Who's Your Daddy? by Lynda Sandoval Read Free Book Online

together! “I’m talking about the fact that you’re apparently grounded, and yet you aren’t home.”
    I jutted out my chin, embarrassed and defensive both. “What’s it to you?”
    “It’s nothing to me, but your dad is pretty pissed off.”
    GLUG. My heart dropped into my stomach. I don’t know why, but I hadn’t expected that. “M-my dad?”
    “Yup. He couldn’t break away, so he sent me over to pick you up and take you home.” He grimaced, and for a moment I could almost believe that he felt sorry for me. Then I remembered … oh, yeah, this is DYLAN SEBRING. Mr. Play-by-the-Rules, suck up to my dad, big-brotherclone. Riiiiiight. “I think you’re way busted,” he added unnecessarily.
    I stepped back, partially because I couldn’t believe my dad had found me out, and partially because I was so mortified by this blatant display of parental disregard for my reputation. HOW HUMILIATING for Dylan to know just exactly how short a leash my father kept me on. “I don’t have to go with you.”
    “He thought you’d say that.” Dylan fished in the front pocket of his ugly blue Explorer uniform shirt. He came up with a folded piece of paper and extended it toward me. “This is from your dad.”
    I unfolded it and recognized the handwriting right off. Judging by how hard he had pressed the pen into the paper—not to mention the message itself—I was in deep doo-doo:
Lila Jane Moreno, get your butt home and don’t you move a muscle until I get there. If you give Lt. Sebring
—Lt. Sebring … SCOFF!—
any trouble, I’ll hear about it This is the last straw
.
    Gulp. Double gulp.
    Just then, Caressa and Meryl cracked open the front door and peered out. Neither of them spoke. I turned toward them, trying to keep the fear out of my expression.“I’m sorry, guys. My dad busted me. I have to go with
him
”—I jerked my thumb over my shoulder at Dylan—“but just go on and finish without me.”
    “What are you guys doing?” Dylan asked.
    “Studying,” I snapped, as I took my coat from Meryl, who’d quickly retrieved it from where I’d hung it over the banister inside, “as if it’s any of your business.”
    “Yeesh, don’t shoot the messenger. I just asked a simple question,” Dylan said, just as Meryl exclaimed, “Lila!”
    “What?” I spread my arms and glared at her. Granted, I wouldn’t usually be this snarky, not even to Dylan, but I had to save face! I was embarrassed, not to mention angry that our dumb supper plans were ruined. “It doesn’t matter. He’s just an extension of my dad’s posse anyway.”
    Meryl balked, then gave a strained smile to Dylan. “Don’t mind Lila. She doesn’t know what she’s saying. She hit her head earlier on my windshield.”
    “Stop talking,” I told her, with some sense of urgency. “You’re not supposed to talk!”
    “Forget it.” Meryl shrugged, looking flustered and defeated all at once. “We can’t finish without you anyway. It wouldn’t be the same.”
    “Wow.” Dylan sort of jostled me in the shoulder with his elbow. “I didn’t know you were such a brainiac. You make them study in silence, and they won’t even finish without you?”
    ARGH!!!!!
    “Just… let’s go.” I flounced past him, calling back over my shoulder to my friends, “I’ll email you guys!”
    He followed me, completely oblivious to my evil mood. “So, do you tutor people other than your friends?”
    “I don’t tutor anyone, Sebring!”
    He just laughed, which torqued me off. “Oh, sure. So I don’t fit your profile of a potential student. I see the writing on the wall.”
    I spun back toward him, poking my finger toward his chest for emphasis. “Let’s get one thing straight. You don’t know me, you aren’t a part of my universe, and I’m not going to discuss my life with you. Do my father’s bidding, like the narc you are, but STOP TALKING TO ME BECAUSE I’M NOT INTERESTED IN CONVERSATION.”
    Okay, harsh. But, it truly was my humiliation