Crush Read Free Page B

Intellect). “You are a unique beast among the herd, and they are bound to see you as a predator or prey.”
    Great , Jonathan thought, standing up with his books clutched in his arms. Obviously the herd had decided on prey.
    At least his humiliation was complete for the day. The Roid Patrol never struck twice, and his history teacher, Mrs. Locke, was cool—as boring to watch as a snail, but fine. Furthermore, it was Friday. That meant he had two full days to putWestland High out of his head, before he once again had to step into its dangerous halls.
    Of course, that meant two days without seeing Emma O’Neil. That would suck, but at least his shoulder would have a chance to heal.
    He couldn’t know that certain events would occur over the weekend—events that would change Westland High and his life forever.
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    Jonathan’s home was an apartment in a vast, flat complex north of town. The single-story buildings sat like a hedge maze on a rise above a rocky, nasty field of scrub grass. The white paint on the apartment’s walls was graying and glum. It had been that way since his father moved the family in four years ago. It needed a fresh coat of white. But the apartment complex management didn’t care, and his father didn’t believe in “putting money into other people’s property.” Truth was, his father didn’t believe in putting money much of anywhere that didn’t include a betting window or a bar. Jonathan gave up on any hope of an allowance when he was ten years old. Instead, he worked odd jobs in the summers until he turned sixteen; then he filled out an application and was hired byBentley Books in the mall, working a couple of nights a week and Saturdays.
    The job wasn’t going to make him rich or even raise his standard of living. He saved his money for the sole purpose of getting out of town once he graduated from Westland High. Oh, he might crack into his account if Emma agreed to go out on a date with him, but likely that would signal the apocalypse or something. Though his meager savings were not likely to pay for four full years of college, it was a start.
    Jonathan walked into the apartment. The lights were off, and he wondered if his father forgot to pay the bill again, or if his mother just never got around to turning them on. He tested the light switch. The half-globe fixture in the middle of the living room came on, and he sighed with relief.
    In his room he dropped his worn knapsack on the bed and went to his desk. He lifted the phone from its cradle and heard his mother’s voice, thin and distorted, skittering over the line. He could tell by how fast she was talking that his aunt, Judy, was on the other end. His mom was always on the phone with her. Every day. Of course, the length of the call depended on how pissed off with hisfather she was. When William Barnes did something epically stupid—about once a week these days—Jonathan’s mother could tie up the phone line for hours, which meant he could forget about checking his email or IM-ing with David.
    â€œSplentastic,” he muttered, shaking his head.
    Jonathan turned on his computer and waited for the old machine to boot up. The Dell was a hand-me-down. It was his brother Hugh’s computer, left behind when he took a job on a fishing boat in Alaska with a brand-new Mac laptop he’d won in an internet contest. The Dell wasn’t bad, and David had come over one afternoon to install about a thousand bucks’ worth of software. It wasn’t state of the art, but it would do.
    Jonathan was used to making do.
    From The Book of Adrian, Fri. Oct. 7:
    It’s all about fear. Nothing is so frightening as being powerless. In order to feel control, they humiliate and abuse that which they perceive as different. They bolster their own fragile egos, their own worth, by humiliation and attack. It doesn’t matter if the target is as small asan ant, being fried by