Dead Ends by Erin Jade Lange Page A

girls.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œDude, because it’s just not cool to hit girls.”
    Billy thought about that for a minute, then nodded. “Who else?”
    â€œI don’t know, Billy. I’m tired, okay?”
    â€œOkay.” He stomped away to his own curb but turned back before he hit the front stoop. “Hey, Dane.”
    â€œYeah?” I could barely make out Billy’s silhouette under his dim porch light.
    â€œYour mom’s the blond lady, right?”
    â€œRight. Why?”
    â€œYou don’t look like her.”
    â€œI know.” I hesitated. “I don’t know who I look like.”
    â€œI bet your mom knows,” Billy offered.
    â€œWhat?”
    Billy shrugged. “You don’t look like her. But she probably knows who you
do
look like.”
    Of course I’d thought before that I must look like my dad, but how had it never occurred to me that that would mean my mom knew who he was? I smiled in the dark.
    Whatever people thought about my mom … whatever
I
had secretly thought about her … I was sure now that she was not those things—that she knew who my dad was and probably always did.
    Billy’s shadow moved toward his front door.
    â€œBilly D.!”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œWalk to school tomorrow?”
    I could almost see his face spreading into a smile. “Okay, then.”
    â€œOkay, then.”

Chapter 9
    â€œAnd how is Dane treating you?” I asked Billy, doing my best impression of the warden.
    â€œFine,” Billy said in a bored voice.
    â€œIs he showing you around school?”
    â€œNo.”
    I grabbed Billy’s arm, turning him around. We stood toe to toe on the sidewalk halfway to school.
    â€œNo, Billy, you say
yes
.”
    â€œBut I don’t need you to show me around school.”
    I threw my hands up. “Not the point.”
    I’d been coaching him on what to say to the warden ever since we’d stepped off our street. So far, I was sure a suspension was right around the corner.
    â€œWhatever,” I said, walking again. “Just tell him I’m helping you, okay?”
    â€œI will.”
    â€œGood.”
    â€œWhen you start helping me.”
    I wheeled on him. “What do you mean? I’m teaching you to fight, aren’t I?”
    His sour expression told me that wasn’t the favor he was referring to.
    â€œDude, I’ll do what I can to help you track down your old man, but that’s going to take time. You need to make sure the warden thinks I’m helping you
now
. Besides,” I said, lowering my voice, “If you don’t keep me out of trouble at school, you won’t be holding up your end of the bargain, and I won’t have to help you find your dad at all.”
    Two could play at this game.
    â€œThat’s—” Billy huffed and turned a little red in the ears. “That’s—”
    â€œBlackmail?” I said. “Yeah. Tell me about it.”
    I should have won that round, but the way Billy’s eyes and mouth turned down at the corners sent an uncomfortable little wave of guilt through me.
    â€œFine, let’s try this again. You’re sure your dad’s not back in Oregon?”
    â€œI’m sure,” Billy said.
    We moved down the sidewalk.
    â€œAnd he didn’t tell you where he was going?”
    â€œNope.”
    â€œHe just moved and didn’t call you?”
    Billy’s smile faltered. “He doesn’t have our number.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBecause Mom keeps changing it.”
    Wow, that woman had really been burned.
    â€œHey, what’s she doing?” Billy pointed ahead to the corner of the next street.
    I followed his finger to a car parked right in the middle of the intersection. A woman in a tight skirt was kicking her tires and shouting curse words at no one in particular.
    â€œWhat’s wrong with her?” Billy asked.
    â€œWho