A second later, he asked, Who the fuck is Mason?
I blinked, rereading the word fuck over and over again with a stunned yet secret delight. No one had ever cussed at me before. Maybe that was because I was only thirteen or maybe because of my cerebral palsy, but I liked it. It made me feel...normal.
My biggest dream in life was to be normal, so I decided right then and there, I was going to stay friends with Brandt Gamble, and it was going to be oh-so-blessedly normal.
BRANDT
AGE 13
Noel’s girlfriend, Aspen, was a tiny thing. At thirteen, I was already taller than her and probably weighed more too.
That didn’t mean I trusted her, though.
After Caroline had broken up with her rich prick boyfriend for good, she’d gotten really sick, like I probably should’ve taken her to a hospital or called an ambulance sick. But all I could think about was how much money that would cost and that there was no way we could afford it. So I’d done the next best thing. I’d called Noel.
Twelve hours later, he’d showed up with his best friend, and they’d taken care of everything.
Meanwhile, I’d tried visiting her ex and knocking him around for hurting her. It was too bad the little bitch had been surrounded by his high school cronies. I knew I could’ve taken him on by myself. But as soon as I’d gotten in one good swing, his posse had swooped in and kicked my ass. A black eye, bruised knuckles, and a couple sore ribs later, Noel was there, packing us into his friend Ten’s truck and taking us back to college with him. For good.
It was all so surreal. I was happy to leave, escape that shithole trailer park, ditch the school where everyone thought I was trash, and never see Daisy again for as long as I lived. But it felt too good to be real. I kept waiting for the bad side of all this to strike.
Strangely, it hadn’t yet.
We’d stayed with Noel for a week or so in his apartment he shared with Ten. But there was no room for the five of us there, so Noel’s girlfriend Aspen had let us move into her three-bedroom house with her. Suddenly, Caroline had a room to herself, and Colton and I had our own beds in the room we shared while Noel just...took care of everything. And so did Aspen.
She took us to buy new clothes. Then she enrolled us into the local school. And then...then she fed us. Every day. Every fucking meal.
It was beyond bizarre.
The chick was too nice. It made me suspicious. She had to be hiding something awful. What if she turned out like Daisy and decided she had an appetite for thirteen-year-old boys? Okay, I doubted that part, but just to be safe, I locked the door every night so she couldn’t get in to either Colton or me.
But she just kept being nicer and nicer to us, which made me leerier and leerier. No one was that nice. Something fishy was going on.
That’s why I was keeping a close eye on her, trying to figure out her ulterior motive.
So while Noel was at work, Caroline was holed up in her room by herself, and Colton was wrapped up in a blanket, watching cartoons in the living room, I wandered toward the kitchen to snoop on her.
Colton had taken to Aspen immediately; it was actually Noel he seemed scared of. Idiot kid. But it’d been three years since we’d really seen our big brother, and Colton didn’t remember him. Noel would do anything for us, though. He was the absolute last person to be wary of. Aspen, on the other hand...
She hummed under her breath as if she was happy while she worked in the kitchen, cooking, get this...supper. Why would she cook us supper every single night when our own mother never had? And why would she be happy about it? Something definitely had to be up with her.
She must’ve sensed me in the doorway, watching her, because she glanced over her shoulder and jumped. “Oh!” Then came out the warm, welcoming smile. It had to be fake. “Hey, Brandt. You want to help?”
I shrugged and pushed away from the doorframe. “Sure. What do you need me to do?”
This was good. I could get in close, right under the radar in the guise of helping, and figure out what she was up to.
She opened a cabinet and pulled out some plates before piling them into my arms to set the table.
As I went to work, setting a plate in front of each chair, she asked how everything was going.
With another shrug, I answered, “Fine.”
“Miss your friends from home yet?”
I mumbled an answer because I wasn’t sure if I’d honestly left anyone behind to miss. So far, nope. All the most important people in my life were here in this house with me...and her.
“You know, if you want, you can borrow my computer, go online and get in contact with some of them. That’s totally fine, any time you like.”