Read Online Dead Ends by Erin Jade Lange - Free Book Online

and the car peeling away answered my question.
    The girl laughed. It was a low sexy laugh, and I wanted to hear more of it, but I scowled at her anyway.
    â€œIt’s okay.” She gave my arm a light punch. “I’m sure you would have fixed that engine right up. Y’know … with your tools.”
    â€œGuess we’ll never know,” I mumbled.
    â€œCan I ride your skateboard?” Billy suddenly spoke up.
    She eyed him, looking unsure of whether it was rude of him to ask or rude of her to say no to a kid with Down syndrome. “Well … I don’t usually let strangers borrow my board.”
    â€œI’m Billy Drum. But everyone calls me Billy D.”
    â€œI’m Seely. Everyone calls me Seely.”
    Billy laughed.
    Seely looked at me, waiting.
    â€œOh. I’m Dane.”
    â€œYeah, I know. I’ve seen you at school.”
    She had? Why hadn’t I seen her? It seemed like I would remember that crazy Wite-Out-colored hair, but she was probably one of those posers who changed their hair color every week, trying to prove how “different” they were.
    â€œYou go to our school?” Billy asked.
    â€œYep.”
    â€œWhat grade are you in?”
    â€œI’m a sophomore.”
    â€œHow do you know about cars?”
    â€œMy dad owns a bike shop. He works on motorcycles.”
    â€œIs your dad Ray?”
    I almost laughed. This girl had no idea how long an interrogation from Billy could go on.
    â€œWho?” she asked. “Oh, from Ray’s Auto. No, Ray is a friend of my dad’s. Wow, you ask a lot of questions.”
    â€œGet used to it,” I muttered.
    â€œI’m getting to know you, so we won’t be strangers, so I can ride your skateboard,” Billy said.
    You had to admire the honesty.
    â€œTell you what,” Seely said. “If we see each other again, we won’t be strangers next time, and then maybe I’ll let you ride. Deal?” She talked to Billy so easily, like she’d been negotiating with guys like him all her life.
    â€œDeal.” Billy clasped his hands together. “I hope we see each other soon, then.”
    Seely smiled. “Me, too.”
    And when she said it, her eyes shifted ever so slightly to me. Then she had both feet on her board and was sliding off toward school.
    â€œI like her,” Billy announced as we headed across the ball fields. “Do you like her?”
    Let’s see. She humiliated me in front of the hot old lady; she made me feel like a jerk for not recognizing her when she recognized me; and she made it painfully obvious that having a dad will give even a girl a bigger man card than I had.
    â€œWhat’s not to like?”

Chapter 10
    It was almost a week before Billy brought up his dad again. We’d spent so much time sparring in the park next to the playground and so much effort convincing Billy’s mom that it was safe to come home after dark as long as I was with him that we hadn’t had time for anything else.
    And I definitely owed him this favor. I didn’t know what he was saying to the warden and Mrs. Pruitt, but in a matter of days they’d gone from keeping a reproachful eye on me to going out of their way to wave and smile when they saw me in the halls. Billy was keeping up his end of the bargain. At least in the eyes of the jail keepers, I was becoming less hoodlum, more hero.
    Billy was sprawled on his stomach in the grass after one of our sessions at the park, his face inches from the atlas open in front of him.
    â€œWhy are you always staring at that thing?” I asked him. “It’s not like you’re going to find anything new in there.”
    â€œI find new stuff all the time,” Billy said without looking up.
    I dropped into the grass next to him and peeked over his shoulder. It looked like the same boring maps to me. “How’s that?” I asked.
    â€œI follow the clues.”
    Billy pointed to