Part 2 (1/2)

”You need to fold them and put them in the drawers.”

Uh-huh... I'd get right on that. I looked down at the pulse.

”Uh-huh,” I muttered as I swiped my thumb across the pad.

Operational, thirty seconds.

Eff... finally.

I pushed open the dryer door and jerked out a s.h.i.+rt and a pair of jeans, socks and new boxers bunched in my left hand.

Onyx started sifting through the sorted dirty piles on the floor.

”Knock it off!” I hissed at Onyx. ”Mom's gonna have ten cows.”

I turned and there was Mom, hands on hips, a frown on her face.

”Do we need to have another responsibility discussion?”

I didn't think I ever needed one of those especially after that beaut of a dream and it being Lame Monday and everything.

No.

”No,” I said, breezing past her on the way to the bathroom.

”I don't ask much, Caleb.”

Right, and monkeys fly outta my a.s.s.

”But I'd like for you to at least remove your laundered clothing from the dryer.”

”Yeah, okay Mom. Can we talk about all this fun stuff later?”

Dad came into the kitchen and arched his brows. ”Got your stuff there, pal?”

I nodded. ”Yeah.”

”Great, have a good day at school... I've got to head in early.”

Good. Day. At. School.

Yeah. The only thing that made it good was seeing my girl.

s.h.i.+t!

I looked at my pulse.

The luminescent characters came together in a rush: Operational.

I swiped it as I locked myself in the bathroom and jerked on the tap for the hot water.

Just a small pulse, I told myself, seeing that time was not my friend.

Top Five Contact: Hot One.

Hey- Stud Hey back- Hot One Is everything okay? Stud Yes... for now. Let's talk more later when we get to school- Hot One I knew that was code for her walking on her tiptoes around the False a.s.s Fam.

Okay, you're not...

Break in pulse communication No, no... I'm fine, I just want to get out of here as soon as I can- Hot One K, just checkin' in- Stud I know smiles- Hot One Love ya- Stud Me too- Hot One I swiped to hibernate and stepped into the shower. The warm spray ran down my face and hit the porcelain of the shower pan. I was thinking about everything. The nightmare of the last ten months. The problems with Brett, waiting for a Parker interruption, my probation. All of it.

We'd only just started junior year and already the c.r.a.p was rollin' downhill. Jade had a month before she could take possession of her aunt's house legally, not that she could live there right away. The place looked like a dump now. The weeds that were once a choked but short brown lawn grew up in strangled patches like forgotten islands in the middle of a sea of muck. I sighed, remembering the awful move into her foster family's house. It was almost worse that they lived in the same neighborhood.

So close to her former house and the memories of the murders there.

So close to Brett, his spark of life given freely and now part of why Jade lived.

I felt myself scowl and turned off the water tap hard, the spigot groaning under the a.s.sault.

I stepped out and approached the fogged mirror.

I wiped my forearm across the gla.s.s, making a swish mark so I could shave.

A thing that was so fun I wanted to stab myself in the eye. And to think I thought I'd be such a Man when I could. Now it was buying the razor that had the best blades so it might actually cut the hair off my face rather than tearing it off.

Jade liked a little stubble, she'd told me and I smiled over that. That's not all she liked, I thought with a little perv-glee. I thought we were getting pretty close to doin' the deed... but I hadn't pushed. This year had been kinda awful. Her dad and aunt both dying... how it happened. Then the move to the Foster Fam from h.e.l.l.

Yeah, the old love life took a back seat to all that noise. Brett was an added complication.

He was totally in love with my girl. And there wasn't jacks.h.i.+t I could do about it.

After all, if I hadn't given her a piece of him, he might have just stayed infatuated, feeling all Knight in s.h.i.+ning Armor and it would have faded.

Instead of intensifying.

I nicked myself on my chin. That GD cleft was a pain in the a.s.s to shave.

Jonesy called it a b.u.t.t chin.

Dad said it was the way to tell if your parents were biologically yours (insert internal eye-roll here). One of the Parents had to have an a.s.s chin or you were a stork kid.

I smiled at my reflection, was.h.i.+ng off the razor and clicking it three times on the rolled porcelain rim of the wash basin. Yeah, I had a b.u.t.t chin, but not too much, just an indent really.

Jade liked to kiss that too.

I whistled a little as I walked out the bathroom door, thinking about stuff.

Mom was outside, my lunch pulse at the counter's edge. She lifted it like a small flag. ”I credited your month already.”