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“Aye.” He groaned and shoved the rest of the toast into his mouth, chewing it until he was done. “I haven’t got a choice, do I?”
“It would be helping me out.”
He chuckled. “It’d be helping you get laid, lad.”
I grinned, not denying his accusation.
He waved his hand at me, the seashell bracelet on his wrist catching my attention for a short moment. He always wore the jewelry, and it was another relic from his past that he didn’t want to let go of. “Fine.”
I slapped him on the shoulder, and he grunted. I left him there and headed toward the river. The current was gentle today and it was easy to step over the rocks to get to the other side. I tugged up the hood, hiding my face from the crazy religious folks.
The streets were lined with their boring houses and pretty lawns. Most of them would be getting ready for church, which meant I didn’t have much time to get to Chet and yank him out of there before his parents probably expected him to go pray with them or whatever the fuck was going on.
In the daylight I couldn’t go along the woods because getting back there would be even more suspicious, so I tried to blend in, which wasn’t easy because the community reminded me of something out ofBlack Mirror. Like an alternative reality full of God-fearing robots trying to take over the world.
I passed a small white house with a picket fence lined with rose bushes, and a lady at the front in a fifties-style red dress rose from where she’d been bent over her flower beds to watch me. She had her dark blonde hair twisted into a bun and her eyes were lifeless, confirming that these people really were AI. Emotionless. Out to destroy everyone’s lives.
I flipped her the middle finger, and she gasped, dragging her red cardigan closer around herself. “Well, that’s rude. Who are you?” she demanded, but I ignored her as I continued walking. “I know you’re up to no good, sir! I’m calling the police.”
I snorted and gave her two middle fingers this time, and the scream of outrage I got in response was all worth it.
When I finally arrived at the familiar house that belonged to Chet’s family, I snuck around the hedges near the front. I peeked over the top, but I couldn’t see any movement inside, so I slid around to the back. Chet’s window wasn’t open, and with the curtains closed, I couldn’t get a good view of what was happening inside. I strained to hear any sounds, but there was nothing. It was as silent as a graveyard.
Growling in frustration, I knocked on the glass lightly, hoping to catch his attention and not his parents—ifhe was still here. A few seconds later, the curtains shifted aside and Chet’s face appeared, his eyes widening. He looked like a deer in headlights and glanced behind himself and back to me, as though he couldn’t decide who was more dangerous, me or his parents.
Finally, he opened the window a little.
“What do you want?” he whispered. His voice shook and the nervousness in his gaze made me feel bad... a tiny bit. I still hated guys like him, who dragged other people into their mess.
“I’m being your knight in shining fucking armor, princess. Jonas sent me to rescue your ass from that camp your daddy and mommy dearest want to send you to, so let’s go before I change my mind.”
“I can’t.” His hands trembled where he gripped the window. “I have nowhere to go.”
“Yeah, but we got you a place to stay until you figure out what you’re doing with your life.” No one had bothered replacing the screen I’d knocked out last time, so I grabbed the window and shoved it open wider, and the frame rattled, making us both freeze.
“Chet, what was that?” A woman’s voice echoed loudly outside his bedroom door.
Panic lodged in my chest, and I ducked as he closed the curtains with azingof the metal rings against the rod.
“Nothing, Mama. I was just opening the window for fresh air.”
I couldn’t see him, but I imagined him trembling because his voice was wobbly.
“Why?” The suspicion in his mom’s tone made me wince, and I lowered myself more. The reverberation of heels on a wooden floor had my breath catching, and I thought she might be at the window, looking outside. “It’s chilly today, honey. We don’t want you getting sick before you go to camp, do we?”
My fists curled. I hated people like this. They were worse than my mother.
“Sorry, Mama.” He chuckled nervously, and she hummed, but then her heels echoed again and the sound of the door shutting sent a sigh of relief through me.
“Are you there?” Chet was back at the window, and I stood again, glaring.
“Get your shit together. You have five minutes. Or you go to your fun little camp.”
He went into action, grabbing a backpack, then shoving clothes into it. From what I could see, he didn’t have many belongings he wanted to take with him, and there was less than what Jonas had. When he was done, he was back at the window, face hopeful. Jonas and Chet must’ve had a sad life to choose a trailer park over a house like this.
I tilted my head. “Come on, let’s go.”
He threw a leg out, then the other, and jumped to the ground, and the grin he gave me was wide and excited but less innocent than Jonas’s. No, this was a man who got off on pain and humiliation, and while it wasn’t my thing, I’d known some guys who had been into that kind of kink. Jonas was far too sweet for that.
