Amber by Dan-Dwayne Spencer (e book reader .TXT) 📕

the truck in gear, leaned forward, and slipped his billfold out of his back pocket. He threw fifteen dollars on the bench seat beside me. “Will that do ya?”

Sighing, I looked out the window as we pulled away from the curb. “The pool fee is twenty-five cents, and each class is fifty cents. I have to pay for ten weeks.” I fidgeted on the vinyl like a bird on a perch. “That’s forty-five dollars.”

He abruptly stopped the truck in the middle of the street. Reaching for the dash a split second before the recoil threw me off the seat saved me from landing on the grimy floor mats.

“Didn’t your mother give you money for those lessons?”

“No, she signed a promissory note saying she’d pay at the end of the season.”

He fished out a fifty-dollar bill and sneered as he scooped up the ten and threw the big bill on top of the five. Gazing out of the pickup’s window, I collected the money and crammed it into my pocket. Silence thick as Aunt Hattie’s roux gravy filled the space between us for the rest of the drive to the pool.

As soon as the truck stopped, I swung the door open. “Thanks, Dad,” I called out, landing flat-footed on the pavement.

He huffed and through gritted teeth said, “Never let it be said Norman Loveless doesn’t provide for his own.”

Looking away from him, I pressed my lips into an arrogant smile as I shut the door. He couldn’t have seen it unless he had some kind of extrasensory perception. It was an expression I had seen on his face more than once. Perhaps he could guess I’d taken to wearing it also—just because.

The lifeguards hadn’t opened the doors to the admission booth, so I headed straight for the Serve-U convenience store across the street from the pool. Michael and Roger Reynolds were inside pestering Sarah Hampton, the cashier. Her dad owned the Serve-U and made her work there during the summers. Two years older than me, she had the reputation of being the prettiest girl in high school and if the rumors we heard were true, the wildest.

“Arland,” Michael quipped, “Sarah said she wants to go out with you.”

“I did not,” Sarah insisted. “I simply mentioned we would be in the same Spanish class if you took Spanish 2 with old lady Wheeler.” She squinted, tilted her smile, and gave the tall, redheaded Michael the finger.

I put on my best strut and leaned back against the Coke machine, like James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. Michael leaned back next to me, I only came up to his chin. In that instant my self-assurance melted away, but as I saw it, this could be my one and only chance with Sarah—I had to take it. I gathered all the machismo I could.

“I put Spanish 2 on my schedule card,” I crooned at Sarah in my sexiest voice. “Maybe we can sit next to each other.”

“Oh, I don’t think Jimmy would like that.” She smiled slyly. “He gets awful jealous, ya know.”

Jimmy Dugan was a freak of nature. At twelve years old, he started growing facial hair and skyrocketed to his stout frame of six feet four inches in only three years. At sixteen and a junior in high school, he could pass for twenty-five. If Sarah’s dad didn’t already know him, he could’ve easily bought beer at the Serve-U, and Sarah made sure everyone knew he was her boyfriend. His reputation as the class bully made him a full-fledged legend.

Last year, they required every guy in gym class to take part in the school-wide, fall sports intermural, and Jimmy volunteered to help Coach Garcia with his paperwork. On the last day of the competition, Jimmy brought an icepick with him to school. In the shower, after gym class, he thought it was funny to poke bare butts with it, mine included. Actually, he’s selective about who he picks on, and for some reason, he never picked on me as much as he did some of the guys. I guess that’s why I wasn’t so afraid of him. At least not as afraid as Michael.

When Michael got bullied, he had uncontrolled outbursts of emotion, loudly pleading, and begging Jimmy to leave him alone. His pleading only fueled Jimmy’s ego and made Michael a target. Don’t get me wrong, Dugan bullied every boy in school, but no one reported him because the consequences would have been far worse than the harassment. To this day, I’ve never seen anyone who could hit as hard as Jimmy Dugan. Thank God I only had one more semester left to take gym. The downside of any athletic activity was Jimmy. His athletic prowess made him every coach’s favorite, and he participated in everything imaginable. Maybe, after Jimmy graduates, I’ll try out for the swim team. I never went out for sports before.

Roger, still harassing Sarah, egged her on by saying, “Sally Ferguson told Debbie Hanson that Arland kisses better than Jimmy does.”

“I don’t think so,” Sarah scoffed.

“How would ya know” I added. Roger had set up Sarah just as I had done for him with Debbie Hanson. It was up to me to close the deal. “You’ve never kissed me.” Frowning, I gave her my best puppy dog eyes. If I had a superpower, it would have to be those amber eyes of mine.

Sarah thoughtfully answered, “Ya know, I haven’t and it would be unfair to judge you without one, right?”

“Absolutely unfair.” My head bobbed, convincing her of my total sincerity.

She leaned over the counter towards me and puckered up. I bellied up to the counter and leaned in, prepared to kiss, when she slapped my forehead back with her palm.

“Nice try, Arland. But you’re going to have to do better if you want a kiss from me. Debbie told me all about your