Young God: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

of them. His chest is narrow and hairless. He has diamond studs in his ears. His nails are shiny. She can’t think.
    He chins above her head.
    “Cletus, how you know where I live at?” he says.
    “I been sitting outside that motel your girls like for two nights,” Coy Hawkins says.
    “He fucking followed us,” the other girl says.
    “He creepy,” the skinny girl says.
    “That motel where you tried to steal my other girl. You remember that?” Coy Hawkins says.
    The gorilla pimp smirks. The girls are standing on either side of him.
    “Man, you still tight about that?”
    Nikki stares at the carpet. It’s beige. It waves.
    “That was like last month,” the gorilla pimp says.
    “I ain’t a virgin,” Nikki says.
    “Shut up,” Coy Hawkins says.
    The girls laugh. She’s going to pass out. The gorilla pimp turns on the TV. He gestures at her with the remote.
    “I’ll give you ten for this one,” he says.
    Nikki pukes on the carpet.
    “Did she just puke on my carpet?”
    “Oh my God,” the skinny girl says.
    “She about to get it,” the other girl says.
    Coy Hawkins pulls Nikki to the love seat. He lets go of her hair. Her eyes dart. She tries to read the girls’ necks. The gorilla pimp’s not their real daddy. He’s way too young, she thinks.
    “I’m his daughter,” Nikki shrieks.
    Coy Hawkins flicks out a knife. He slashes the gorilla pimp’s face, both sides.
    The girls scream. They scream so loud Nikki covers her ears. The gorilla pimp puts a hand to his cheek and then he looks at it.
    Coy Hawkins shoves Nikki out the door. In the courtyard the boys are gone from their chairs.

     
    WHEN THEY TURN ONTO THE SERVICE ROAD all the lights flare back, super bright.
    “It ain’t just sitting in parking lots,” Coy Hawkins says.
    Nikki stares at him.

     
    “WHOSE BLOOD IS THAT?”
    Angel’s in the bitch seat. Coy Hawkins turns out of the motel lot.
    “That boy that tried to take you.”
    “What?”
    “The pretty one. He just got his face cut.”
    “What?”
    “The gorilla pimp,” Coy Hawkins says.
    Angel flips to Nikki. Her mouth is dropped. Her hair is messy. She flips back to Coy Hawkins.
    “What about that guy last week bashed my head against the wall? He tried to kill me.”
    Coy Hawkins merges onto the interstate and says nothing.
    “Hello?”
    Angel looks at Nikki again.
    “He wasn’t acting like this before you showed up.”
    Nikki says nothing, too.
    “You lost my shoe?”
    Nikki looks at her feet. She kicks off the high heel that’s left.

     
    THE DAWN IS FOGGY. It shrouds everything in damp white cotton. It makes this place look sweet and fat. Like nothing bad ever happens. Out of the pickup window Nikki watches the bottom road roll by, lying.

     
    “HOW MUCH THOSE MEN PAY YOU?”
    Angel is awake. She’s balled herself up but Nikki can hear her teeth grind. It’s a while before Angel says something.
    “Depends,” Angel says.
    “On what?”
    “On what they want.”
    “What if they want everything?”
    “No condom?”
    Nikki stares at NO SIGNAL on the TV.
    “No condom.”
    “Two hundred.”
    “The gorilla pimp offered ten grand for me,” Nikki says.
    On the couch Angel looks over her shoulder.

     
    NIKKI LOOKS AT ANGEL’S HAND. It’s on one of her skinned knees. She takes Angel’s hand and moves it to her bikini bottom. Angel looks at Nikki in the mirror. She puts down the eyeliner.
    Angel slides her hand under the bikini bottom’s elastic. She sticks a finger into Nikki. She pulls it out. She starts to rub Nikki in a circle. In the mirrored closet Angel looks calm and Nikki looks alarmed.
    Nikki sits very still. Then she reaches back and pulls Angel by the hair.
    Oh, Nikki thinks.
    Angel wipes her fingers on a tissue. She chins at the bed.
    “Can you tell him to take me to the Super 8 tonight?”

     
    COY HAWKINS GLANCES BACK.
    “I don’t need you,” he says.
    Nikki stops dead on the steps. Angel turns back, too, and her face is nasty like it’s