Alright, I've about had it. It was my turn to stifle a laugh. I pressed a fist to my mouth, eying his exasperated face for a brief moment to give myself the chance to find my voice.

"You do realize you sound ridiculous?"

"Oh, more than you know," he acknowledged. "Look, if you're that uncomfortable, I'll think of something else - and no, I'm decent enough not to ask anything illegal of you, so you wouldn't need to worry about that."

I pursed my lips in thought, glancing over at the apartment building. Hadi would be thrilled if I agreed - and would probably strangle me elsewise if she learned that I turned down a guy I tricked into giving me sixty-five dollars. Especially if that guy was aware that I had deceived him and still wanted to go on a date with me. I had already thrown the idea that he wanted some sort of justice on me out of my mind; if he wanted payback, he would have left me to fend for myself with Frenice.

Besides, having someone in my corner might not be a bad idea, now that I was potentially in view of a dangerous criminal known for blackmailing and human trafficking.

"Alright," I said at last. "But wherever you choose, downtown is off limits - I mean that. I will jump out of the car if I notice that's the direction you're going in - I don't care how fast you're going."

Jaxon chuckled and gave a nod of understanding. The relief that momentarily eased his shoulders was blankly obvious that for a moment, he seemed like a normal, teenage boy who just wanted to get his crush to go out with him on a date.

Gah, don't go thinking like that. For all we know, I'm just a ploy to get back at his parents.

"I wasn't planning on going in that direction, anyway," he promised. Good. Well, I guess that was the end of the conversation, then.

"I should probably go," I said after an awkward moment of silence, turning to face the passenger's window. Leaning up against the wall of the building not far from us, I noticed a couple of figures talking. One turned to face us. Suddenly paranoid, I tore my eyes away from the building itself to peer at the rows of cars surrounding Jaxon's.

Someone's getting suspicious. Maybe. I thought. Now, how do I go about this without getting jumped? I didn't feel like listening to another one of Hadi's lectures should I end up stumbling in the apartment with a busted face. Then it dawned on me. Ah, shit. Teenage girl. I'd have to make them remember I'm a teenage girl - one who was seen with a fairly rich man earlier and snuck out to meet a much younger one later. Quickly, I lowered my eyes at the door handle and tried to make myself appear somewhat guilty, trying to envision what our conversation must have looked like to anyone watching. From the motions that we made, it could have appeared that we were arguing. It was too dark to tell anything else . . . or at least, I hoped so. I wasn't sure if anyone recognized me, though it would look bad, anyway - getting in someone's car before quickly getting out. I didn't need people to start assuming those kinds of things, especially if I got caught. I'm going to regret this. Beside me, Jaxon clasped his hands, oblivious.

"Of course. Would you like me to-" he was getting ready to open his own door. It took my mind a second to grasp what he was doing.

"No," I said hurriedly, reaching over to grab his arm to stop him. For a moment, both of us were caught in an awkward silence. He glanced down at my hand, to which I quickly retreated and glanced back out the window to hide my flushed face. "Jaxon, I think we're being watched. No one knows you're here?"

"No," he replied. He might have sounded like a regular boy before, but now he sounded calm, collected. He understood the situation, blast him. I just needed to speak a few words to him, and he understood. Man, sometimes I really loathe my life. "My parents think I'm at a friend's - I didn't lie, I will go over to his house later, but right now he thinks I'm trying to soothe things over with a girl." Which wasn't a lie, either. "He doesn't know who, but he'll cover for me for now. The guy that I had watching you from before thinks I'm just trying to get information to hold over you."

Ah, there's that business side of him I oh-so-much enjoyed.

"Okay. Well, I'm going to act like I'm trying to leave. Then you're going to grab my arm and kiss me." You lucky fool, I thought sourly. He paused, though before he could object, I reminded, "You're the second guy I've seen tonight. You know that I was seen with someone else and you came here to confront me about it."

"Like a jealous boyfriend."

I nearly choked.

"Yes," I managed. "We were just arguing, you told me to leave, but you changed your mind at the last minute." I rested my hand on the door handle. I didn't bother trying to explain the rest of the details - I was more concerned about easing the sudden pressure of nerves gathering in my chest. He was smart; he could piece the rest of my plan together. "Are you okay with that?"

"Are you okay with this?"

"No." But I made to follow the plan, anyway. I acted like I was about to open the door when, sure enough, the boy that toilet-papered another boy earlier today grabbed my arm. Instinctively, I moved to face him just as he moved in to kiss me.

Now, this wasn't the first time I've ever kissed a boy, but it was certainly the first time in a long time. When I was about nine, ten years old, I had a childhood friend who lived out on the streets. He was about the same age as me, so whenever my mother would leave or sleep all day, I would go outside to play with him. After a while, he made a shy pass at me and, yeah, being ten, I thought nothing of it. I was at the age where kissing boys didn't sound as gross as it normally did, and I had had a crush on him since the day we met a few years prior.

We had actually stolen quite a few kisses behind my mother's back before she found out. It wasn't anything major - we never snuck behind alleyways to suck each other's faces off (again, we couldn't have been older than ten); it was usually a peck on the cheek here and there. Still, my mother pulled me aside and gave me a long, horrifying lecture about what kissing boys eventually led to. I had already been exposed to enough incidents of watching strange men following my mother in the old motel rooms we would rent to know what she was getting at. I wasn't lying when I told Frenice that my mom was a prostitute.

So. My mother disappeared on me not long after that, and then I met Hadi, and Hadi moved us a few towns over. After spending a year or two scared shitless about the thought of holding hands with a boy, living in Gallin was enough to deter me from the prospect of romantic relationships. Yet, here I was, trying to avoid being interrogated and beaten by letting a boy I barely liked kiss me.

He pushed forward, which made me lean back until the back of my head was up against the window. Then, as I snaked my hands between us to press them against his chest - about ready to shove him back, I reasoned with myself - he raised a hand to brush his fingers against my cheek. I opened my eyes, ready to tear myself away from him completely, when he pulled back just enough for our lips to no longer touch, though kept his hand where it was. It took me a minute to realize that he was blocking the view of any potential watchers; with his hand and the seat blocking the bottom half of our faces, anyone who wasn't paying too close attention would think otherwise about what we were doing.

"What now?" he questioned, completely serious. Thankful that he at least had the decency to hide any sort of pleasure or amusement he got out of this, I tried not to think about how close we were and focused instead on keeping myself relaxed and still.

"I'm thinking," I said. I'm not going much further than this. I don't care if they don't buy it. "You can act like you got an important text or something . . ."

"Not a bad idea," he mused.

"Just do me a favor, would you?"

"Hmm?"

"Not a word of this," I said seriously. "To anyone. Not your buddies, not your mama-"

To this, he scoffed out a laugh.

"Hey! I'm serious," though nerves made me laugh, nonetheless.

"Believe me, my mama would be the last person I'd ever tell."

Okay, so he's a charmer. I bit my lip to keep myself from smiling. I wondered how well the attempt was.

"Good. Now, your phone - grab your phone," I said, inching my head back to gesture wherever he might have been holding his cellular device. Then, as he eased back to grab his phone out of his pocket, I asked, almost hesitant, "How often do you do this?"

Jaxon paused. The light radiating off his phone was almost enough to expose his entire face.

"Do what?"

"You know, this," I made a show of gesturing around us. "Sneaking out to meet some girl in the ghetto of the ghettos - and pretending to kiss her, at that."

The boy shrugged. "If I'm lucky, three times a week."

"I'm serious."

He frowned, though I couldn't tell if he was frowning at his phone or at me. Damn, he's good at pretending.

"When are you never?" He laughed before I could snap something at him. He glanced up. "How often do you hear about me saving some other girl's ass?"

That was a good point. Then again, I didn't make it a show to get involved in people's business. I just happened to know more than I wished when it came to certain people, which was more than the average person.

"Um, never? And you didn't save-"

"Then that should be answer enough," Jaxon interrupted. He tilted his head slightly in the direction where the two bystanders at the building were still hanging out while keeping his eyes on me. "Do you think we convinced them?"

"We'll find out," I said dryly. I turned, ready to get out of the car.

"So I'll see you Saturday?"

I paused.

"Don't pick me up. Not here. I'll spend the day at a park or something until you're ready."

"Gotcha."

Then I left, without another word. However, I didn't hear the start of an engine break through the night until I made my way around the corner of the apartment building.