AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, just send your car or whatever, you don’t have to—”
“I’ll see you in fifteen minutes, Julietta.” The line went dead, and I blinked down at the screen as it went dark.
Staring out across the now-empty lot, I whispered, “Happy birthday to me.”
* * *
Exactly fifteen minutes later a black, old-school Mustang roared down the hill and turned into the lot. I got to my feet, slinging my backpack over my shoulder.
When the car stopped, I jumped in, dumping my bag in the back. Romero barely waited for me to secure my seat belt before peeling out, his jaw locked tight.
I folded my hands in my lap, the air thick with an undercurrent of something I couldn’t decipher. As if sensing my unease, he glanced over. “I’m sorry your mom forgot to pick you up. She’s probably out running errands.” His grip tightened on the steering wheel, turning his knuckles white.
My stomach sank. She wasn’t running errands.
Lately, she was looking more haggard. Agitated. Always leaving the house with any excuse she could find. I hadn’t seen much of her in the past week.
I didn’t want to face the reality that we had failed.
I had failed.
I wasn’t enough to keep her sober. She’d lasted for two years and I actually thought we were out of the woods. That she’d beaten addiction.
Tears stung my eyes.
“Hey, niña.” Romero wiped away the single tear that managed to slip down my cheek. “No tears today. It’s a day of celebration.”
I bit down on my bottom lip to keep it from wobbling. Most kids got parties and presents for their birthdays. When my nan was alive, I got presents, but parties usually included the two of us and maybe one or two girls from school. If my mother ever did remember my birthday, she’d give me twenty dollars to go to the movie theater. Alone.
Now she was god knows where, high, and oblivious that she was missing yet another of my birthdays.
“What’s the point of celebrating when you have no one to celebrate it with?” I asked flatly.
“What about that girl I’ve seen around a few times—Amie, is it?”
“Arie,” I corrected, and sighed. Everyone liked her. She was rich and bubbly—everything I wasn’t. But since the day Todd and Brian had shoved me into a locker, we’d eaten lunch together every day. She invited me to her house a few times, and truly she was my best friend. But she was loud and liked to hug a lot. I just hadn’t felt like telling her it was my birthday and dragging her to my house for the two of us to hang out by ourselves. “She was busy.”
Romero nodded in understanding. “And none of the other girls at school were worth celebrating with? You’ve known them your whole life.”
My lip curled. “They all worship Todd and his crew.”
Romero cut me a sharp look at the mention of Todd’s name. “Are they still leaving you alone?”
I shrugged. The physical bullying had mostly stopped, but rumors and threatening notes shoved in my locker were an almost daily occurrence.
“Julietta,” Romero growled.
“They haven’t touched me,” I assured him.
“That isn’t what I asked,” he said in a low, warning tone.
I shot him a dry look. “Got any combat moves for fake, petty rumors?”
He snorted a laugh. “Several. And all of them would get you kicked out of that ridiculous school.”
“You won’t hear any objections from me,” I replied, staring out my window as the car pulled onto our street.
His curved lips flattened in disapproval. “It’s two more years, niña. You’ll finish high school and move on to whatever you want to do with the rest of your life.”
