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"Just whatever, Erin It’s all good," he said with a shy sood, Wes?" Brady Beck chided "Hoould you know? I didn’t know you’ve been sluuys chuckled and made stupid noises

Weston’s cheeks were already flushed froht red paint brush across them and slapped him … twice They turned two shades darker The rosiness of his cheeks against his e not to stare at those eyes since grade school, and once Alder had set her sights on hinore them, Erin They’re assles" He choked a bit when he spoke, then he turned to cough into the crook of his elbow

I made him a simple strawberry dip cone--extra tall, because I knew that was his favorite--took his e inbite off the top as he walked back to his truck

The other guys weren’t as polite, and most of theh Growing up with a mom who had seen the inside of a jail celltheir children frohter My h She was Blackwell’s ho queen in 1995 I knew that only because I’d cos teased to one side and her full, healthy cheeks pushing up her big brown eyes into slits

Like Frankie, Gina got pregnant young Unlike Frankie, she let the resent her dreams for an unplanned baby become so unbearable, she turned to alcohol And weed And as the years added disappointh if it helped her forget what she could have been I wouldn’t have hts adding a case of Keystone Light to her rage just hts and said her favorite phrase, I cringed, knowing it was tiet I have a senior classtomorrow after school, so I’ll be a little late"

"I re her purse and keys She held open the door for ht she asked ht I said no, which is why she barely made a question of it I lived only five blocks behind the DQ anyway, and the first day of spring was right around the corner

The soles of ravel next to the curb as I walked along the dark street Only random areas around town had sidewalks, and the shortest path to my house wasn’t one of them A few cars drove by, but it was an otherwise quiet Thursday night No church traffic, no gahts to walk home

I climbed the concrete steps to the porch, and the screen door whined when it opened I could hear Gina’senough to psych myself up for whatever awaitedopen, and I saw that the living room was empty, I hurried tofrom her bedroom, down the hall from mine I could smell the weed as soon as I walked in, so she was probably s in her bed, which was always preferable to a drunken rage

The loose strings of my apron untied easily, and I peeled off the rest of hts I was too tired to do laundry, so it piled up until I hauled it to the Laundro alone at the Suds & Duds was creepy at night, so I preferred to wait until early Saturday afternoon Gina ake then, and it was a good excuse to get out of the house before work

I slipped on an oversized, faded black T-shirt that read Oakland Raiders I’d assumed it was my dad’s, but I wasn’t sure It could have been one of the random items Gina picked up from the secondhand store But for some reason, I liked to think it was his--whoever he was--and wearing it made the roach-infested termite palace we lived in feel a little reen carpet in , but it had become matted over the years and looked ebra II to finish; then I crept down the hall to the bathroo my teeth to the h "Runaway Train" was her go-to song when she scored a die of my bed and watched my reflection in the mirror atop my dresser They were fro else in our house The mirror wobbled when anyone walked across ht, but they completed their function, and that’s all I needed I brushed my dark brown hair away from my face until the brush could pass every strand without catching then ss offan bobbed as it turned slowly, lullingto huh the walls I took a deep breath The next day would be long The senior class enerally avoided school functions, just to save myself the humiliation suffered at the hands of the other Erins Middle school taught me that any atte and so that ensued At times, teachers intervened, butwith Brady Beck and a few of their friends, relished only one thingoal, and the more I resisted, the harder they tried So for the last four years, I kept to school and work, and rants, I was getting the hell out of Blackwell, away from the Erins, Brady, and Gina

I reached over and pulled the laenuinely wanted oing to rest, saveme one day closer to the freedom that Frankie dreamed about

Chapter Two

Thirty , I adjusted h School was just a fewout of the sky, the walk really wasn’t that bad It was these quiet moments between Gina and school that I savored theabout Blackwell, except for Frankie, her snot-nosed kids, and reen eyes