Caveman (Wild Men 1)

But she doesn’t seem to notice. She puts her hands on her hips, and my gaze is drawn to her narrow waist, the curve of her tits above it.

“You’re lying,” she says quietly but clearly, and it’s a kick to my guts.

How she hit the nail on the head.

How she guessed.

Everything about me and my life right now is a lie.

Seemingly unaware of the blow she delivered, she sends the kids a quick smile, then she shoots me one last look.

Then, shaking her head, a dark,

shiny strand of hair coming loose and teasing her neck, she walks away.

I watch as she goes. She’s short but willowy. So determined and trying so hard.

Reminding me of… of so much that I…

She’s gone, back to the table with her friends, and I’m sitting there, staring at nothing, wrapped up in darkness that doesn’t come from the world outside but from inside. So deep inside I can’t even feel the hole through which it seeps like a filthy oil spill, filling me, becoming part of me.

If she knew… fuck, she’d be glad I sent her away.

Besides, I don’t need her. I don’t need her help, or anyone’s.

Yeah, fucking lies.

It’s all I have left.

Chapter Six

Octavia

‘Jasper’s Garage’ says the rusty sign that’s swinging on creaking hinges overhead. A bitter smell of car oil hangs in the warm air, incongruously mixed with the scent of fresh coffee. A man is laughing inside the dim interior, the sound rising over the clang of metal and the rumbling of an engine.

Last time I asked here if they were hiring, a couple of weeks ago when I first started looking, the mechanics catcalled and whistled, and the owner’s only son, Ross, our school’s bully and my own very personal nemesis, leered at me until my face burned and I wanted to scream.

But I’m literally at the end of my rope, the end of the road. The edge of my world. There’s nothing beyond this shop besides the highway east and west, and further north the much bigger town of Springfield.

Though it’s not hard to find places bigger than Destiny.

When I was a kid it felt like a whole country, unexplored and huge. Nowadays it feels no larger than a barn, and no less boring.

No less empty.

If it wasn’t for my family… they fill up all the emptiness, make this small place worth living in.

God, I need to leave, make something of my life. But I’ll come back. I’ll always come back. No road could take me away for long.

“Looking for something, sista?” asks a deep voice, and I jerk backward.

Crap, if it isn’t Ross himself. Just my luck.

He’s giving me a once-over from the shadows inside the shop, wiping his hands on a filthy rug. His icy blue eyes make me shiver. They’re cold—but at the same time way too interested in my barely-there cleavage.

“I want to talk to Jasper,” I say through clenched teeth, planting my feet on the sidewalk and not balking even when he comes out and smirks at me. “About a job.”

“There ain’t no job for a chick here,” he drawls. “’Specially a whore-spawn like you.”