I get up and walk to the sliding door and look down at the ground where a brown paper bag is sitting. I open the door and look to my right, trying to see if he’s in the alley beyond the gate, but there’s nothing there.
I grab the bag and go inside, my mouth watering before I even set it on the counter. There’s another note stapled to the bag, so I rip it off and open it up.
Remind me to remind you to tell me about how people underestimate you all the time.
Jesus Christ. He’s watching me. Listening, at the very least. I bet he came over with food and stood right outside the slider.
I sigh, take out the food—leftover lasagna, hot—and get a fork. I can’t shovel that stuff in my face fast enough, that’s how hungry I am. I’m lucky if I eat once a day. I’ve never been this skinny in my life. I’ve lost so much weight since we moved to California, I’m probably about a hundred pounds. Which doesn’t look bad on me, since I’m so short. But my stomach hurts every day from hunger. I just smoke to forget about it. I always have those, Jason has cartons of them on top of the fridge and for whatever reason, he doesn’t bitch about me taking them, so I help myself daily.
You’d think that asshole would at least bring food home from the restaurant, but no. He doesn’t.
My phone rings and I fish it out of my pocket and press accept. “Yeah,” I say.
“Hungry much?”
I turn around and look at the back patio. Mateo is leaning against the chain-link fence that separates him from a hundred cars a second whizzing past on the freeway below. He looks like he hasn’t got a care in the world.
“You’re a creep, you know that?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“What do you want?”
“No thank you?”
“Thanks,” I mumble, then let out a long sigh. “Really, I mean it. Thanks. I was starving.”
“I can tell. So you wanna tell me what that little meltdown was in school today?”
I just stare at him through the glass. “Why are you here? Why are you doing all this shit?”
“Are you going to finish that science work soon?”
“What?” Nice, I think. Change the subject as soon as it comes back to you.
“Shannon,” he starts. “Don’t ask me what when you hear me just fine.”
“Yes,” I snap. “I’m going to finish that fucking science.”
“Good,” he says. “We’ll have class tomorrow at Gilbert. I’ve got a story to tell you. Make sure you’re there.”
And then he ends the call and walks off.
Chapter Nineteen
I enter Gilbert School at three-oh-five and make my way back to the class. There’s a few people in the office today, and one classroom towards the front with kids in there working quietly. When I get to room twenty-one, Mateo is sitting at the desk reading a book.
I rest my backpack against the leg of the desk and sit in the chair opposite him.
“You going to finally teach me something today? I’ve outlined seven chapters in that book already.”
He peers at me over the top of his book, which has the title Exoplanets and Alien Solar Systems on the cover.
“I’ve taught you a lot already. But I can understand why you’re missing the point.”
“Right. Don’t flatter yourself, Mateo. I knew how to fuck before you showed up.”
He puts his book down. “I have no doubt.”
My face goes red. I wonder if he heard Jason basically call me a slut last night.
“Do you know what an exoplanet is?”
“No,” I sneer.
“Hmm,” he says, “too bad. It’s pretty interesting.”
“You said you had a story,” I remind him. “Something about why you have take-out containers and food delivery bags.” I’ve already worked out that his parents probably owned an Italian restaurant and that’s why he can cook lasagna from scratch and has takeaway bags.
“Oh, that’s not the story,” he says, putting the book down. His hand goes to his belt and he starts unfastening it. It jingles a little and I just stare at him with an incredulous look.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I look over my shoulder at the open door. “I’m not fucking you here again. You can forget it. I’m not fucking you ever again, in fact. I’m done playing this sick game. I’m probably gonna date Danny Alexander,” I say, lifting my chin up in defiance. “He’s nice and he makes me laugh.”
“Is that all it takes, Shannon? To win you over? A laugh?” He pops the button on his jeans and drags his zipper down so slowly, I can almost hear each interlocking piece disengage. I watch the movement of his arm as he pulls out his cock and fists it, pumping up and down slowly.
“About a month ago I saw you walking to Bill’s. I followed you there, watched you eat a burger. Jose was nice to you, and that got me thinking. I know Jose. I know Jason, and Phil, and Mark at the arcade across from Anaheim. We all went to school together.”
He’s still masturbating as he talks, but sorta halfheartedly.
“So I asked him about you after you left. Told me you were Jason’s sister-in-law, that he was back in town and living in those apartments across the way from my house.”