Goodbyes and Second Chances (The Bleu Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Life
is not fair, I know this. But man, wouldn’t it be nice to catch a break every
now and then?
    We pile back
into my car by suppertime, and I am absolutely wiped out. Once we are all
shoved back in, the begging and pleading begins for food. I knew it was coming.
I am too tired to put up a fight, so I make the mistake of asking “where to?”
After listening to them go around and around about what they want to eat, I
crank up Pearl Jam and head to my favorite hangout. These boys can really act
like a bunch of old ladies, not able to make up their minds about something and
then bickering when the others make a suggestion. I ain’t got patience for that
mess. Yes, I used ain’t. It makes a better point sometimes, don’t you think?
    Fat So Moe’s
Burger Joint has the best burgers around, hands down. We push through the front
door and find the jolly owner at the counter.
    Kyle is the
first to greet the owner. “Yo, Moe!”
    Moe looks up
from the counter. “Yo, bro!”
    It’s their usual
routine, and we always laugh at this. Moe looks like Santa but with a really
long goatee and several silver hoops through his ears. He wears shorts and
T-shirts year-round with combat boots. He is a cool character for sure and has
starred in many of my fictional stories. He talks as though he should live on a
surfboard in the ocean and not in a boat on a lake.
    We make it to
the counter and grumble when he takes the opportunity to rag us a bit over our
latest fiasco. “You scrubs finish walking the plank for the rich and
flameless?” He’s just a-grinning. He thinks he’s funny. He ain’t. See. It just sounds better sometimes.
    I glare at him
for good measure before I order the pimento cheese burger with Cajun fries and
a vanilla milkshake to help cool me off.
    The boys order
two burgers apiece with fries and sodas. We go to pay with the last bit of
money we could scrape up. I think we should have an entire dollar left for the
tip.
    Moe holds his
hands up. “This meal is on me. You kids got done dirty with the whole arrest
show. I think you’ve earned a break for the day.”
    We try to push
the money on him anyway. Aunt Evie wouldn’t think too kindly about us having a
free pity meal. But Moe says a few choice words on the fairness of this town,
and he’s getting riled up. We think better of it, put our money back into our
empty pockets, and thank him diligently.
    I let the boys
sit together, and I slide in a booth alone. I’m tired yet restless, and above
all, I’m in a seriously bad mood. Earlier today a snobby group of teenagers
wandered over to pretty much laugh at us while we put their precious dock back
together. I’m sick of being laughed at, and I’m just not very hopeful at life
ever getting better. This whole I’m
better than you really hurts. I hate feeling like a nobody.
    I pick at my
food for a while, not really having much of an appetite. I sit a spell longer,
listening to the rowdy boys goofing off in the next booth. Each one is slightly
sunburned due to the last two days of dock work. We will look as though we were
on vacation when we return to school in a few days, at least. I continue
watching them. Kyle has french fry confetti sprinkled in his hair and hasn’t a
clue that Mave has been adding to it the entire time they’ve been eating.
Dillon just said something that cracks the whole table up, and now Max has soda
shooting out of his nose. I know they are slightly younger than me, but I just
wish I could let go like they do. Nothing seems to bother them, and it makes me
jealous. I feel like I’ve had to grow up too fast due to the life dealt to me.
    Dillon looks
over and finds me glaring in their direction. We hold each other’s gaze for a
few beats before he heads over and plops down in my booth across from me.
Without asking, he begins to devour my food. I raise an eyebrow for a response.
“No need in wasting it,” he answers with a shrug and a mouthful of my burger.
“What’s the matter, pretty