Saint of Sinners Read Online Free PDF Page B

friends, there was going to be a lot of lying.
    “I guess so. Damn .” He shook his head, the chunk of bangs falling over his eye again.
    We got through the line and I stepped aside to let Casey take the lead. “Over here.” He led me along the wall, a table and an aisle between us and the jocks’ table. They shot me glares and I shot one back. I considered flipping all their trays, but I didn’t want people to associate me with weird stuff. Taking out six jocks in a fight was bad enough.
    “Here,” Casey said, setting his tray down at a half-full table. The four kids closest to us gave me the same look I’d been getting all day, only more surprised.
    “That’s my sister, Hayley.”
    A girl across the table looked up from her phone and smiled at me. My chest got this funny tight feeling. Damn, she’s cute. She didn’t look much like her brother, except they both had short black hair.
    “Hi. Alex, right?”
    “Yeah.” I felt a little warm. She smiled. Everyone else is staring at me and she smiled.
    “Thanks for sticking up for my brother.”
    “Sure, no problem.”
    “That’s Lucia and Tavon.” Casey pointed out the two people next to Hayley. “And Alice, and Jayson.” One on his other side and the last next to me.
    “Hi,” I said to the group and sat down next to Casey.
    “Hi,” they said, quiet and a little nervous.
    “Did you really beat up all six of them?” Jayson said.
    I had pretty much the same conversation I’d had with Casey in the lunch line, only this time with five more people asking me questions. “No, I’m not a ninja, or a secret agent, or a mutant.” I was something worse. “Those guys don’t know how to fight, they’re just big.”
    “Did you learn how to fight in juvie?” Alice said.
    “Is that what they’re saying about me?” I asked in a light tone and took a bite of bland lasagna.
    “ Did you go to juvie?” Tavon asked.
    Should I let that rumor keep going? Well, if these kids were going to be my friends, I wanted to tell the truth where I could. “No. I was homeschooled, but I had a broad education.” There, let them think I took martial arts or something.
    “Why were you homeschooled?” Casey asked.
    “My parents are… really controlling.” Which was true enough.
    “So why are you in school now?” Lucia asked.
    Because Joshua gave me a blessing which means I can banish Satan when he tries to drag me back home. “I don’t live with my parents anymore.”
    “Who do you live with?” Casey struggled to open his milk.
    “Myself.”
    “Wait, how old are you?” Hayley asked, frowning.
    “Sixteen.”
    “How can you live on your own?”
    “I’m emancipated.”
    “What does that mean?” Casey asked.
    “It means I have a legal document explaining that my parents don’t control me anymore.” It came out a little more strongly than I intended. I looked down at the last bite of lasagna on my tray and speared it. I chewed for a bit and realized everyone was quiet. I looked at my new friends and they all had similar expressions: questioning and uncomfortable.
    I swallowed. Might as well get this out of the way. “They abused me.” I’d told my other friends years ago, and the gods I met, and Joshua. So why did it hurt to admit it to these kids?
    “Oh, shit. I’m sorry,” Hayley said.
    I shrugged. “It’s not your fault.”
    “I’m sorry it happened to you and that we brought it up.”
    I remembered Emily hugging me the first time I told her and how that made me cry. I was starting to get choked up now and I clenched a hand under the table to keep control. Damn it. “Well, I’m out now,” I managed after a few seconds. “This might sound crazy, but I wanted to go to high school.”
    A subject change was definitely in order. “I didn’t realize classes would be so boring .” That got a laugh out of everybody.
    ***
    Hayley caught up with me at the end of the day. “Hey.”
    “Hi.” A smile spread across my face like my mouth had a mind