Read Online Breakaway by Kat Spears - Free Book Online

attention.
    â€œWe should go if we want to catch that movie,” Jordie said finally.
    â€œWhy don’t we forget the movie?” Cheryl said. “Maybe we could go down to the park and have a few drinks. Can you guys get some beer or something?”
    Jordie turned to me, his expression hopeful. I just gave him a nod, figuring if the night was going to suck this much, I might as well be drunk for it.

CHAPTER TEN
    Jordie drove to Bad Habits and pulled around to the back entrance, in the alley near the Dumpsters. “Wait here,” I said as I got out and went to the kitchen door. Chris’s muscle car, a 1969 GTO, was parked in the alley so I knew he was there. Chris was a cagey fucker and if I ran into him he’d be on me in a second, but no one else would much care. I just had to hope he was too busy at the front of the house to notice me.
    Javier, one of the bar-backs, stood at the sink washing a pot, a cloud of steam rising into his face and making beads of sweat pop out on his forehead.
    â€œHey, kid,” he said when I walked in.
    â€œHey, Javier. ¿Qu é tal? ” I said. He answered me but I didn’t really pay attention, then I was past him and on my way down the hall toward Chris’s office. I took the key from its hiding place above one of the exposed pipes in the ceiling then slipped into the office and closed the door behind me. The liquor was lined up in rows on a deep wooden shelf along the far wall. I quickly grabbed a bottle of vodka and tucked it into my fleece jacket and used my arm, bent at the elbow, hand in my pocket, to hold it pressed to my side where it wouldn’t be noticeable.
    I locked the office door and put the key back exactly the way I had found it, then walked back through the kitchen.
    â€œI tried to tell you,” Javier said, “let you know Chris is at the bar, not in his office.”
    â€œThat’s cool,” I said. “I’ll catch him later.”
    â€œI’ll let him know you stopped by,” Javier said as I slipped out the kitchen door.
    You do that, I thought, but just gave him a wave of acknowledgment.
    Cheryl turned around in her seat to look at me as I got back into the car and put the bottle of vodka between my feet. She gripped the seat back and rested her chin on the back of her hand. “Jordie says you work there,” she said. “At that bar.”
    â€œUsed to,” I said. “Over the summer.”
    â€œAnd what?” Cheryl asked. “They just let you stop by and take a bottle of liquor whenever you feel like it?”
    â€œSomething like that,” I said.
    Raine snorted quietly and I cut my eyes toward her. She was looking at me with judgment, like I had just met every expectation she had for me. “You stole it. Isn’t that right?” she asked.
    â€œWho cares if he stole it?” Cheryl asked before I could say anything. “Let’s go.”
    Jordie stopped at the Get & Zip to get bottles of juice and soda and then we went to the park pavilion, buried in a dark nest of trees, a sole streetlight lighting the parking lot. We sat at a picnic table passing the bottle of vodka around until we drank our mixers down far enough to just add the vodka to our own bottles.
    Cheryl started to act drunk almost right away, but Raine mostly kept quiet, her hands tucked between her legs for warmth. My leg brushed against hers under the table and she pulled away as if I had touched her in some private place.
    After a little while Jordie stood and pulled Cheryl to her feet. “We’ll see you guys in a bit,” he said, then drained his bottle of vodka and orange juice. “Cheryl and I have some stuff to talk about.”
    Cheryl giggled as she stumbled against Jordie’s chest and he put a steadying arm around her waist. “Jaz, you take good care of my girl,” Cheryl said with a meaningful look.
    â€œCheryl,” Raine said with a warning in her voice,