Manifest Read Online Free PDF Page B

don’t really know, he says and moves closer to me. So close that I think I smell cologne. Something sweet but still like it’s made for a boy.
    I turn my head away from him.
    You won’t be able to run from me. I do know that.
    I look back at him feeling the anger bubbling inside me. “Why? Why won’t you leave me alone? I shouldn’t have to help you if I don’t want to.”
    You shouldn’t. But I think it’s your job or, like, your purpose.
    Just as I’m about to tell him I don’t have a job, as evidenced by my lack of money, and that I’ve never had a purpose besides being Janet and Calvin’s daughter, I hear footsteps on the stairs.
    My room is at the very top of the first landing of stairs. If the footsteps keep going then I’m safe. That means whoever it is will probably go down the long hallway into another room or keep going up the next flight of stairs to the exercise room.
    The footsteps stop.
    No such luck for me.
    There’s a brisk knock at my door.
    “Krystal. We’re going out to dinner tonight. Be downstairs in fifteen minutes.”
    Gerald’s voice is deep, dripping with authority. My dad never spoke to me in that tone. I hate it when Gerald does. So I don’t say anything.
    Ricky is still standing close, staring at me with a funny look on his face.
    “Krystal? Did you hear me? I know you’re not asleepbecause I just heard you talking. Get off the cell phone and let’s go.”
    He knocks on the door one more time then I hear him turning the knob. I move quickly, lifting a foot to stomp over the middle of my bed to get to the door before he has a chance to come inside. I don’t want him to see there’s a boy in my room.
    Just as the door swings open I’m right on the other side, looking up into eyes darker than the night sky, a head full of thick black hair, gray at the temples. His mustache is thick, too, totally covering his top lip. He’s looking at me sternly with one hand on the doorknob and the other straddling the top part of the door.
    I can’t stand him. From the first day Janet brought him to our little apartment I knew I’d never like him. His beady little eyes spelled “fake wannabe” clearly. I don’t know why Janet couldn’t see it. Maybe she didn’t want to. I guess that means I did want to see it, like maybe I just wasn’t going to like any man with Janet besides my dad. Doesn’t matter—I don’t like him and he seems to like me even less.
    “Fifteen minutes,” he says when he sees me.
    I nod. I don’t talk to him any more than I talk to Janet. Neither one of them is on my favorite person list right now. Gerald’s actually at the very bottom of the list.
    “You’re not a mute. Answer me when I speak to you.”
    I’m not a mute but I’m definitely tired of him bossing me around. He is not my father.
    “Krystal,” he says in a warning tone.
    “I heard you,” I finally say through clenched teeth.
    He frowns. I think he wants to say something else, probably something really rude and mean to me, but he doesn’t.
    “Fifteen minutes,” is all he mutters.
    I push the door until it slams again, then turn and press my back against it. For a minute I close my eyes and whenI open them again it’s to see Ricky standing right in front of me.
    You handled that well.
    He’s being sarcastic and I’m definitely not in the mood. “Mind your own business,” I snap.
    Maybe you just need to loosen up, stop being so defensive all the time. Not everybody’s out to get you.
    “I don’t think they are,” I lie. That’s exactly what I think. Or rather, I think everybody has an ulterior motive, which usually takes them out of my life. So if I’m meant to be alone then why not just start out with that goal? Why even bother taking a chance?
    I’m just about to say that but in the next second he’s moving closer to me like the men do in movies. His head’s kind of tilted as he approaches, his eyes not really looking at mine. I think he’s looking at my mouth. Like