don’t.”
“Yeah, I’m leaving, too,” said a girl right beside her. “Where did I put my coat?”
“Where did I put my shirt?” asked the girl in the bra. She began searching the room for it, and I had to bite back a grin. Her boobs looked kind of funny as they bounced around in black lace.
“Goddamn it,” Bruce muttered.
Once I heard that, I full on smiled. Nothing could break up a party like the threat of the cops. It was funny, really, how easy it was to do it. They were all lemmings—all followers.
“Nice work,” Josh said under his breath.
Chapter Four
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W EDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6
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T HAT WINTER, I would stumble through the aisles of Target three times a week. I couldn’t really place why I wound up there so much. Sometimes I just went there and walked around to pass the time. Something about the wide shelves and red paint attracted me. It was a good place to get lost and blow the $50 a week David and my mom gave me for chores around the house. Plus, Target had cheap graphic tees and a decent video game selection. Just so long as I stayed away from the Megadeth t-shirts.
I picked out a shirt that said, “Trust me, I’m a doctor” and walked, as usual, to the video game section. Racks of games stretched out on one side, while rows of computer parts and accessories lined the other. My hand skimmed through the games, but I didn’t really see them. Shoppers strolled past me on their way to the toy section and the food, and boredom arrived. Maybe I’d buy this game, or that game. Or none of them at all. I’d been there a few minutes when a twist of my stomach told me to look up.
Laine stood at the end of the row.
“Hey. What are you doing here?” I asked, as I walked over to her. She had one hand on her hip, a red basket in her other hand, and a large grin on her face. And, God, she wore that leather jacket like she’d just come from a Victoria’s Secret catalog photo shoot.
She held up the basket, half full of makeup, shoes, and books. “Buying stuff. Since that’s what people do here.”
“Just like how they study in a library.”
“Exactly.” She grinned. “Sometimes they study there.”
“Other times, they just go there to get away from people.”
She stepped closer and everything about her body language enticed me, from the smile that danced on her lips to the way her body showed off her breasts. And again, she smelled like bubblegum lip-gloss. Damn, I was going to have to bottle that scent. “Is that what you do in the library?”
“No,” I whispered.
“I thought maybe you liked to be alone.”
“Well,” I faltered, my voice growing weak as my neck flushed, “I don’t know—”
“Like here in Target,” she said, her voice low. “Do you like to be alone in Target?”
“Well, I mean...” I struggled to find something to say as I realized her voice had just given me a hard-on.
Shit.
Her eyes widened after another second of uncomfortable stuttering from me. “How’s the selection?”
“Of what?”
“Video games. Computer parts.”
“Oh, right,” I replied. “It’s fine. Good. No, great. You know, since it’s Wal—I mean, Sam’s—I mean, since it’s Target.”
She giggled, and I wanted to disappear into the floor. I really needed to stop getting so flustered whenever she was around me. I was starting to annoy myself. Not a good look for me—even if she was the most intimidating girl in school. I needed to pull my ass together.
“Hmm.” She took a few steps past me, and out of instinct I followed her lead. “I was thinking of getting something myself.”
“Like what?”
She paused above the games marked with a ‘M’. “ Mass Effect 3 .”
I gawked at her. “You do not want to buy that game.”
“Why not?”
Her fingers flipped through the cases, and I watched her do it with interest. This must have been a joke. Surely, there couldn’t have been something for sale in this section of
Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman