Hard Core by Tess Oliver Read Free Book Online Page B

your eviction notice?”
    “I think you’ll be safe. I know the chairs look kind of rough, but I couldn’t beat the price. Plus they fit just right in front of the window.”
    We both sat down in the creaky chairs and sipped sodas. “I got a job.” I realized it had been a long time since I could say anything positive about my life. It was a nice feeling.
    “Great. Where at?”
    “It’s all over. I’m working for a landscaping company. Digging ditches. I guess there’s no way to sugarcoat it or make it sound grander. But I’m just glad to have found something.”
    “I’m happy for you. Guess that means you’ll be around for awhile.”
    I looked over at her. A moment of disbelief, a moment that made me wonder if this was really happening, passed through me. “Is that a good or bad thing?” The question could have been interpreted in many ways, but she knew exactly what I meant. I waited for her answer.
    She reached over and pushed a strand of hair from my face. Her fingers touched me. “It’s a good thing. No promises or anything, Ledger. But, I’m glad you’re staying.”
    “I can live with that.”
    She was touching me again. Her fingers trailed along the tattoos on my arm. “When did this start? Or can you even remember your first tattoo?”
    “As a matter of fact I can, but it’s not really visible anymore. It was a skull . . . of course. I was sixteen. We lived near a logging yard. My friends and I would work there after school picking up scraps and broken branches. I saved up some money and found an off the grid tattoo artist who didn’t care about parent permission.”
    “I take it that this infamous skull is somewhere that Mom and Dad couldn’t see it.”
    I pushed down the top of my pants to expose what was left of the original tattoo on my lower stomach. “I managed to keep it hidden until I made the mistake of riding my snowboard off my friend’s icy roof. I thought the white puff below was just a pillow of powdery snow. So did my dumb friend. He’d forgotten about the old car his dad had parked there.”
    Jacy winced as if she was feeling the pain herself. “That’s not good.”
    “Broke my shin in two places. They cut my jeans off in the emergency room and my dad’s eyes bugged out more from seeing the tattoo than the weird right angle on my lower leg.”
    “Was he mad?”
    “Turned out that snowboarding off a roof was a bigger mistake than the tattoo. He was so pissed that I’d pulled off such a stupid stunt and gotten hurt that the skull was basically forgotten.” I looked down at the maze of ink on my arm. “Can’t really explain it, but the tattoos were a way of helping me cope with the everyday pitfalls in my life. Every mistake and bad decision erased a part of me, like a piece of soul lost for good. But the ink added back color. It kept me from disappearing completely. No matter how low I sank, I felt like I could always stay visible and relevant if I just kept adding tattoos.” I leaned back and stared out the window. I could feel her looking at me. “Don’t know why I just told you all that.”
    “Because you’re comfortable talking to me. It’s the same reason that I came here tonight. It’s not easy finding someone you can just talk to without the usual get to know each other game and dance first. It’s almost as if we already knew each other, long lost friends or something.”
    I didn’t respond. There was too much that I knew and too much that she didn’t know. It was always there, hanging over me. I wished it had been different. I wished that this had all just been fate, me showing up here at Rockwood Beach, her new neighbor. But it wasn’t fate. You can’t plan fate.
    I needed to push back reality or this would be over long before it ever really started. And I wanted that. I wanted something to start.
    “Speaking of a dance—” I placed my soda on the ground, hopped to my feet and walked to the radio. I turned it on. Jacy twisted back to watch