I.D. Read Free Page B

too much makeup on, but I could have lived with that. For the long red hair, I’d take all that eye shadow any day.
    I flipped the picture over. It said,
For my boo. Love ya! JJ.
Her handwriting was really neat and perfect, like she taught kindergarten or something. (How come my teachers never looked like that?)
    I looked at her for a while.
    Frig.
    Ashbury even got the girl! The house. The money. The girl. Everything. That pissed me off so much. I couldn’t stand it. I felt like I was going to explode. Like some animal inside me was going to just bust out and start tearing the place apart.
    I wanted to break something. I wanted to smash my fist through the wall, over and over again. The cheap frigging walls in this dump would crumble like potato chips. It would feel so good.
    There was a place by the window that was already cracked and moldy from where the water leaked in. It would be perfect. I clenched my fist and pulled back my arm.
    I stopped.
    I remembered Ron, downstairs, just waiting for me to screw up again. I thought about Mandy and Mom and all the screaming if we got into it. I thought about Alexa.
    I stared at the wall. I pounded my fist into my other hand. I had to do it over and over again, as hard as I could, but it worked. I didn’t need to hit the wall anymore. I just looked at it. I imagined it crumbling. I pictured me busting out of the hole like this was a jailbreak or something.
    That’s what I needed to do. Escape. I knew I had to find another way to get out of this place.
    I picked up all the cards and stuff and put them back in the wallet. I tried to put them in just the way they were before. I put Alexa’s number in my back pocket. I counted the money left. About fifty-seven dollars. The next day I’d borrow eighteen dollars from my sister, and then I’d call Ashbury on the phone.
    I figured a rich guy like him would probably give me a nice reward for returning his wallet safe and sound.
    That would be my first step out of here.

Chapter Seven
    I don’t know why I’d been so worried about upsetting Mandy that night. I don’t know why I even bothered trying to be nice to her. A lot of good it did me.
    The next morning, I got up early. I knocked on her bedroom door. She went, “What?!” like she was already pissed off at me about something.
    â€œCan I come in?” I said.
    She went, “Why?”
    â€œBecause I want to ask you something.” I said it nicely but it didn’t make any difference.
    â€œForget it!” she said. She didn’t even open the door. “I’m not lending you any money, Chris. You still owe me eleven dollars from last week!”
    It really bugged me how she automatically assumed I was going to ask her for money, but I didn’t let it show.
    I tried to explain that I’d pay it all back in a couple of days. I’d even throw in a couple of bucks extra, but she just went, “Yeah, right. How dumb do you think I am? Like I haven’t heard that before? Why don’t you just get a job instead of bumming money off everyone? I babysit three days a week. I work for my money. You could too—if you weren’t such a waste!”
    â€œA waste.” I was fine until she said that. She sounded just like Ron. She hated the guy—but it was me she was calling a waste.
    I lost it. I kicked the door and swore at her. She screamed. Ron came running outof the bathroom with his fat gut hanging over the top of his pants and shaving cream all over his face. He started screaming too. Mom came running upstairs. She just went, “Chris!” She didn’t even bother asking whose fault it was.
    Everyone was screaming. No one was listening. What chance did I have?
    They could all just screw themselves.
    I grabbed my backpack and took off. Mom put her arm out to stop me as I went past. I knocked it away. She stumbled back down the stairs. I didn’t care. For once, Ron looked like he was actually