Page 15 of Lonely
Carter tried to look at me over his shoulder.
The air between us was charged with something sharp and uneasy.
His burning green eyes pierced me as I circled him, noting the red blooming on his cheek.
I wanted to cup his chin. But he pulled away, denying me the feel of his scratchy scruff beneath my fingers.
His silence was louder now. Louder than Mother’s ever was.
His soft cock rested between his thighs, nestled atop those full, round balls.
He wouldn’t let me touch him.
I knew he wouldn’t. Not now.
This time, he would use his words.
This time, he would tell me to go to Hell.
After a long, tedious shift, I exited Wellard with my umbrella tucked under my armpit.
A crow had been pecking at the remains of a dead rat at the bottom of the steps, but when the door shut behind me, it took flight, abandoning its meal.
I sidestepped the bloodied pebbles. The rat’s eyes were gone, macerating inside the bird’s digestive tract.
Walking past the Cherub fountain, I was almost to the parking lot when Anna’s Renault Clio spluttered and died. Shemust have turned the ignition again, because the dying sound started back up. The car coughed, but the engine failed to turn over. She tried again, then gave up and dropped her forehead to the steering wheel.
I debated my options, because the last thing I wanted to deal with was a young woman with car troubles, but before I could turn around, she exited the vehicle.
It took her a moment to spot me, but then she looked up and hurried to wipe the tears from her rosy cheeks.
“Sorry, Doctor. I didn’t see you there.”
Goddammit. It was too late to turn back now. My smile felt forced and awkward, and I wished I had stayed in my office.
Somewhere behind us, flutters of wings broke the silence as a swarm of crows descended from the roof to peck at the dead rat. The scent of wet grass and decaying leaves reached my nose, and I twitched it because it itched, but I didn’t want to scratch it. Not when Anna’s eyes were growing bigger and rounder by the second.
Instead, I cleared my throat. “Car troubles?”
She took it as an invitation to wobble over in her high heels, which sank into the gravel, and she smiled brightly, like a ray of sunshine. She was too innocent for a dreary place like this.
But maybe Mother had been right. Maybe the Devil was into trickery.
My left eye twitched with each step, catching the glimmer of her ankle bracelet in the gray afternoon.
“Do you know much about cars?” she asked.
I knew nothing about cars. My knowledge was limited to the car wash events the school used to organize to raise funds. Every year, it turned the boys in my year into brainless spider monkeys because of Tessa Miller’s big breasts. She’d rub them on the windshield for a few bucks, and if you were lucky, you might seeher nipples through her white T-shirt. She had big areolas. The boys liked that.
Now, as the rain drizzled, I pictured Anna’s areolas.
Were they big, too?
Did I like them big?
I had never slept with a woman. They were terrifying creatures, and they were all the spawn of the Devil. Mother reminded me every Wednesday.
“Do you mind giving me a ride home?” Anna asked, batting her lashes the way Tessa Miller would when Chris O’Connor walled her in with his corded arms against her locker between classes. Chris O’Connor had a mean streak. When he wasn’t sucking on Tessa Miller’s big areolas, he would flush my head in the toilet or fill my locker with trash and used condoms.
