Read Online Steel Me Away by Vivian Lux - Free Book Online

up by Crash's tongue down her throat.
    We hadn't talked yet.  Once the party started around me, I made my decision. I wasn't going to push him.  I took a long swallow from my cup, hoping the alcohol would warm the chill that wrapped around me.
    "This was a good idea." I sidled over to J., feeling hesitant. He leaned back and opened his arms.  Sighing deeply, I sank into his lap and rested my head on his shoulder.
    "It was," he agreed, nuzzling my hair.  "Shit's been too serious."
    "No shit," I laughed falling into his pattern of eloquent profanity quite easily.
    "Emmy," he murmured, sighing as if in pain.
    I startled, ready to hear him finally talk.  "Is everything okay?"
    He inhaled, about to say something, then sighed again.  "Let's just enjoy this."
My heart sank, but I didn't push.  I didn't want to be serious anymore.  I wanted to be a normal girl my age.  Happy and carefree with my gorgeous boyfriend and his group of crazy friends.   Never mind that they were actually a biker gang.  If I pushed everything else away, I could almost pretend we were hanging out in a dorm room, shooting the shit like college students.
    Something I was missing out on.  I felt a twinge in my heart, an eagerness that I couldn't identify.  Maybe these girls would know someone I did.  "Where do you guys go to school?" I called to Hannah and Allison.
    Case shot me a look when they two girls turned to answer me, but I only smiled innocently. "CCP," Hannah answered, shrugging her bare, pale shoulders.  Her sky-blue tube top set off the freshness of her freckled pink cheeks, but the heavy eyeliner around her green eyes let me know she thought herself a badass.  "I'm gettin' my associate's first before I spend all that money on a bachelor's."
    "Heh, good idea," I agreed.  "I went to the University of the Arts for a bit and I think I'll be paying the loans for the rest of my life."
    "See, that's why I didn't deal with that bullshit," Case announced, trying to draw Hannah's attention back to him.  "College is a rip-off."
    "You never went?" Allison asked worshipfully, petting his upper arm.  "What did you do instead?"
    "Worked," Case puffed importantly.  "Hustled.  They're more ways to make money than sitting in a shitty office."
    Allison looked impressed, but Hannah was skeptical.  "What did your parents think of that?" she pressed.
    J. sucked in his teeth.  I looked at him and he shook his head ever so slightly, indicating that I shouldn't ask. 
    Case regarded Hannah steadily, the ardor in his gaze gone out like a light.  "Guess you'll have to ask them, Miss Priss.  If you can find them."
    Hannah was confused.  "You don't know where your parents are?"
    "My guess would be dead in a ditch," he spat.  He shook himself free of Allison's clinging.  She batted her heavily mascaraed lashes and pouted as Hannah registered slow shock and understanding.
    J. raised his hand, attempting to smooth over the sudden chill in the room.  "You didn't know, babe.  She didn't know, Case," he called.  But Case only sat back in his chair and drained his beer moodily.
    "You're a fucking serious motherfucker," Crash admonished him. 
    "I would be happy too if I couldn't remember past fifteen minutes ago," Case growled. 
    "Chill the fuck out man, that was a low blow," J. stood up from his chair and went over to Case.  "Unnecessary."
    "Sorry," Case mumbled into his beer.
    "He's right though," Crash announced to the breathless girls.  "Memory's fucked." He turned to Lupe with a tragic air.  "Ever since my accident."
    "You were in an accident?" she cooed, smoothing her hand over his face and clucking over him.
    "When I was eighteen," he nodded. He grinned and licked his lips, then suddenly went pale.  "Hey, you're eighteen, right?
    "Nineteen," she said proudly.
    "Then don't worry mami, all the important parts still work."  His lopsided grin had the desired effect.  Her tongue disappeared down his throat again.
    Allison eyed them jealously,