Smash Into You by Shelly Crane Read Free Book Online

             
                  She leaned back and looked into my eyes, all concerned and genuine. "Is that too tight? Is it OK?"
                  I was losing my freaking mind. "It's fine, Marley." A too-long pause. "Thank you."
                  She licked her lips. "I just know you're going to be hurting later."
                  "Can't worry about that now. Here." I took her sleeve in my fist and ripped it along the seam, and then moved on to the next one.
                  "Um…what are you doing?" she asked as she watched me rip the sleeves off her t-shirt.
                  "You had blood on your sleeve," I explained and gave her a once over. "There. Now no one will think anything of it."
                  She looked at herself in the mirror. "I wouldn't have thought of that. You're pretty crafty." She looked at me in the mirror behind her. "Thanks."
                  "Wouldn't want someone to think I beat you or something," I said and gripped her hand, dragging her with me out of the bathroom to the back door of the store. I called out, "Thank you, sir!"
                  "Have a good day now!" he called back with a blind wave.
                  I saw Marley grab a big bottle of Ibuprofen and a couple other things right before we reached the exit. We hopped in the truck and I locked the doors.
                  I drove us out to a diner on the edge of town, parked in the back, and went in to wait out Biloxi. I wanted to see if he'd skip town before I did. I swiped my ball cap from behind the seat and weaved my way to the back booth by the jukebox where we couldn't be seen. I knew I was drawing attention with my arm all bandaged up, but as long as it wasn't the wrong attention, I didn't give two craps.
                  She held her hand out and waited. I put mine under hers and four small, brown pills dropped into it. "Take it," she ordered. Again, my insides mushed and churned. Why the hell was it such a turn on to be bossed around by this little girl?
                  I popped them back, lifted the glass of water to my lips, and swallowed. I even opened my mouth to show her they were gone like they make you do at hospitals. Or so I figured. I'd never been to one. Only seen it on TV.
                  She sat across from me and as I pretended to look at the menu, I watched her. She had just followed me in the diner, shadowing my footsteps and looking defeated. Her lips were moving, like she was biting the inside of her lip nervously. Her eyes stared at the tabletop that didn't match anything else in the place. A decorating job botched all to hell. Her fingers rolled a black pen that was left on the table back and forth. Guilt took my guts and squeezed them.
                  I couldn't take her with me. I just couldn't. She'd get killed and I'd have another female death on my conscience. So after a little time had passed, I would take her to her car, against my better judgment. I was picking the lesser of two evils, you could say.
                  I leaned down trying to catch her gaze. "I'm sorry you got dragged into this."             
                  Her face stayed the same, but her eyes looked up at me. "Still going with that crazy story, huh?"
                  "It's the only story I got." I snapped open the menu again and pretended that there wasn't cheese or some other byproduct stuck to the pages. "You want something?"
              She glared at me. "What? Poor little homeless girl can't buy herself a turkey sandwich?"
                  "I wanna eat. All I was doing was asking if you did, too. Pay for your own, I don't give a..." I sighed. "Whatever. Just consider it a farewell slash thank you gift and let me buy you dinner."
                  She didn't say