AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stare at the sixteen dollars in my bank account with a sinking heart. Even the cheap motel I’ve been staying in is out of my price range. I curse myself for my first night at the Hockington. I didn’t know where else to go after leaving Mom’s house, and it was familiar and safe after working there for years. But now I think about the three more nights I could have gotten at this place if I’d come straight here instead of staying there while I collected myself and made a plan.
I’m out of options. I have nowhere to stay, and no money left.
I can’t go home. Mom kicked me out.
I don’t have any friends except Harper, and she lives with Royal, and he wouldn’t let me stay there.
Think, you stupid bitch. Think of something.
I remember the burnt-out shell of the Darling house next door to the Dolces. It might be livable. What’s left of the roof must leak, and I’m sure the place is teaming with black mold after years of being open to the elements. But there’s probably a dry corner somewhere that the rats and squirrels haven’t made their home. It doesn’t have water or electricity, but I could probably last through winter break without showering and thenuse the locker room at school. The main problem is that it doesn’t have heat, and it’s cold as hell this December, and I don’t have any blankets.
I sigh and rub my temple. It’s past check-out, and the maid comes by again, knocking and calling out a little more aggressively this time.
“I’m sorry,” I say, stepping out of the room with my backpack. “I’m leaving now. I left it as clean as I could.”
I stop in the parking lot and stare at the gorgeous green Mustang sitting in her usual spot, the nicest car in the lot three or four times over. My heart starts to pound.
I could get a lot for June Bug. She’s antique and well cared for, all maintenance done regularly and on schedule, always garaged until the past few weeks.
I swallow hard, tears pressing behind my eyes as I slide in behind the wheel.
I can’t do it.
“We’ll figure something out, girl,” I whisper to the car, like she can stay with me and save me at the same time.
But I don’t need saving. I’ll save myself, and her, whatever it takes.
I turn out of the lot and toward the diner, where the food is better than the gas station next door where I’ve been buying hot food because even the Downtown Diner is out of my budget. My room at the motel didn’t have a fridge or microwave, but I bought a crate of ramen noodles and soaked the noodles in warm water from the tap until they were edible every night. I also bought a loaf of the cheapest bread at the store, a jar of grape jelly, and some store-brand peanut butter on sale, and that’s been getting me through the evenings. Willow Heights fed me for breakfast and lunch, but now that we’re on break, it’ll be harder to feed myself.
I curse myself for spending all the money I made over the years to keep myself and my sisters in the elite crowd. I had one paycheck left, and it didn’t go far. I eye the gas gauge, which is hovering just above empty. Guess I know where my last sixteen bucks is going.
Inside the diner, I find Scarlet walking a woman through the menu, and I want to scream.
“I’ll be back,” the owner tells her, coming over to where I’m standing, cursing myself for yet another stupid decision. I should have applied right away, not waited until school let out. I just wanted to make sure I had time to study for finals, especially now that I won’t have any family contribution to help me at Yale.
“Are you still hiring?” I ask.
“We just filled the position,” she says. “I’m real sorry, honey.”
“It’s okay,” I say, turning away. My feet are heavy as cement shoes as I drag myself out of the diner and back to the car. I sit there for five minutes, trying not to cry. Studying filled my evenings the last few weeks, so I didn’t have to think too hard about what I’ve lost, about what the future looks like. When the silence started to close in around me, I turned on one of the three channels on the old TV in the room. I fell asleep to the sound of canned laughter, woke toLocal News with Jackie. Once, I snuck home and filled my backpack with clothes that I washed in the sink at the motel, hanging them above the heater each night to dry.
Now there’s nothing to distract me, no tests or papers, no sink to wash my clothes, no laugh tracks. I stare at the back of the old cinderblock building down the street for a long time before I start the car and circle the block, wanting to walk in like a respectable girl even as I make this request.
I’m relieved to see Maverick sitting on the couch alone when I walk in, a sketchbook on his knees. His dad sits behind the counter, writing in a ledger.
“Hey, Butterfly,” Maverick says, his voice a slow drawl as his hooded gaze rakes over my body. “Back for more?”
“I need a job.”
Mr. North looks up from the books, but he doesn’t say anything as I fidget and avoid both his gaze and his son’s.
“I tried the diner, but they’re not hiring anymore.”
“We’re not hiring, either,” Mr. North says at last. “Look at the place.”
I swallow, overcome by the urge to turn and run. But then I think of June Bug out there, about someone else driving her, some old rich guy who would put her in the garage and never take her out on the road, where she belongs. I think about him giving her to his grandson for his sixteenth birthday, about the son stripping her gears or worse, driving her carelessly, wrecking her, collecting the insurance money and buying a new car like she’s replaceable.
I promised I’d save her. And how else am I going to save myself? No one’s coming to rescue me. Heroes don’t rescue villains.
