Page 30 of My Heart Still Beats
“Playing hooky from work.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I’m supposed to work with my brother and father at their construction site after school every day. Didn’t feel like going today.”
“Good on you, Black,” Carlos says. “This is senior year. You should be having fun.”
“You know what, Carlos? I couldn’t fucking agree more.” I take a drag on the cigarette, this time inhaling.
I don’t choke or hack.
And since it’s been so long since I’ve had a cigarette, I feel the nicotine high.
I take another drag.
“You’re just the kind of guy we need, Black,” Dirk says.
“You think, huh?”
“You’ve got brainsandbrawn. We need some brains.”
“What the fuck for?”
“We’re going to rob the convenience store,” he says, “and you’re going to help us.”
…
Darkness. One childhood caper can go wrong.
So very wrong.
“You don’t know anything about me,” I say to Tessa.
“I knowenoughabout you,” she replies hotly. “You’re in the news all the time.”
I cock my head, ready to scowl, but I hold it back. “You think what you hear about me in the news and the internet and the brag rags is all there is to me? That’s what you think I am? A fucking caricature?”
She widens her beautiful eyes, and my God, I could get lost in them so easily. Even though I’m kind of irritated with her at the moment.
“I…I’m sorry,” she says. “I guess I just thought—”
“No. You didn’t think, Tessa. You didn’t think at all. I never have to worry about money another day in my life. But don’t think for one minute that I don’t spend every day being grateful for that. Don’t think I haven’t seen or felt pain in my life.”
She looks down at her plate. “I didn’t think that.”
“You asked me what kind of demons I’ve ever had to fight.” I shake my head. “Maybe one day I’ll tell you, but not now. Not today.”
All I wanted to do was make her happy, and instead I’ve taken a mental detour onto the dark road of my past.
Fuck.
Good going, Black.
Chapter Seven
Tessa
I look up at Ben Black. His face is twisted. He’s still the most handsome man I’ve ever seen, but I’ve dislodged something in his brain.
