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Chapter One

Relentless Addiction

MOM IS TOO TIRED TO play hide-and-seek Her stomach hurts so she took some medicine to make it feel better I don’t like it when she’s sick Grandma Patty doesn’t know about Mom’s stomachaches and I haven’t seen Grand to think I should tell her

Mom is asleep on the sofa; at least, I think she’s asleep I can’t really tell the difference any, I’ll try to sneak some cookies out of the cupboard She usually hears et out of the kitchen Sometimes, she sleeps with her eyes half-open so I wave my hands in front of her eyes and et bored after a couple ofsoh, and it’s just Mom and me in this house

Her skinny are of the sofa cushion and I stare at the bandage It’s too ss she calls an abscess opened last night while she was rilled cheese sandwich Some thick, brown stuff oozed out of her arlaze onlike a maple donut The whole kitchen smelled like stinky feet when she put her arm under the water in the sink Then she wrapped a billion paper towels around her aro to the doctor She said that if she goes to the ehttime Then I’ll have to live with people I don’t know, people who ets better My mom loves me a lot She doesn’t want anybody to hurt me the way she was hurt when she was nine

Mom teaches me a lot She isn’t just my mom; she’s my teacher When she isn’t sick, she teaches , butabout the planets the row up Mo I want to be if I just keep reading and learning So that’s what I do when she’s sick I read

She’s been asleep for a long time today I’ve already read two chapters in ry I can make myself sohetti today

I slide off the recliner and land on the e carpet that Mom always says is too dirty forjust a few inches away frorayish-blue

"Mo smells like a toilet and I wonder if it’s the stinky abscess on her arm I shake her shoulder a little and her head falls sideways A glob of thick, white liquid spills from the corner of her mouth

The memory dissolves as soister comes into focus as the rich aroma of espresso replaces the acrid stench in ain For the third ti so, but this guy in his Tap Out T-shirt and veins bulging out of his smooth bald head looks like he’s ready to juet his own coffee

"Sorry, about that What was your order?"

"Wake the fuck up, blondie I asked for an A Christ There are people with serious jobs who need to get to work"

I take a deep breath, , as I punch the order in on the touchscreen "Will that be all?"

Baldy rolls his eyes at et the fuck out of here"

"Hey, take it easy She’s just trying to take your order," says a voice I don’t look up, but I can hear it caave herti business"

Linda co hand on uy’s Arain scone She doesn’t say anything, but the nasty look she casts in his direction couldchampion piss his pants Linda is the best boss in the world and one of the many reasons I still work at Beachcombers Café All the other reasons I still work at one of the tiniest cafés in Wrightsville Beach have to doout of UNC Chapel Hill ten o But that’s a whole other story

Baldy peels the lid off his coffee, rolling his eyes as he peers into the cup "I said I wanted roo retarded?"

Before I could reach for the cup, a guy in a suit steps out of line, grabs the cup off the counter, and du A loud collective gasp echoes through the café

"Now you’ve got plenty of roouy says

I clap h as Linda scrae in Baldy’s eyes is terrifying "You rins

And what a sexy white knight he is Even in his pressed shirt and slacks, he can’t bevibe about hi a suit at seven in the leareen eyes, he reminds me of Leonardo DiCaprio in one of es my Jack Dawson, but Jack swiftly steps aside at the last h display of s and coffee beans All six people in the café are now standing silent as Baldy spits curses at the cracked s and spilled beans underneath hi at me, a sneaky half-set to his feet, Jack drops a few hundred-dollar bills on the counter "For the daes"