Riot Girl by Laura J Whiskens Read Free Book Online Page B

replied, refusing point blank to look at me.
    I nodded and turned to leave.
    “Indi,” Dad called, and I stopped hopefully. “That Warren boy’s mother left an envelope for you.”
    “She did? When?” My heart raced with the possibility waiting inside that envelope. “Where is it?”
    He pointed to the kitchen counter; I moved some things and found it, a white beer-stained envelope.
    “Left it a day or so ago–she said the other kids’ mom left it for you before she moved,” he grunted.
    “Billy and Joel’s mom? Moved where?” I quizzed him urgently as I ran my fingers across the white stained paper. My heart was fluttering, what was inside it?
    “How would I know?” he snapped. “Somethin’ about those boys of her getting her a house, outta this godforsaken town.”
    “They moved her away?” I didn’t understand, but it seemed that they’d been in contact with everyone back home except for me.
    Dad turned his attention back to the horse racing on TV, no longer listening to me and drawing our exchange to a close.
    I tucked the envelope carefully into my pocket. I wanted to keep it out of sight until I got some time alone to find out what was inside.
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Part Two
    Indi, Aged Twenty-Four
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    Dreaming of coming home to you; talking like we used to do…”
    The melody coming from the radio caused me to stop wiping the table, it was an old song and I wasn’t expecting to hear it. My breath caught and my heart hammered against my chest. My legs almost buckled beneath me as the voices on the radio penetrated my defences.
    I absolutely hated it when they caught me off guard like that. The lyrics opened up a door I had tried hard to keep locked for so many years. I barricaded my heart and head with every emotional block I could muster but it was times like this, when I was least expecting it, that they managed to catch me unaware and I was seventeen years old once more.
    Talking like we used to do my ass, I thought angrily and took it out on the table as I continued to wipe away breadcrumbs and ketchup marks. My little boy was such a messy eater, too much like his father sometimes. I stopped myself before the tears started to roll down my cheeks and instead I thumped the radio power button. The room became quiet, which was worse because then I was left to go over the memories once more; I pushed my cherry-red hair out of my eyes.
    Sitting down at the table I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and allowed the images to roll freely through my mind for the first time in a long time. I would have time to pull myself together before anyone else came home. At twenty-four years of age, I still fell to pieces at the thought of my teenage years. I’d tried desperately to mend my broken heart, but all I’d managed to do was crazy glue it back together.
    If I’d known when I was seventeen-years-old that letting Joel Travis into my room, and my heart, would be the end of me, I would have thought twice. Still, I couldn’t help but think back to that first night and recall the look in his eyes as he took me in his arms…
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

The front door slammed shut and I came out of my daydream instantly. Looking at the clock on the kitchen wall I was surprised to see that I had been sitting there for more than an hour. The hurt and upset I’d felt after hearing the song was gone and I was horrified to find I was aroused instead. I hardly ever thought about my ‘first time’ and I’d forgotten how painful I had found it in the beginning. It was the thought of running my hands over Joel’s young, lean body that had gotten me hot under the collar; damn him for still being able to get under my skin.
    “You okay? You look a little flushed.” Daniel said as he came over to kiss me on the head by way of hello. It was lunchtime and I hadn’t gotten his sandwich ready which seemed to have put him off kilter. I rarely