AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I opened my mouth before I had the sense to stay quiet. “Yes, I know, you say that literally every time you use this bowl.”
“Maria Steel, don’t you disrespect your mother.”
I snapped my jaw shut, put the bowl in the sink, and left the kitchen, my shoulders tight and my blood boiling.
I cannot wait to go to college.
“Where are you going!”
I cannot wait until I don’t need to deal with them anymore.
“Maria, you’re not finished, get back here!”
I cannot wait to get the hell out of this house. And I am never, ever moving back.
CHAPTER ONE
Several months later
It was supposed to be a nice relaxing weekend. It was my last weekend working a month-long job with AC Builders, and tomorrow, I was supposed to head back to the little rural town where I’d lived my whole life, taking my new-found knowledge with me. I’d hoped to enjoy my last weekend in town, but I should have stayed in my hotel room. Atlantic City was always busy, but this weekend was worse than normal. And the worst part? College studentseverywhere.
There was some kind of conference happening downtown. The convention center was packed, the traffic was a whole newlevel of miserable, and all the bars were bustling with kids barely old enough to drink.
The evening in question, I was sitting alone in the far corner of a bar nursing a Yuengling and watching a boxing match. Wayne McCullough was absolutely demolishing his opponent on the screen, some new up-and-comer who was big and strong but didn’t have a damn chance against the speed and the skill of the Irishman.
My spot in the corner was quiet enough, and I finally started to relax from the stress of the week, when a group of college kids bumbled in. The seven of them piled into a booth right behind me. How they all fit in the single booth I will never understand. They were snickering and laughing like assholes, looking over their shoulders like they were waiting for something.
“Look, there she is!” one of them hissed.
“Shut up or she’ll hear you.”
“God she’s such a dork. I can’t believe she wants to be a news anchor. Who actually sets out wanting to do that?”
“What did you tell her?”
“Told her I’d meet her at the bar at six,” a guy’s voice cut through the giggles and chatter of the girls. “I figure she’ll either give up, be waiting on me all night, or she’ll find us back here. Either way it’ll be fun to watch.”
I snuck a look over my shoulder to take a peek at the table. Yep. Fucking college students. Girls wearing tops too low and shorts too short, and pretty little rich boys in their khaki shorts, polo shirts, and boat shoes with haircuts that cost more than my wristwatch.
I turned my attention back to the fight and tried to block out their snotty voices.
“Hah, she’s just sitting there. The bartender is going to make her buy something.”
“She’s not even old enough to drink yet, and she doesn’t have a fake ID. She’s too much of a goody two-shoes to get one. Mike was selling them for, like, ten dollars.”
“What a little princess.‘I got a scholarship and my daddy pays the rest,’”one girl said in a mocking tone.
Their conversation was starting to annoy me. I risked a glance to my left to the other end of the bar where the object of their harassment sat by herself. The tall, average looking brunette was awkwardly sipping a soda, looking around like she was waiting for someone.
Poor girl needed some new friends.
I turned back to the match and tried to pay attention. I managed to block them out when the third round started, but when the commercials came on, I couldn’t help but listen in again.
“Damn, she ordered cheese fries, like a fat-ass.”
“Guess she’s done waiting on you, Brandon.”
I glanced over to the girl. Sure enough, she was happily munching on a plate of cheese fries and watching the news on the screen in front of her. Her face was a mask of indifference, but there was a tightness in her shoulders that hadn’t been there before. She knew she’d been stood up.
