Heartless (Keeping Secrets) Read Online Free PDF Page A

the tap and took a deep swallow, ignoring Tommy beside me. After I’d had my fill, I put the cap back on.
    “Thanks for getting me some water,” I said to Danny, giving him a sheepish smile. “I hate to bail so soon, but my parents are expecting me home soon, so I’ve got to go.” The lie came out easily, and even I heard the bark of disbelief from Tommy. I turned my head and shot him a “shut your damn mouth” glare before I reached out and clutched his cousin’s hand. “It was nice dancing with you. We’ll do it again sometime. Okay?” He nodded slowly, still not understanding what was going on between Tommy and me. I wanted to kick something. I looked at Tommy. “See you around.” For once I didn’t care that I was acting like a coward and fled.
     
     
    Y OU know all those movies where the main protagonist leaves a bad situation and goes to the nearest payphone and calls a friend? I hate to inform Hollywood, but there are no fucking payphones anymore. Everyone and their grandmother has a cell phone. Everyone but me. I had better things to do with my paycheck. Like eat.
    I finally was able to talk someone into letting me use their phone at a gas station a few blocks from the drum circle. The phone rang. Pick it up, Kev , I prayed. It rang again. Please, pick it up, Kev.
    “Hello?” There was a lot of noise in the background. He had to be at a party or something. It was Friday, so he was probably at the after-game hoedown over at Billy’s place.
    “Hey,” I said into the receiver. “It’s me. I need a ride.”
    “Jason? I can barely hear you, man.” A pause. “Hold on. Let me get outside.” Silence, shouting, cheering, more talking. Finally: “What’s the matter?”
    “Can you come pick me up?” I asked, glancing anxiously at the lady who was impatiently tapping her foot. She wasn’t happy about letting me use her cell at all. I think if I moved even one of my legs in the wrong direction, she would pepper spray my ass.
    As always, my knight didn’t ask questions. “Where are you?” I gave him the nearest street sign that I could see and some general landmarks and hung up the phone. I handed it back to the lady with a polite “thank you” before parking my butt on the curb to wait.
    Twenty minutes later, Kevin pulled into the gas station. He had a very nice, very restored 1969 Corvette that his old man had bought for him and had forced him to fix up himself in an effort to teach Kevin the value of expensive things. He’d never had to buy the parts, but he’d certainly had to provide the labor. It was candy-apple red with brown leather upholstered seats that Kevin had even stitched his initials into—KDS, Kevin David St. James. I’d helped him on it a couple nights, but I usually spent more time on his workbench, picking dirt out from under my nails, than doing actual work. He put it in park and got out.
    His green eyes were worry filled as he studied me. “You okay?”
    I shrugged, but it didn’t have my normal devil-may-care attitude driving it. I honestly didn’t know whether I was okay or not. Tommy had been the icing on the cake for a really shitty evening. “It’s been one of those nights,” I admitted. That was guy speak for “I’m hurting but I sure as hell don’t want to talk about it right now.”
    Kevin nodded. “Let’s go home.”
     
     
    W E PULLED into his driveway in a little under fifteen minutes. Biltmore Forest was a section of town similar to how I imagined Beverly Hills was to LA. It was an exclusive zip code, which came complete with twenty-four-hour security, extremely well-maintained sidewalks, and absolutely no loitering whatsoever. Oh, and a friggin’ private lake.
    Usually when I came over, I took time to admire the house that should’ve been. The one exactly opposite from Kevin’s that my stepdad had lost playing Russian roulette with a volatile market. But I wasn’t in the mood for “what-ifs” tonight. I was in the mood to get drunk, play