When I didn’t say anything, Nathan heaved a sigh and scraped his chair against the tiled floor, moving closer to me.
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and bent his head close to mine. “I’m sorry, Estee, I didn’t mean to talk about it. I just-I just worry so much about you guys. I can’t wait until I graduate, until I get a good job, until I can take you and Anna away from all this crap.”
“I know,” I whispered, tears stinging my eyes.
Nathan was in his third year of college, and the future he talked about was still a couple of years away. Until then, I would have to take care of Savannah as best as I could.
“Do you want me to move back home?”
I turned to face Nathan, surprised by his words. My mouth tightened and I pulled away from him. “Don’t you
Nathan nodded and I could see relief flicker momentarily in his eyes. I knew my brother would’ve come back home if I’d asked him too, but he was also glad that he didn’t have to. I couldn’t blame him for feeling like that. This place was a hell where you had to fight to survive.
“Oh, before I forget, I grabbed this from the notice board on campus and thought you might be interested.” Nathan pulled something out of his back pocket. “They’re looking for a tutor for a ten-year-old and they’re paying a lot of money.”
Nathan handed me a flyer and I studied it, chewing on my lower lip as I read the details.
‘A lot of money’ was an understatement. They were paying a hundred dollars an hour. That was more than any tuition fee I’d ever heard of and they had requested the tutor every Tuesday and Friday. That was two hundred dollars a week!
The only problem was it clashed with my Friday at the community center. I guess I could drop one day of volunteering if I got this job. The idea of earning that much money was definitely tempting albeit a little strange.
I wasn’t a greedy person, but we needed that money. We needed that money to pay bills and to buy groceries. I was in desperate need of a job that paid well, otherwise we wouldn’t survive.
It looked like Penthill was very quickly becoming my new hangout now. “Do you think they’ll turn me down for being in high school?”
Nathan shrugged. “I figured they wanted someone in college, but you’re just as smart if not smarter. Be a bit more confident and you’ll get the job. It’s a ten-year-old, no biggie. You’ve handled worse.”
My brother was right. I had handled worse. I handled worse every single day.
“So, are you gonna call up?” Nathan asked, shifting away from me and grasping his cup again.
I slowly nodded. “Yeah, I think I’ll call now. Are you leaving or sticking around for a while?”
“I don’t wanna be here when he gets up. I have a class this afternoon so I’m gonna head back to campus.” Nathan stood up and planted a kiss on my head. “Let me know how it goes with the job.”
I stood up and followed him as he headed out, and then went into my room to figure out what I was going to say.
It was strange the amount of money they were offering as the tuition fee. And the only detail the flyer really gave was that the location was Penthill and that ‘Dylan’ was supposed to be the one to contact.
With a shrug, I reached for my cell and dialed the number at the bottom of the page. The phone rang and rang and rang. Maybe they were busy. I guess I could try again but it would have to wait until after school. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to wait that long just in case someone else beat me to it.
Just as I was about to hang up, someone answered the phone.
“Helloooo!” It was the voice of a little boy.
“Um, hi, I was just calling about the position that was advertised—“
“Oh! You want to tutor me?” The boy sounded excited; his words all came rushing out at once.
“Well, yes, I saw that a tutor was—”
“Can you meet me this afternoon?”
My brows knitted together at the sudden offer. The boy hadn’t even asked for my name and he was already asking to meet me. This was too weird, even for me.
“Maybe we should check to make sure your parents are alright with us meeting.” I wasn’t sure how legitimate this was, and as sweet as the boy sounded, I didn’t know if he was really in a position to be making these decisions.
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “No, it’s fine. My brother said I can choose who I want my tutor to be.”
“Oh, okay.” I still wasn’t sure how to proceed. “Is that your brother Dylan? Can I speak t him?”
“I’m Dylan,” the boy responded. “And my brother isn’t here right now. But we can meet you at the Penthill library at 4. I’m really looking forward to meeting you!”
A part of me was bursting to say yes, but the sensible part of me was still wary about the entire situation. “Are you sure about this, Dylan? Should you make sure your brother is okay with this?”
“It’s fine! I’ll see you this afternoon!” And without saying anything else, Dylan hung up.
Still reeling from the bizarre exchange, it took me a few minutes to realize that he hadn’t even asked my name.
Chapter Four
Vincent
“Should I tuck in my shirt?” Dylan asked from beside me as we leaned against the door of my truck.
My little brother and I couldn’t look any more different from each other if we tried. I was dressed in my usual blue denim jeans and denim shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and cigarette hanging out of my mouth. I looked like I was about to go and beat the crap out of someone.
Dylan, on the other hand, looked like he was about to head off to church. The little squirt was wearing a pair of tan slacks and a white shirt with the buttons done up almost to the top. I reckon he was trying to impress his tutor. All he’d told me was that she was a girl and she sounded nice.
His last tutor had been this stuffy, college guy, and I’d had enough of his arrogant bullshit and probably scarred him for life when I’d had a “talking to” with him about his attitude. Hell, not my problem he was a sensitive ass.
Reaching over, I mussed Dylan’s neatly combed hair, making the blonde strands stick up. “I think you should relax, Dil.”
Dylan glared at me with bright blue eyes. “It took me ten minutes to get my hair right.”
The look on my little brother’s face made me chuckle, if only for the fact that he was so different to Ryder, Tyson, and me, which I was actually thrilled about. The three of us were stupid, reckless, broken and scarred. Dylan was still young; he was innocent and smart. He still had a chance to have a better life.
The three of us were part of a world that I didn’t want Dylan getting involved in. I knew that eventually Ryder would start introducing Dylan to what we did, but I was hoping that if I set Dylan on the right path from a young age, he wouldn’t want to have anything to do with the Madden gang.
That was why I fought the fights. That was why I put myself through all this shit. Because I wanted a better life for Dylan. I wanted him to have choices. For him to have a shot, I needed money. I needed money to put him through private school and to get him a tutor so he maintained his grades.
“You look fine, kid. We’re only meeting your tutor, not applying for college.”
“Yeah, but if I don’t get a tutor, I’ll fail Math and then I won’t go to college.”
The kid had a point. “Just smile and be the awesome guy you already are and I’m sure she’ll take the job.”
Dylan frowned as he peered up at me. “It’s not me I’m worried about, it’s
I stared at him in surprise. “Me? Whaddya mean?”
