AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I laugh at that—obnoxiously loudly. Jason gives me a little confused grin. It was funny, but not that funny.
A small, itty-bity crush. I polish harder.
Suddenly, a string of curses comes from the stern. Donovan shouts and crashes around. Jason and I are immediately on our feet and rushing over.
“Dude, are you okay?” Jason asks.
“Fuck! It’s huge!” Donovan is no longer on the deck—he’s climbed up the railing of the boat, dangling half in and half out.
And then I see what he’s talking about. A furry bundle bounces around the bottom of the boat. It looks like a beaver and is nearly as big, except instead of a beaver tail it has a thick ratlike tail.
A yelp leaves my lips before I can help it—I’ve seen New York subway rats, but nothing that big.
Jason, however, springs into action. He jumps into the center of the boat and stomps his feet loudly. “Other way, little dude!” he says. The giant rat-thing squeaks, its sharp nails clicking across the floor of the boat, and then finally finds the exit. It slides off the stern of the boat and flops into the water. It looks perfectly natural here and starts swimming quickly, zigzagging toward the tall grass.
My heart is hammering in my chest, and Donovan is still wrapped around the railing. Jason, however, breaks out into a laugh. He clasps Donovan on the shoulder hard.
“Bro, it’s just a muskrat,” he says. “Don’t be a pansy.”
Oh no. I know immediately that that’s the wrong thing to say, because Donovan’s ears go red. He swings his leg over, both feet on the boat now, and jerks away from Jason’s touch. “I’m not your bro,” he snaps, “so get your hand off me.”
Uh-oh. Between the sun, the muskrat, and Donovan’s short fuse, this is about to explode. I try to defuse it with “Maybe we should get back to—”
“I didn’t mean anything by it, man,” Jason says.
“Forget it,” Donovan grumbles. He hops off the boat and onto the deck.
Jason looks at me blankly. “What’d I say?”
I sigh. “Donovan!” I climb over the railing and run down the deck after him.
20
Donovan
I’m aching.
My muscles ache. My heart aches. My soul aches. And I’m just tired. I’m so tired.
I make it down the deck, across the gravel, and head across the lawn toward my dad’s trailer before I hear her calling after me.
“Donovan!” Kenzi cries out. “Wait up!”
My vision is blurring. I can’t pretend to be okay anymore. I halt in my place, whip around, and face her. “You hate me,” I state bluntly. “I get it. And now you’ve got a boyfriend and you’d rather spend time with him and that’s fine—just stop rubbing it in my face.”
Kenzi’s panting lightly. She lifts her arms and then drops them. “Jesus Christ, I don’t hate you, Donovan.”
I blink and then blink harder, trying to clear the blurriness from my vision. “You don’t?”
“No! I was afraid you’d hate me!” She waves her hand in my direction. “I mean, can you blame me?”
“I don’t hate you. I could never.” I pull my lips together. “Are you and Jason dating?”
“Would you stop being friends with me if we were?”
I don’t even have to think about it. “No,” I say. “I wouldn’t.”
She lets out a big sigh. Then she sits down on the grass and tosses her backpack in her lap. She opens it up and pulls something out.
