“Right after?” Miles repeats, a mischievous look about him. “You gonna miss me?”
“Ugh,” Jayden groans. “Don’t do this.”
“I’d prefer you be here,” I say. Miles still takes it as a flirtation—rather than the jealousy it is—and nods. I watch him go, which leaves me and Jayden alone in the room.
The space is tiny. There’s two twin-size beds that take up a good portion of the room, one dresser with a TV on top of it, and the cumbersome workout bench. No room for walking around, that’s for sure. Despite that, I maneuver my way over to the bench and give Jayden a reverse nod—jutting my chin out in a quick gesture.
“Let’s see how much you can lift,” I say.
Jayden shivers at the sound of my coarse voice. “Uh, maybe some other time.”
“Lie down,” I command.
He visibly frets, tapping his fingers along the seat. After a long moment of internal debate, he leans back and scoots himself under the bar. Altogether, counting the weight of the bar itself, he has seventy pounds.
“Was your sister in here last?” I ask, motioning to the weights.
“Shut up,” Jayden mutters. “I was in the hospital for a while. I got shot, remember? I’m working up to higher weights.”
“Let’s see you do a set of ten.”
“Ten?”
“You heard me.”
Jayden watches me with a frown, and he doesn’t like it when I get behind the bench and stare down at him.
“I’m gonna spot you,” I say.
“Right,” he mutters.
He picks up the bar, and with a nervous jitter to him, he completes a single rep. I watch him, unblinking, and he avoids looking at me straight on.
“You know what you remind me of?” I ask him. “One of the pedestrians who walks out in front of traffic. You know the ones. They’re not even in a crosswalk—they just walk out, like they don’t give a fuck, because they know the drivers will stop.”
Jayden gives me a perplexed stare as he continues with his reps. His breaths release in controlled exhales, but I don’t care if he’s doing his workout properly or not.
“You know why the drivers stop?” I continue. “Because they have a life, and they don’t want to mess it up by killing some random fuckstick. They have things they want to get home to. People they want to see.”
Around rep seven, Jayden starts to slow. It’s kinda pathetic how weak he’s gotten.
I offer him a half smile. “So, Jayden, when you go around flippantly telling people that I’m a criminal, that’s the equivalent of walking right out into traffic.”
Before he says anything, I grab the bar on the ninth rep. Jayden stares at me with wide eyes, his hands shaking. I press some of my weight down, and he fights against it, struggling to keep the bar off his body. I’m barely doing anything, and we both know that if I went all the way, this bar would be buried in his neck.
I lean in closer and continue, “And, if there ever comes a day that I don’t have anything to live for—a day the cops come to take me, or a day that Miles gets in trouble for keeping my secret—you better believe I’m not gonna stop my car. Am I making any sense, Jayden?”
“Yeah, yeah,” he murmurs. “Of course!”
I let up on the bar, and he pushes it back up onto the stand. From the kitchen I hear a round of giggles and laughter. Are the two girls getting along? I suspect so, though they weren’t when I left.
Jayden sits up, sweat soaking his shirt and covering the bench.
“How many people have you told about me?” I ask, my voice hushed.
He shakes his head. “N-no one, really. Just my mom and her boyfriend.”
“And Lacy.”
“Yeah. And Lacy.” Jayden turns around to face me. “You better not hurt her.”
Or you’ll do what? is what I want to ask, but I hold back my comment. I’m not going to threaten some eleven-year-old. It’s not her fault she repeats what the people around her say. That’s what kids do. Jayden, on the other hand, is fully aware of what he’s doing.
I glare down at him, putting his words together in my head. “Is that why your mother doesn’t care for me? Because of all your whispering?”
“It’s not like it isn’t true.” He rubs at his neck and scoots away from me. “You’re a psychopath.”
“I don’t force Miles to do anything.”
Jayden stands and gives me a dirty sideways glance. It’s fleeting, and he ducks away the moment I notice. “There’s no way Miles is actually into a guy like you. I know you have something on him. Why else would he shack up with a murderous thug? He’s better than that.”
That’s the first compliment I’ve heard from Jayden in reference to his brother. But his comment gets me thinking about Rhett. Is that how everyone sees this? That I’m holding Miles back?
Shannon and Lacy appear in the doorway, seemingly like they teleported, but I know I wasn’t paying any attention. They smile and stare at me with bright expressions. They want something.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Can we go camping in the backyard?” Shannon asks. “My grandma has a tent we can use. I’ve done it before. I know how to set everything up. It’s super fun too, and—”
“I don’t care,” I say, cutting her off. “Just stay close.”
“Really?” Lacy says with a mild gasp. “You’ll let us sleep outside? At night?”
“Whatever gets your rocks off.”
Shannon and Lacy exchange delighted expressions before heading off. I suppose I could have given that more thought. Perhaps I should have, given Lacy’s surprise. Maybe Lacy’s prissy mother isn’t into her perfect daughter getting dirty, but her prissy mother isn’t here, is she?
“I’m gonna keep an eye on them all night,” Jayden says to me, like it’s some sort of halfhearted threat.
“You do that.” Saves me the hassle.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“—AND THEN he had the audacity to threaten me on the front lawn,” I say,
