Read Online The Weight of Destiny by Nyrae Dawn - Free Book Online

her homework on weekends—looks for in a guy. I’m sure you have a list.”
    “Why? Because I’m a girl, right? We all have to dream about having the perfect boyfriend? Someone who will, what…save us? Protect us?” My arm shoots out and I elbow him. This time, my heart freezes. I don’t even know this boy, yet I just elbowed him. And he is the kind of boy who belongs on what he calls “ghetto beach,” when we both know I don’t.
    My body relaxes when he laughs. “I have a feeling that the night I helped you on the dock is probably the first time someone has had to save you, Virginia Woolf. It will probably be the last, too.”
    “Don’t.” I shake my head. Heat, such a contrast to the weather, burns through me. “Don’t call me Virginia Woolf.”
    He cocks his head, as though I’m a Rubik’s cube he’s trying to solve. “Sorry. You said your mom named you after her. Didn’t realize it was a biggie. Who is Virginia Woolf, anyway?”
    At this, I can’t stop my eyes from growing wide. “Are you kidding me?” Yeah, he probably isn’t as homework-oriented as I am, but how does someone not know who Virginia Woolf is? Do they teach at his school? “She was a writer.”
    “I’m kidding, rich girl. I’m not that dumb. Your mom a writer or something? She must at least be super fucking into books if she named you after her.”
    My arms tighten around my knees, frustration making my muscles tight. “Yes.” Most people know who Charity Nichols is. She’s famous. She’s talented. She’s inspiring. No one knows she’s been more than one person.
    “I bet you are, too, huh? Shit like that normally runs in families.”
    It’s as though his words turn my insides into cement. My whole body goes rigid. “No. I hate writing. I don’t do it unless I have to.” I won’t become cursed. I won’t lose myself so deeply in fiction that I can’t handle the real world.
    And then, because I want to get the conversation off me, I ask, “What about you? What did you inherit from your parents?”
    This time, it’s him who goes stiff. “My mom bailed when I was young. I don’t know much about her.”
    My heart does this softening thing.
    He says, “Don’t feel bad for me. Fuck her. If she didn’t want me, then I don’t want her. My dad is cool, though.”
    “Okay, then what did you inherit from him? My dad and I both like rules. He likes numbers, and I do as well.”
    Pierced-lip boy shakes his head, chuckling softly. I feel my cheeks start to redden. “What? There’s nothing wrong with liking numbers and rules.”
    “Hey.” He holds his hands up as though he’s trying to show he doesn’t mean to attack me. “I’m not saying there is. I’m just thinking you probably don’t want to know what I learned from my pops. We’ll leave it at that.”
    Again, I notice his hands shake from the cold. I think he sees me watching and he jerks his arms down. Rolling his eyes, he grins as though he thinks I’m being ridiculous.
    “Your eyes are two different colors.” I don’t know why I just brought that up to him. Duh. Like he doesn’t know what colors his eyes are. Not once in my life have I talked to a boy about his eyes.
    “Hot, isn’t it?” His smile grows, and I feel the urge to hit him with my bat.
    “Yeah, but it quickly gets canceled out by your mouth.” My mouth drops open when I realize what I said. Yes, he is cute. I’ve never liked a boy with facial piercings, and honestly never thought I would, but they suit him. He has a nice smile, when he’s not being a jerk. The tousled hair thing usually isn’t for me, but on him it is. “Not that…you aren’t…I didn’t mean.”
    For what feels like the millionth time he shakes his head, as though I’m being ridiculous. “It’s okay to admit when you think someone is good-looking. I don’t know why people are so weird about sex. Especially girls. It’s annoying that people freak out when a girl admits she’s into sex. There’s nothing