Page 242 of Remorseless
“Oh, brother,” Axel grumbled.
He stood, but Rebel didn’t pay attention to what he might be doing.
“Do you have a bandage, sweet?”
Rebel feared asking Kaia why. She considered punching the side of his head and knocking him out to spare both of them, but she doubted Momma would appreciate the violence.
Rebel cleared her throat. “Are you injured?”
“I scraped my knees falling for you.”
“Brrrruuuuhhhhhh,” Uncle Digger said, laughing like a hyena. “Who told you that was a good line?”
“Rebel,” Kaia said, not dropping his gaze.
“I didn’t!”
“You said I was deep.”
“She fourteen,” Daddy grumbled. “She’d think a fucking one inch hole’s deep.”
“That isn’t true!” Her father’s opinion insulted her. “And I’m almost fifteen.”
“You told that motherfucker he was deep. A five-year-old would laugh at his motherfuckin’ ass.”
Uncertainty crossed Kaia’s face and Rebel glared at her father. He was making it worse.
“Kaia,” she huffed, “I like when we talk normally. Please stop with the poetry.”
“Poetry?” Axel said. “My dick rode a bike and pedaled all fucking night. He flipped and flopped but never stopped, ‘til he rode right out of sight.That’spoetry.”
At all the laughter, Axel grinned and stuck out his little chest. His slingshothung halfway out of the front pocket of his jeans.
He roamed to a bowl of Styrofoam balls that Momma bought for him to practice with in the hallways on rainy days.
Enabling his criminality but whatever.
“Do you like my poetry, Rebel?” Kaia demanded, his eyes graver than ever.
“Fuck no!” Daddy blared. “Doyoulike that bullshit, Kaia? If a bitch told you half the shit you spout to Rebel, you’d run from her and lose her fuckin’ number.”
“I’d be honored,” Kaia insisted.
“We can talk about it later,” Rebel said quickly. “I’d prefer your poems kept between us.”
Kaia kissed Rebel’s cheeks, startling her.
“What are you really thinking, sweetheart?”
She’d just told him what she was thinking. Why wouldn’t he believe her? And where was her sense of self? Why was she allowing Kaia to overrule what she wantedandmake a jackass out of himself in the process?
Fear, she realized. She liked his attention. She was worried what would happen if she stopped talking to him. Would another boy show interest in her? Even now, she was kept on a tight leash. She didn’t want to ruin what felt like her only chance to talk to a guy.
“What am I thinking about?” she said. “Er, I’m wondering what Momma and Mattie are doing. I’m a girl. I should be with the girls. Girls belong with girls and guys belong with guys. And—”
“Bro, shut up,” Ryder ordered. “You’re rambling. What’s wrong with you?”
“No, pleasedon’tshut up,” Kaia said. “Let her ramble. Her voice is like the bellow of an alligator during mating season—”
