The Mayfair Moon by J. A. Redmerski Read Free Book Online

clenched against the sides of her legs, handfuls of the plaid white-and-yellow sheet she sat upon crushed in anger.
    “I said ,” her emphasis on the word struck me numb, “I don’t want to talk about it, Adria.” Lines around her eyes became noticeable, deepening furiously.
    “But—“
    “No!” she roared, jerking her head fiercely to look at me. “Please, just stop.”
    I paused, stunned. “Fine.”
    I closed her bedroom door harder than usual when I left her sitting there. I was done. I was through.
    If Alex wanted to talk to me, I would be there to listen when she was ready and when she could be Alex again. I loved and missed my sister, very much, but I wasn’t going to let her ruin this for me. I never really had much time to think about how badly I wanted to get away from home. I was always too worried about mom, but once I was away and could think about myself more, I realized how miserable I truly was in Georgia. At Uncle Carl’s, we had spacious bedrooms overlooking an awesome landscape of trees in the back and a field in the front. The air conditioning worked here, but we didn’t have to use it because the weather was nearly perfect. Beverlee cooked breakfast and dinner every day. She and Uncle Carl were the type that would do just about anything for us. But other than all the material things, what was truly important and made me see the misery was that there was no fighting here. There was no Jeff. I didn’t have to worry about leaving the house to avoid the belligerent idiocy of Jeff Bradley. I didn’t have to fall asleep under a tree in a park alone at night because I didn’t feel safe in my own house. Or worse, catch him peeing off the front porch because he was too drunk to realize he wasn’t standing in front of the toilet.
    I thought maybe it was for the best in many ways that we were forced to leave mom. Not only did we have a better home in a better atmosphere, but I hoped that mom would somehow wake up and get away from there, too.
    The events that led to all of the changes in my life were another side to my story, the darker secret side I knew I’d not forget easily. Or at all.

 

     
    I MET UP WITH Harry and the others at the skate park before dark, surprised I found the place as easily as I did. It was a relief when I rode up on the bike Uncle Carl bought for me, to see that I wasn’t the only person without a car. But Harry had a car; music blared from two enormous speakers in the wide-open trunk. Skaters whizzed by on the ramps, the sound of wheels hitting the concrete and metal was loud even over the music. There were only a handful of skaters, outnumbered by those like me who came only to watch and probably had never been on a skateboard.
    I had to give Harry credit; as much as skateboarding didn’t appeal to me, it did look like it took a lot of skill.
    “Over here!” Harry shouted over the noise.
    He jumped down from his board, stepped on the end of it in a fancy, strategic sort of way and the board popped up into his waiting hand.
    “Glad you came,” he said, “Wanna try it out?”
    “Uhhh, no that's alright,” I declined, though I knew he was mostly joking. “You’re really good though. I couldn’t even begin to understand how to do any of that stuff.”
    “Ah, nothing to it,” he said.
    “Yeah, right.”
    Two guys joined us then and a tiny girl scurried up behind one of them. She forced her hand into his and smiled suspiciously at me, obviously marking her property so the new girl wouldn’t get any ideas. If she only knew how complicated that type of mine was, she could put her worries to ease.
    “This is Marc and Evan,” Harry introduced. “And that’s Cecilia,” he added with a furtive, reproaching smirk.
    Harry and I shared a knowing look.
    “I’m Marc’s girlfriend,” said Cecilia, “cool to meet you.”
    “You, too.” I smiled and introduced myself.
    “Adria!” Julia came up from behind with Tori and Sebastian following hand in