Page 22 of Rough Rider (Bad Boy High)
"I had it done." He gives another one of those shrugs.
I duck my head, feeling suddenly shy because that's so freaking sweet. That's better than any flowers a man could get you. It's not the only one I notice either. There is another tag in the stairwell along with the door to my floor.
"You want to come in?" I ask when I slide my key into the lock.
"Yeah, I got you a few things." He takes off the bag he's got over his shoulder. I wondered what it was but wasn't going to ask.
When I let us into the apartment, Niki checks everything over. "Everything good?"
"As good as it can be." He drops his bag on the loveseat before unzipping it. He pulls out a box and another smaller one. It's easier to tell what the smaller one is. "You need a new one. Yours keeps dying." He hands it over to me.
"You got me a phone?"
"Yours dies in two seconds when it's not on the charger." I nod, a lump forming in my throat, but I choke it down. "And shoes." He taps the other box. "You'll take them."
"I'll take them," I agree. I shouldn't; he has his sister and mother to care for too. He doesn't need to be carrying me as well, but damn it feels nice that he thought of me. "It's an early birthday present."
“Only a few more hours to go until your special day.” He remembered.
This might be my best birthday ever.
Chapter Seventeen
NIKI
Andy’s apartment is pretty bare. A couple of the walls have sheer shimmery fabric hung up, and there are a couple plants that survived the previous break-in that have been resettled onto the window ledge in the living room. It’s liveable now, but the standards are low.
I shift toward Andy, who is unpacking her backpack. “What do you want to study?”
“Medicine. I’d like to be a nurse. They make good money now. I read that traveling nurses can make six figures. Can you imagine that?” She stares off blankly at the wall in front of her and then shakes her head, turning toward me. “Like what would you do with that kind of money?”
“Send my little sister to college.” College kids aren’t on the streets selling themselves or beating people up for money. They aren’t looking over their shoulders wondering who might stab them, with an actual knife, in the back.
Andy nods slowly as she ponders my response. “I’d buy a house. One of those houses that look like everybody else’s houses with a front porch and those chairs—do you know what I’m talking about? They’re big and lean really far back.” She tilts her head back to show me what she means.
“I know what you’re talking about, but I don’t know what the name is.”
“Starts with A like my name. Andy, Andrea, Andirondack.” She snaps her figures. “Adirondack. That’s what they’re called. Anyway, I’d sit in one of those and watch my kid play with other kids in the neighborhood. And I’d be close to the school which wouldn’t have graffiti on the wall and all the computers in the lab would work.”
“And your house wouldn’t have to be tagged with a gang sign to keep you safe.”
The corner of her mouth curls up. “Yeah, you get it.”
I do, and want those things too.
“What does it take to be a nurse?”
“Four years of schooling, but I can work my way up.” Her face is bright and animated as she talks about the nursing school. It obviously excites her. “There are these jobs called PCTs or patient care technicians. There’s no education or training required. It’s a tough job because you are at the bottom and you literally have to clean shit, and the hours and pay are terrible.”
“Is there a but somewhere?”
She giggles. “Yes, you get tuition assistance to study to be a licensed practical nurse, and from there I can save money to train to be a registered nurse.”
“You have it all planned out.” I have never looked that far ahead. My life is day to day or night to night or gerbil to gerbil. Andy’s way too good for me. I know it. I think she knows it, too, but for some reason she likes having me around.
I reach out and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “You have a man in your future?”
She shivers under my touch. “I hadn’t put one in there. No.”
