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Chapter 1

Slender, cold fingers pluck one of ht home after school”

“Yes,to look at her She kisses the top of my head, and I shrink away from her touch It’s not that I don’t love s that alter your perception of people Once you know their dirty truth, there is no going back with theuilt—her sins are withI have guilt and sins of my own

She sticks my bud back inthe bottoet the last drop The past year has been rough The heating in our old house isn’t that great I taped a trash bag over my bedroomto try to keep some of the draft away

We can’t afford o, I came doith pneumonia and spent a very dull week in the hospital My mom, she missed a lot of work, so she could sit at my bedside and paint et a rise out of o home Honestly, I think she was there becauseand hot And well…ood-looking man, especially one who has money

No one knohat my home life is like I lie to everyone I tell my friends that my mother is only a waitress at the local diner The lie is much easier than the truth My mother doesn’t only work the normal nine to five at the diner…she turns tricks on the side My ht? I hate it

Mya hooker She said that ht as well be paid for it

She says toI do, because that’s how much I love you’

Have you ever had someone love you so much that you feel like you can’t coh I’ loved is just like being suffocated

My ine how hard it was for her to make the choice to raise

Our hoher side of the train tracks Most of our furniture is hand et what I need for school, but it barely covers overnment assistance, but mom has a deal worked out with the landlord, or as I call him, the slumlord What kind of deal do they have? I don’t want to know

Myto the already stale s like a bar

I place my bowl in the sink and slip rabI scored at theet it The only reason I have my phone is because it’s Penny’s old one I just have to pay my bill I do one of those prepay monthly deals I would never be able to afford it otherwise

I’ with the choir I started going to church because when ry with me she calls me an abo bore froood person It s I know my mom has a ‘date’ I am always afraid one of her clients will think they can have me as well It’s safer if I’m not home