Page 19 of Darling Venom
Another full disclosure: that hadn’t stopped us from trying again (and again and again).
We’d been making out for a couple of months now, but we were both happy to keep our relationship secret.
Mark was probably ashamed because I wasn’t a rich heiress like everyone else around here, and I was embarrassed because, frankly, I’d met cans of Diet 7UP more intelligent than this guy.
Tap, tap, tap.
I clicked my lock screen off when I heard Kellan pounding up the stairs and shoved it into my pocket, turning around to face the rusty metal door.
He appeared on the roof. His gauntness hit me with the weight of concrete. He looked ghost-like up close.
But the thing that struck me most was that he was stunning, even more so than before. It was as if his face used to be a blurry picture, and now it’d finally come into focus.
It’d been said—whispered—that he was hooking up with girls from school in secret. That, despite the fact that he was a hermit, he slept around often.
I didn’t want to think about these rumors.
They made me nauseous.
I caught myself holding my breath and smiled when I realized he’d arrived early, too.
“Happy Birthday, Dicks.” He unzipped his tattered backpack, throwing something into my hands.
I unwrapped it, unveiling an entire block of spongy, carroty cake.
“Dang.” I squashed it in my fingers, laughing. “Setting the bar high for next year, Marchetti.”
He advanced toward me and plucked out two Bud Lights. I wondered if he’d heard I’d started drinking or just figured it out because everyone drank these days.
We clinked cans and sat crisscrossed.
My right leg rocked.
He ran a hand through his hair. “How’s the black slug doing?”
“I don’t think it’s in me anymore,” I admitted, almost sadly, because the black slug was what glued us together.
Leah hated me.
No doubt about it.
I’d ruined both our lives.
But I knew my parents would be devastated if I killed myself. Leah, too.
Despite her resentment, she didn’t want me dead. She just wanted me gone.
I’d respect her wish. I planned on taking an early registration, any full scholarship offered to me, and getting out of her hair as soon as I graduated.
“You?” I asked, playing with the clinging plastic wrap on the cake.
For some reason, I felt shy about eating in front of him now. I didn’t know what had changed, but stuffing my face was definitely not on my agenda tonight.
“My black slug is alive and kicking.”
I took a penny from my wallet and threw it in his lap. “A penny for your thoughts.”
He caught it midair, rubbing it between his thumb and middle finger. “Everything just seems pointless.”
