Tristan: Finding Hope (Nova #3.5) Read Free Page B

that person who runs to drugs every time there’s a bump in the road. Or maybe I’m just deciding what road I want to go down.

Chapter 4
    Quinton and I sit on the curb while we wait for Nova to come out. We smoke and stare as the blue sky shifts to gray. It’s fairly quiet and we only talk every few minutes. It reminds me of when we were both doing drugs and we just sit and let time waste away. It makes it difficult not to pull out the bag and say “Let’s take a hit,” and it makes the bag feel like it’s burning a hole in my pocket.
I’m going to have to find a way to get alone so I can do it.
    About fifteen minutes later, Nova walks out of their room wearing shorts and a clean tank top, her hair down and running down her back in waves. “Okay, so Avery should be here any second.”
    “Who the hell is Avery?” I ask as Quinton says, “Sounds good.”
    Nova shuts the door, slinging her purse over her shoulder. “Oh, she’s the girl whose house we’re building. She actually stopped by today and we got talking and I said how we were going out to celebrate. She mentioned she knew some good places with good music and offered to take us out as a thank-you.” She plops down on the curb between Quinton and me. “She’s really nice. I think you’ll like her.”
    I rake my fingers through my hair. Great. One more person I’m going to have to escape tonight. “What exactly did you say we’re celebrating?”
    “Life,” Nova says simply. I press back a smile. Only her.
    A moment later a horn beeps and Nova glances around the parking lot and then waves at this old red Jeep with the top off parked just a ways off. “There she is.” She gets up and heads over and Quinton and I follow her.
    “You okay with this?” Quinton asks quietly cross the parking lot.
    “With what?” I ask, patting my pocket to make sure I have my cigarettes and lighter on me.
    “With going out with a stranger on your night?”
    “My night?” I say in a sarcastic tone. “You make it sound like I’m a sixteen-year-old girl going to prom.”
    He snorts a laugh. “You know what I mean.”
    I shrug. “Yeah, I’m fine with whoever goes. It’s all the same.”
    He nods and then slows down as we reach the Jeep. He opens the door to get in and the girl… Avery or whatever says hi to him as he flips the seat back and climbs in. I follow, letting Nova take the front. As I’m getting situated in the backseat, I get a good look at this Avery girl. When Nova said that there was a girl coming with us and that it was the one we were building the house for, I expected someone older. Avery has long brown hair with a streak of purple going down it, hazel eyes surrounded by black eyeliner, and full lips with a piercing just above the top one. She’s got to be around twenty, give or take a few years, which has me confused why we’re building her a house. She looks like she should be in college. Usually when we build houses, they’re for families.
    “I’m Avery,” she says as she turns in her seat and extends her hand to me. I notice she has a cross tattooed on her forearm with the word
Survivor
below it. I wonder what she’s survived.
    “Tristan,” I say, taking her hand and shaking it. There’s this weird moment between the two of us where I sense that she’s checking me out just as much as I’m checking her out. She’s not bad on the eyes at all. Totally fuckable. She looks like she’s been through some stuff, rough around the edges, eyes that carry secrets. I wonder what those secrets are—I wonder if they’re as fucked up as mine.
    “Nice to meet you, Tristan,” she says, giving me a once-over, in this slow, lasting way.
    She takes one last look then turns to Quinton, smiling, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “And good to see you again, Quinton.”
    “Likewise,” Quinton says as Nova hops into the front seat and closes the door. “So where are you taking us?”
    Avery grabs the shifter as she turns on the