Know Me (Truthful Lies Trilogy - Book One) Read Free Page A

pack my MacBook Air in my backpack—also
given to me by Patryk the Painter after he left. When I get
downstairs, I ponder—as I always do when I walk the streets at
night—how disastrous it could be for me to be robbed of it. Not
even Craigslist and eBay have good deals for the models I
own.
    But what would life be without risks?

     

TWO
HEAVEN -LEIGH
-1-
    Declan Cox
    “ PAAAAAARTY!!!!!” I close the door of my
newly bought second-hand 2010 XL Ford F150 truck. The thing’s
a bewt . Silver, no
scratches on the body, purrs like a horny kitten.
    Hard work. Hard labor. I earned this baby.
And now it’s mine. As is the profit I turned last week after three and a half years of
fighting to keep my head up from water. Three and a half years
since moving out of that cesspool of an apartment with pops and his
squeeze in Canarsie. Three and a half years of lugging
furniture.
    And here I am. Making it. Not rich, but
making it.
    “ Yo, Deck, let’s get walking before you
have an orgasm, bro.” That’s my best friend, Trev Perkins. Baddest
QB to ever play for Penn State. Baddest QB to play for all of
college Americana in my opinion. Good thing Penn State had their
scholarship sanctions lifted in 2013. Trev took them to two
back-to-back Bowl Championships (ahem, College Football Championships as they’re now called),
throwing a mind-staggering five-thousand-two-hundred yards last
season!
    That’s another thing we’re celebrating.
    Or maybe we’re just celebrating that he’s
up here for winter break. I could come up with many other reasons to go out tonight
and trash my mind on this freezing Saturday night.
    Trev, Skate (another homes of mine that I
play Semi Pro with), and I head on over to the House Market party. Randy Dhawan’s baby. I cross the
chain-link fence of the abandoned parking lot and already I feel
the anticipation in my blood. The anticipation of the fresh rush of
E under my skin, sending thrilling goose bumps across my scalp and
over my flesh. And I haven’t even taken the thing yet!
    “ So, Trev, you’re on ground control,
right?” I ask.
    Trev’s eyes flicker briefly toward me,
then away. I can tell he was maybe hoping I’d be going it clean
tonight. “Nothing’s
changed, bro. I still gotta get that college degree.”
    I don’t push him. He used to drop a little with me before he
made it to Penn State, a few party-pills maybe twice the entire
year, but then stopped. Too afraid someone would find out and not
renew his scholarship. Makes total sense. College has always been
his dream. I can respect that.
    Me, I’m a chipper (that’s like a baby user) all the way.
Never done more than five times a year since I left home. In high
school I did a little more. But things were different
then.
    Tougher .
    “ No sweat, homes,” I say, “so I’m
definitely rushin tonight, in case you were wondering. Skate here,
too.”
    “ I figured. Like I said, I’ll be the ground
man.”
    “ You know I respect that,
right?”
    “ Say what?”
    “ I mean, you know I respect that you don’t
drop ’cause of your scholarship an’ all, right? Actually, if you
were to come to me and say you were gonna drop, I think I wouldn’t
let you. You’re the smart one, Trev. You always were.”
    Trev gives me his best Will Smith smile. Then he punches me on
the shoulder. “You’ve become so emo since I left you. Or are all
white people like that? Besides, you know that ‘you’re the smart
one’ crap is running old by now. Lincoln woulda never accepted your
out-of-zone ass if you didn’t have nothin up here!” He taps his
forehead.
    “ I still think they took me because they
kn ew you’d have no hopes
on the football field without me.”
    He hits me again! So I try slap the back
of his head, but he ducks, and before I know it I’m in a
headlock! I struggle and
land a light punch on his ribs. “You bastid !” he says.
    He lets me go and then ruffles my hair. “Hey!
Watch the do!”
    Skate is standing back, hands