to do then?” He looked at her. “You’re the smartest person I know, Betsy. Tell me what I should do that will keep Daisy safe. And you and Emmie. And Bill and Ruby. Hell, this whole town has been good to me. More than a skinny gangbanger deserved—don’t even try to argue. And now the one thing I can do to return the favor and keep everyone safe is leave.”
“And break Daisy’s heart.”
Spider felt his chest ache. “I don’t want to do it, Betsy, I just don’t see any other way. If I’m wrong” —he reached over and squeezed her hand— “tell me how.”
Chapter 11
Daisy woke up before dawn,having slept fitfully through the night. She’d had dreams of a car accident and felt jolted and sore. There were taillights disappearing and a sudden vacuum of cold that sucked the breath from her body.
She got up, used the bathroom, and then returned to bed, hiding under the covers to escape the cold in the old brick building with wooden floors.
“Daisy?” Emmie whispered outside the door. “Are you awake?”
“Yeah.” Daisy kept her voice low. “You can come in if you want.”
The door creaked open, and Emmie slipped inside the bedroom, her pale blue sweatpants nearly the same color as the light peeking through the window.
“Hey.” The girl looked flustered. “I heard you last night, but I didn’t want to get in trouble. Are you okay?”
That was a good question. Was she okay? In a sense, yes. She was fine. She was physically well, had options for her future, and eventually her parents would calm down. No doubt they thought she was shacking up with her “secret boyfriend,” but they wouldn’t think she was homeless or anything.
“I’m okay.” She checked her cell phone, and there was one call from her mother and another from Kiko. “Give me a second, Em.” She called Kiko back and waited for him to pick up, knowing that it might go to voice mail before he answered. Her little brother was a sound sleeper and it was early.
“Yeah?”
“Hey, Kiko, it’s me.”
“Are you okay?” He cleared his throat. “Mom and Dad waited up last night, but you didn’t come home. You’re at your boyfriend’s, right? Or Olivia’s place?”
She hadn’t even thought about her cousin, though that was definitely an option. “I’m at Betsy’s place. Emmie’s mom is gone right now, so I spent the night here.”
“At the bookstore?”
“Yeah.” She sat up. “Just tell everyone I’m fine, okay? I don’t really want to talk to Mom or Dad right now.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Were they more pissed about the school thing or the boyfriend?”
Across the room, Emmie’s eyes went wide.
Kiko answered, “Definitely the school thing. And the fact that you didn’t tell them sooner.”
“Dude, I’ve been trying to tell them for, like, a year now.”
“Don’t get mad at me; I wasn’t surprised.” Kiko yawned. “But seriously, who are you dating? Why’s it some big secret? He’s not married or anything, is he?”
“Ew! Kiko, what the heck? I would never—”
