AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Michael reached between the seats and flung a fleece half-zip at him. It smelled vaguely of topsoil and mulch, but not in a bad way. Nick pulled it over his head.
“Hungry?” said Michael.
Nick shook his head. He hadn’t eaten lunch, either, but the last thing he wanted was food.
They drove in silence for the longest time. Nick leaned his head against the window and wondered what it would be like to lie down and sleep forever.
When Michael spoke, his voice was quiet. “You want to talk about what’s up at school?”
That familiar tension dug its teeth into Nick’s neck. “Nothing is going on at school.”
“Your physics teacher called and said you failed a test.”
Nick swore. “Great.”
“He said you were distracted. He asked if something was going on at home. Asked if he could help.”
“You don’t have to do this, Mike. I’m fine. Things at home are fine. It’s one test. He shouldn’t have called you.”
Michael glanced over. “He said he’d told you about a precol-lege program he’d like to nominate you for, but you brushed it off. I thought you were all gung ho for college.”
“I don’t—I don’t know what I want. Can you just leave it?
It’s one test. I don’t know why he’s blowing it out of propor-tion.”
“I don’t think he’s worried about the test, Nick. And I’m pretty sure you know I’m not, either.” He paused. “You’ve been on edge at home, too. I know you said things are fine with Quinn. Are they really?”
Nick stared out the window and set his jaw. “Yeah.”
“I know you’ve been covering for your brothers a lot. I didn’t mean to load more on you. You should have said something.
You know you can say no, right?”
Sure. And then Mike would lose a job and money would be tighter than it already was. “I’m fine. Really.”
“All right. If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.”
Then Michael shut up and they drove. Nick kept his eyes on the windshield.
That just gave him time to think.
After a minute, he yanked his phone out of his pocket and shot off a text to Quinn.
wtf. Why did you tell Tyler?
He didn’t expect a response, so he was shocked to get one almost immediately.
Wtf. Why did you ATTACK Tyler? Are you crazy???!!!
She thought he’d attacked Tyler? Was she crazy?
Nick wanted to punch something. Hell, it worked for Gabriel. And Tyler, clearly.
It made him think of how he’d treated Adam last night.
Or of Adam’s words: Do you ever think that this Tyler guy thinks maybe you are bad for Quinn?
