The Way You Say My Name Read Online Free PDF Page B

feel about you. You’ve meant more to me than anyone else ever has. Or ever could.”

“What about the guy you’re seeing?”

Ben shrugged. “No. I don’t know, maybe. I think I could love him, if I tried, but right now it’s not about that with us. We give each other a good time, but he’ll never mean to me what you do.” Ben grimaced. “Besides, when he finds out the truth about me, he’ll be history.”

It was Jamie’s turn to shake his head. “I don’t buy that. You couldn’t help what that prick C.P.S. sent you to live with made you do. If your boy dumps you because of something you were forced to do, he doesn’t deserve you.”

“I’m not talking about that, although, God knows what Burke made me do is bad enough.” He focused his eyes on Jamie’s face. Jamie got the feeling he was looking for something, but he had no clue what it could be. Ben said, “You have no idea what’s inside me, J. What I’m capable of. I’ve seen and done things that would make you sick to your stomach. And not just when I was living with Burke. If you knew even half of it, you’d walk away from me and never look back.”

“Ben--”

Ben held up his hand. “No, let me finish. Knowing you, you probably wouldn’t turn your back on me. You’ve stood by me through everything else. Two shoplifting arrests and a bust for that joint I had in my pocket during shop class. You even took up for me when I got suspended for chucking those smoke bombs in the girl’s bathroom a couple weeks back.”

Jamie snickered. “Actually, I thought that one was downright genius on your part. Tina Marks came running out with her panties down around her ankles screaming ‘Fire’ at the top of her lungs.”

Ben laughed, too, but it quickly faded. “That’s my point. No matter what I do, you’re always there for me. You’ve never let me down, not ever.” He got quiet for a minute, and Jamie could almost swear he saw tears in Ben’s eyes. Before he had a chance to say anything, Ben straightened up on the bench and said, “Damn. I hope Nora gets here soon. I told my boy I’d meet him before midnight. It’s got to be going on eleven already.”

“You’re meeting him tonight?”

“Yep.”

“Where?”

“You know the old Tanner Textile Mill?”

Jamie shuddered. “You mean that run-down old factory? It’s been closed for what, ten years? Place is bound to be crawling with rats.” Ben laughed. “I forgot all about your rat phobia. But as it so happens, we don’t meet in the factory itself. There’s an old foreman’s house on the backside of the property. We meet down there.”

“Aren’t you worried about getting caught?”

“Not really. My, uh . . . friend’s family owns the whole place. They only use it for a tax write off, and they never go down there, so it’s completely private. They keep the electricity on at both the factory and at the house, so I don’t freeze my ass off while we’re, well, you know.”

Jamie did. He had a sudden picture in his mind of Ben, bent over a faceless boy, thrusting into him the way Dillon once had done with his own body. He felt the blood rush to his face and heard Ben say, “Whatever you’re thinking must be hot as hell. You look almost sunburned.”

Before Jamie had a chance to answer him, he heard the sound of heels clattering against the tile flooring. He looked up to see Aunt Sadie barreling towards them. She wore the same look on her face as she had the day she caught Millicent Edwards pulling an ace out of her stocking during their weekly stud poker game.

She didn’t even spare Ben a glance. “Getting hauled down to the police station like some common criminal. What’s next? Shall I get you a set of lock-picks and the number of a good bail bondsman for graduation?”

Ben spoke up. “Miss Banks, it was my fault. James didn’t do anything wrong.”

Aunt Sadie looked down her nose at him, no small feat considering they were already nose to nose, even with Ben