The Care and Feeding of Exotic Pets by Diana Wagman

Author:Diana Wagman [Wagman, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Suspense
ISBN: 9781935439646
Publisher: Ig Publishing
Published: 2012-07-15T04:00:00+00:00

16.

Buster filled the pipe.

“More, man,” the leader said. “There’s a lot of us.”

Buster obliged. Lacy watched him, afraid to look anywhere else. The pipe was a small, carved and polished piece of something, black and gray with flecks of blue. Lacy didn’t think this kind of stone was really found in nature. She wondered how she could be thinking about this right now. She wrapped her hands around her knees. She felt the scarier, quiet guy looking at her. She tried to see him with her peripheral vision, without turning her head, but he was a little behind her. When she finally turned to him, he was staring at her arms.

“Girl,” he whispered, “you are white.”

She blushed.

“Whoa, watch that!” the fat boy exclaimed. “Now she’s red.”

“Such a drag,” Lacy said. “I hate my skin.”

“Uh huh, I can see why.” Fatty laughed, but his friend just stared at her.

The leader had a lighter. He took the pipe from Buster and lit up. After a few tokes he passed it to the fat one. The other one did not partake. Lacy didn’t either.

“C’mon, white girl,” said the leader.

She shook her head.

“It’s good for you,” he said. “Make your toes twinkle.”

“Let her be,” the quiet one said. He held out a hand to her. “Let me show you what’s really cool.”

Buster frowned. Lacy waited. Did she have to go? The guy gestured, “come on” with his hand. Everybody was staring at her.

“Babe,” Buster began.

Lacy cut him off. He would not do well in a fight. “I’ll be right back.” She took the offered hand and stood up. She tried to smile. “I love this place. I do. Can’t wait to see more.” She wished she were back in school, that she had gone to see the principal, braved Marissa and her friends.

She let herself be pulled away from the others, through the garden until she couldn’t see Buster anymore. They went up some steps and down another little path. Clouds had slipped in across the sky and without the sun nothing shone or sparkled.

“Look,” he said. “Reject land.”

Hidden in among the bushes and dirt were small glass mistake animals. They were misshapen and lumpy, freaks of nature, missing legs or eyes, with one ear twice the size of the other or a hump back covered in glass tumors. There was even a two-headed animal, one end a rat, the other end a bird or something, as if the glass blower had changed his mind in the middle. Her guide held her hand tightly. His grip was firm, but narrow and long-fingered like a girl. She could not help but notice how dark his skin was next to hers. His hips were slim too, almost feminine in the cheap jeans she recognized from Target. He stopped abruptly and she tumbled into him. He let go of her.

“Sorry!”

“Shh!”

She waited and listened. The wind was picking up and there was a clattering of palm fronds. She shivered. It had been so warm earlier sitting in the sun with Buster.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.