I was the coolest kid not in school.
I stood on the front porch of the house, one of my grandmother’s cigarettes in my hand. I lit the fucker up and watched the yellow truck. The house right next door had an upstairs and downstairs apartment too. It was pretty obvious though it was an apartment. In the downstairs lived an old man who was a complete asshole. Me and the boys drove that son of a bitch nuts, so much that he had a fucking stroke last summer. Noah and Elijah got skittish when it happened and broke away from me and Kingston. Spencer offered to mow the old man’s lawn for the rest of the summer while he recovered.
Me?
I didn’t give a shit. It wasn’t my life. It wasn’t my problem. Fuck, come to talk to me after you watch my mother sit at the small table in the kitchen, laying out crumbled up one dollar bills that stunk like dirty ass cheeseburgers and cry her eyes out when she was short a couple hundred for rent and utilities. Then she’d go downstairs to ask my grandmother to ease up on the rent. You know what would happen then? My grandmother would hit her.
Fucking right.
My grandmother, all five foot nothing of her would wind up and smack the shit out of my mother like she was a child.
All the while my old man was out on the street hustling. See, at that time, he was moving illegal car parts and hustling motorcycle deals, working his way into the club that would save all of us.
Anyway, back to the fucking yellow truck.
I saw a woman hop out of the driver’s seat of the truck. She was an adult, but damn, she was kind of hot. She stopped, put her hands to her hips, and looked up to the second floor apartment that was her new home. The other people that had lived there before were real treats. A single mother with three daughters and she treated the place like her own porn and drug house. I hooked up with her oldest daughter and saw enough in that place that it was nice when the FOR RENT sign popped up in the window.
I would never knew what happened to the family that left, which was good.
The woman outside the yellow truck looked at me. I put my hands to the railing on my porch and leaned forward. I grinned and took a drag of my smoke.
She quickly turned her head.
I guess she was too adult for a little wild thing on the side.
I started a countdown in my head until I would be able to get close enough to fuck that woman, but the countdown went to zero when the passenger door opened.
And that was the moment I met her.
That’s when fucking Ana came crashing into my life.
Long legs in tight jeans, a red hoodie, blondie hair sort of messy, and a pink bag tossed over her shoulder. She took two steps and froze when she saw me. The second our eyes met, I knew we were going to end up in some serious trouble.
And then she made the first move.
She fucking waved to me.
Just like that… she sealed her fate for the rest of her damn life.
The yellow truck left and turned around. It backed up to the steps of the apartment. I just stood there, enjoying a second smoke. Yeah, it was a bad habit to pick up at a young age, but it was the only thing that kept me calm and focused. I was still a few years away from the beginning of my reign in pussy so cigarettes were all I had. I would get drunk but that cost money and any of the booze in the house was consumed by the old man. He drank whiskey when he brushed his teeth. It was like water would poison him or some shit.
Ana’s mother walked to the back of the yellow truck and opened the door. There wasn’t much shit in the truck but enough that it would make the job a pain in the ass for two people.
Chivalry wasn’t quite in my arsenal so I stood there and watched as the two of them fought to take boxes out of the truck. A few times, they both would look at me as though they fucking expected me to help. I wasn’t some goddamn butler or something.
Then they got to the beds.
Ana’s mother tried to slide one of the box springs out and it toppled over and almost smacked Ana in the face. She jumped back and yelled. Then her mother lost her cool. She dropped to her knees and started to pound on the box spring, breaking down into tears.
Now that got my attention.
I stood at the railing again, watching the scene unfold.
Ana went to her mother and touched her back. Then she looked back at me. From the distance, her blue eyes instantly sank into me like goddamn fangs on a venomous snake.
I took the cigarette from my mouth and tossed it over the railing. I jumped the railing and walked over to them.
“Hey,” I said to Ana.
That’s when she told me her name.
Her mother had already stood up and walked away, probably embarrassed that she was crying like a damn fool.
I grabbed the box spring and picked it up. “Where we going with this?” I asked Ana.
“My mother’s name is Abby,” she said. “I don’t know why I just told you that.”
“Abby and Ana,” I said. “Sounds like a crappy kids’ show.”
She smirked.