Freaks in the City by Maree Anderson Read Free Book Online

you get him for me? It’s
urgent.”
    Pete failed to hide his disappointment.
“Tyler’s not here right now. He’s at Jaime’s.”
    “His girlfriend, right?” Hope she wasn’t a
total bitch or this could get tricky.
    “Yeah.” Pete gave her a second head-to-toer
and stared at her chest until Nessa clicked her fingers in his
face. “Got an address?”
    His expression turned sheepish. “Sorry. Bit
slow today. Late night.” He turned away to holler for his roommate.
“Hey Chandler. Get your butt out here, dude. Some chick needs
Jaime’s address.”
    A guy wearing an eyeball-searing
purple-and-pink-checked shirt overtop bright blue skinny jeans
emerged from the kitchen shoveling something that vaguely resembled
a grilled cheese into his mouth. A burned grilled cheese, given the
sharp smell staining the air.
    Huh. These boys were living in the lap of
luxury if they could afford cheese. Nessa had survived on cheap
instant noodles when her tips for the week hadn’t been as good as
she’d hoped. Not that Time-Out customers tended to tip very well at
the best of times.
    “Just a sec.” Chandler flicked through the
contacts list on his cell phone. “Here it is. 64 Parkway.” He
fished a pen and a scrap of paper from his pocket and scrawled the
address for her. “’Bout fifteen minutes drive from here. Nice part
of town. Want directions?”
    “Yes, please.”
    He gave her easy directions, finishing with
a shy smile that still managed to telegraph his appreciation of
what he was looking at without being sleazy. Chandler seemed like a
real nice guy. Pity about the tragic fashion sense.
    “Tyler not answering his cell, huh?”
    “I didn’t call ahead—it’s a surprise visit.
I just presumed he’d be here.” Nessa shrugged as if to say “More
fool me”.
    “We don’t see much of Tyler these days,”
Chandler said.
    Pete gave his sweats another hitch so only
four inches of underwear showed instead of six. “If it was me
scored a chick with stellar digs and fancy wheels, I’d be out of
this shithole in a hot minute, too.”
    Chandler rolled his eyes ceiling-ward.
“Don’t mind him, he’s special.” He sniffed the air. “Crap! That’s
my grilled cheese. Gotta go. Nice to meet you—?”
    “Nessa,” she said. And threw him a dazzling
smile as she left.
    The smile vanished as she trudged down the
stairs, cursing her luck. She stuck her hand in the pocket of her
jeans and fingered the cash she had left after paying for the coach
ticket to get here. She considered springing for a taxi… for all of
five seconds. If this “surprise” visit didn’t go to plan, she might
need the money for a motel.
    She pressed a fist to her mouth to stifle a
whimper. If this surprise visit didn’t go to plan, she was in a
whole heap of trouble—more trouble than she’d ever been in her
life. And given her track record, that was saying something.
     
    ~~~
     
    After his parents’ visit a few months ago,
Jay had been vigilant about appearing as humanlike as possible. She
knew it was illogical but a part of her felt that if she slipped up
and did something extraordinary in front of Tyler it would only
prove Marissa’s point. However Tyler wasn’t anywhere near the
kitchen right now, so Jay didn’t see any reason to bother with the
oven glove. She grabbed the pizza stone from the oven with her bare
hand and placed it on the granite countertop.
    “Dinner’s ready!” she called, modulating her
voice so Tyler would hear it from his top-floor studio. She blinked
and uttered a very humanlike snort—the sort of self-deprecating
snort that usually indicated the snorter had remembered something
of significance, and thought himself or herself stupid to have
forgotten it in the first place. The area she’d converted so Tyler
had a place to work on his portfolio and practice his music was
sound-proofed. Even if she screamed at the top of her lungs he
wouldn’t hear her.
    She sliced the pizza she’d made, grabbed
paper