Dead Girl Moon Read Online Free PDF Page A

other times they’d just watched for police-type vehicles.
    “Why do you care about a car like that?” They were walking up to Skinny’s, the burger place on Main, for dinner.
    “Nothing really. Jerk-off on that construction back in McCall has one. Thinks I owe him money.”
    “Do you?”
    “Don’t owe anybody anything.” He coughed and spit in the weeds. “No problem. Just asking.”
    His dad was getting edgier all the time. Jumpy. Mick thought it was the pills. His father called it medicine but he never saw a doctor. When he drank on top of it, he got mean. Mick had asked him to stop a while ago. The man said no. Said it kept him alert.
    *   *   *
    Around that same time Mick ran into some trouble. Grace never joined them, but JJ and Mick had gotten a little better acquainted walking to school together in the mornings. They also had the same third-period keyboard class. He kept his book in her locker since it was nearby. They were side by side, putting their texts on the shelf, when JJ fell into him.
    “Hey, Lezbo, got yourself a new bitch?”
    Mick untangled to find a guy with long brown hair and a letter jacket facing them. Close beside him a kid that looked like a lineman. Mick didn’t know either one.
    JJ turned to the guy. She’d kept hold of her book, and the way she was gripping it, Mick thought she might fling it. She was beet red; angry or embarrassed, Mick couldn’t tell which.
    “Don’t worry,” the guy said. “I won’t tell your secret.”
    Mick punched him hard in the sternum, knocked him back a foot.
    His face showed a second of pain before it morphed to hate. The goon beside him started for Mick but the kid with long hair grabbed his arm, stopped him. “I’m Tim Cassel,” he said. “Don’t tell me your name. I won’t remember it.” He made a show of looking Mick over carefully. “Nice scar,” he said. He cut his eyes to JJ. “Hope you and your pussy find love.” He waited then, Mick thought, to see if either of them would move. When they didn’t, he wheeled and strode off with his buddy. Over his shoulder, said, “Be seeing you.”
    Mick was vibrating.
    JJ got his attention. “Don’t,” she said. “His dad runs the Highway Patrol in this county. He’s got an older brother puts people in the hospital.” She touched Mick’s arm for a sec. “Let it go,” she said. “That guy doesn’t matter.” She put her book in the locker and left without another word.
    Next morning on the way to class JJ thanked him. “I’m like an outsider,” she said. “Too young to do the Bachelorette thing. Guys in this school want to date up.” She was walking carefully to avoid the patches of ice on the sidewalk. “Plus I’m not the sexy type most guys like, so I’m pretty much invisible, except to creeps.”
    Mick glanced at her to let her know he’d heard.
    “Basically, Tina’s out of it, Gary’s either working or corralling Jon. Nobody but you and Grace talk to me. That dyke crap from Cassel? You were there for me. Appreciate it.”
    That was the most open she’d been with him. Felt like an honor.
    Starting that day, guys Mick didn’t know began calling him Zip or Zipper. He didn’t get it and then he did. The scar. From time to time somebody would trip him in the halls or shove him on the stairs. They were good at it. Sneaky. Mick never saw for sure who it was.
    He brought his souvenir bat to school and stuck it in his locker. Last year his dad had asked him, made him, help with a couple of jobs. In a warehouse theft, the two of them got in a pretty big fight with a burly security guy. Mick learned. Helps to have something besides your fists. Thinking about it, he hoped he never got in that kind of situation again. On the other hand, he’d be ready if Cassel decided to bring it. Turned out it wasn’t Cassel and he wasn’t ready.

 
    11
    M ICK EDGED INTO CLASSES the rest of the winter, bore down in the spring hoping to finish sophomore year with a B average. Tried