Walk a Mile by Eliza Lane

Author:Eliza Lane [Lane, Eliza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Then

“You can’t do it.”

Theo looked down at me, one eyebrow cocked in challenge. “I’ve done it before.”

“Not that I’ve seen.”

He stepped off the curb that I was perched on. In his hand was a full black trash bag from inside the store, practically bursting at the seams. The dumpster was across the back parking lot—a good fifteen feet away. “If I make it,” he said, “you let me sneak you out tonight.”

Reflexively, I glanced over my shoulder, making sure the exit door of the store was still closed. It was; we were alone. I tossed the remainder of my Red Vine into my mouth. “If she catches us, I won’t be allowed out of the house until school starts.”

“She won’t catch us,” Theo said.

“Or we could just hang out at a time when nobody will care.”

“What’s fun about that?” he asked, eyes twinkling, and I got that familiar swoop in my stomach. He was right; although I always enjoyed being with him, it was a special kind of thrill to be in a cocoon made up of the two of us, with not a single other person knowing where we were or what we were doing.

Besides, there was no way he would be able to throw that giant bag of trash into the dumpster from where he was standing. I didn’t believe for a second that he’d done it before. Theo was known to have misplaced bravado from time to time. “Alright. Go ahead and try.”

“And if I make it, you’ll sneak out with me tonight?” he clarified.

I leaned back on my hands. “Sure.”

Theo turned back to the dumpster. He squared his shoulders, gripped the bag by the strings, and flung it.

I watched the bag arc through the air as if in slow motion. It caught on the edge of the open dumpster, half in and half out.

We stared at each other. Then I catapulted myself off the curb and started sprinting.

It took Theo a second to catch on. “Hey!” he yelled. His steps pounded on the pavement behind me. “Sass!”

I reached the dumpster first, arm outstretched, reaching for the bag. I managed to snag a corner and was about to yank it to the ground when strong arms closed around my waist.

“Theo!” I shrieked as he picked me up and spun. I wriggled in his grasp, but he held on tight. “Put me down!”

I looked back in time to see Theo use his shoulder to nudge the rest of the bag inside. “I win,” he said. “See you at eleven.”

“This doesn’t count, you cheater!”

“Sure it does. It was mostly in, anyway.”

“That’s what she said,” I muttered, and Theo guffawed.

He set me down but didn’t loosen his grip. The contours of his front—chest, abs, hips—pressed into my back. His familiar scent, pine and just a hint of sweat, surrounded me. “Tonight,” he murmured against the back of my neck, sending goosebumps across my skin, “I’m gonna—"

“Nina Lynn.”

Theo’s arms dropped like stones and we sprung apart. The warm anticipation of the rest of his sentence faded away, replaced with an icy rock in my gut.

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.