“What were you dancing to?” he asked.
The question took her by surprise, but his voice was challenging again, so she fired up the song on her iPod and held out an earbud.
He listened for a long moment, then nodded and handed the cord back. “Nice.”
This was so bizarre. “Glad it meets with your approval.” “Why were you dancing in the woods?”
“I’m helping a friend get a scholarship.”
“Oh, yeah? Why aren’t you getting a scholarship?”
“I don’t think that’s really any of your business.”
He shrugged and backed up to lean against the steel beam supporting a roof over the walkway. He took another drag and blew out smoke rings. “My sister was a dancer.”
His sister. Nick had told her Tyler’s sister had died in the rock quarry years ago.
“A singer, too,” said Tyler. “She was always on my parents to let her move to New York after graduation.”
Quinn wanted to snap at him, something like, So she couldn’t wait to get away from you, either? But his voice held this odd note that she couldn’t identify. Not quite sadness, but something close. Resignation, maybe. She didn’t want to mock it.
“Full of piss and vinegar,” Tyler said. “She’d probably laugh her ass off to hear you talk to me now.”
“I’d probably like her.”
“Maybe.” He crushed out the end of his cigarette and glanced down at hers, hanging abandoned in her hand. “You going to let that burn away to nothing?”
She quickly took another draw. Too fast. Smoke flooded her lungs and she choked hard, fighting for air.
“Sit,” said Tyler, plucking the cigarette from her fingers.
“Breathe.”
She sat and tried to inhale while tears streamed from her eyes. He dropped onto the curb beside her.
“All talk,” he said. “Should’ve guessed.” Then he took up her cigarette and smoked it himself.
Quinn stared at him, confused by this sudden intimacy.
“Seriously,” he said suddenly. “What’s with the lurking behind the 7-Eleven last night?”
She shrugged and looked out at the dark parking lot. “Homeless?” he asked, his voice matter-of-fact.
“No,” she snapped.
“Do those Merrick morons know you’re out here?”
Those “Merrick morons” probably thought she was out with Nick. “What do you care?”
“So that’s a no.” He snorted, blowing smoke. “Not surprised that one of those idiots can’t take care of a girlfriend.”
Like Tyler could? “I bet they’ll be disappointed they don’t live up to your standards.”
His voice turned dark. “They know what I think of them.”
“No kidding.” She held up her arm. “I got a firsthand demonstration, you asshole.”
He rounded on her so fast that Quinn almost fell back on the step. He was right in her space. “You think you know what you’re talking about? You don’t know shit. You have no idea what they’ve done to me.”
Quinn punched him in the chest, giving him a solid shove. “Maybe they did, but I never did anything to you. Back off.” When he didn’t move, she put her face almost against his and reinforced her voice with steel girders. “Back. Off.”
He held her there, probably trying to use his size or his attitude to intimidate her. Like he had anything on her home life. She stared back at him, waiting.
He finally shifted forward and put the cigarette to his lips again.
“They killed my sister,” he said quietly.
No way was he buying her pity from a sob story she’d already heard. “Nick told me you chased her and Michael into the quarry.”
“He’s a fucking Earth. How the hell do you think that rockslide started?”
She stared into the face of his obvious fury and gave him the only answer she had. “I don’t know. I wasn’t there.”
Tyler seemed to deflate. He crushed out the rest of his cigarette and looked out at the night, rubbing a hand across the back of his head.
Then he looked over. “You hungry?”
Yes. She was starving. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Why?”
“Because I think you’re a psychopath.”
He laughed softly. “I was going to get some taquitos from 7-Eleven. Want some?”
Quinn thought about it. If she said no, it might be hours before she’d get the chance to eat. And what was the difference between smoking with Tyler and eating with him? At least if she was with him, no one was trying to steal her stuff.
Sad that her life had devolved into choosing between lesser evils.
Her cell phone chimed again. Nick this time.
You ok?
She thought about it.
All OK. Have fun with your boyfriend. xoxo
“Taquitos sound great,” said Quinn. She climbed to her feet. “I like mine extra spicy.”
CHAPTER 9
Quinn had never sat on the roof of a strip mall before. She’d never really sat on the roof of any building before. But Tyler obviously had: a few nylon folding chairs sat by the edge of the roof, and there was even a little table between them.
She sprawled in one of the chairs and stretched her legs out in front of her. “So is this where the magic usually happens?”
Tyler cracked open a bottle of Mountain Dew and sprawled in the chair beside her. “The magic?”
“Is this where you bring girls? Promise to show them the world?”
He waved a hand at the trees, the suburban sprawl. “Oh, yeah. Check out the world of Arnold, Maryland.” He let out a low whistle. “You can almost see the waste disposal plant from here. Want to take your pants off yet?”
“It’s hard not to.”
“I don’t usually bring girls up here. I have an apartment for that.”
An apartment. For about two seconds, Quinn wondered how old he was, then decided she didn’t care. Nick had said he was younger than Michael, so he couldn’t be older than twenty-two. He definitely wasn’t in high school. “I feel so special.”
He stood and walked to the edge. The lights from below caught his features and made them glow. “It’s easier to keep an eye on things from up here.”
“What kind of vandals are you looking for?”
He came back to the chair. “Bored teenagers, mostly. It’s quiet up here, too. I can get a lot of studying done.”
Studying. College. Check.
“Two chairs,” she said.
“I’ve got a friend who works at the Sunglass place. Sometimes he brings a six-pack and we shoot the shit.” He paused. “You have a lot of questions about my rooftop habits.”
Quinn shrugged. “Just trying to figure out how to avoid you.”
He looked at her. “Yeah, you look like you’re trying really hard. Let’s cut the crap. What’s really up with you and Merrick?”
“He’s busy, that’s all. What do you care?”
“Maybe I don’t want to babysit his girlfriend.”
“Fuck you.” Quinn stood with enough force to make the chair scrape back a few inches.
Tyler caught her arm. “Stop. I’m messing with you.”
She turned fierce eyes his way. “No one needs to babysit me.”
“No kidding.” His voice softened, just a little, just enough. “Sit down. Eat your taquito. I don’t like them extra spicy.”
She sat in the chair and unwrapped the paper, taking a small bite from the end. It was like a heart attack rolled up in a tortilla and fried, but she was starving. “What’s really up with you and Merrick?”
His voice was bitter. “You already know.”
“No,” she said. “I don’t think I do.”
“I don’t want to talk about them.”