Free Magdalene by Moriah Jovan Page A

dinner.”
    “Is she hot?”
    He shrugged. “Not like you mean it, no.”
    “I don’t even know what ‘hot’ is anymore,
anyway,” Trevor muttered, looking at the floor, an unhappy
expression on his face.
    “What does that mean?” Mitch asked,
genuinely curious.
    It took a long time for him to answer, which
was normal. Trevor usually chose his words with care. “Okay, like
Hayleigh Sitkaris.”
    Mitch said nothing.
    “She’s really cute. Actually, she’s
drop-dead gorgeous, but she’s so...needy.”
    “Neediness comes in a lot of different
varieties,” Mitch found himself saying. “It’s not always a bad
thing.” All Hayleigh needed was a rabblerouser of a
boyfriend who’d stand up to her father—
    “Yeah, but that’s not hot. Am I missing
something? At church, at school, there are a lot of guys who want
to go out with her, but she’s all about me .”
    —which she apparently knew, since she kept
attempting to confide in Trevor in hopes he would take the hint—and
the job.
    “Okay, so say she wasn’t needy. Would you
like her then?”
    Trevor pursed his lips in thought. “I’d ask
her out.”
    “Why do you think she’s needy?”
    He glanced at Mitch warily. “You’ll think
I’m crazy.” Mitch shook his head, and Trevor took a deep breath.
“Her dad. He’s so awesome, right? He’s fun. He’s cool. He’s not all
about the rules all the time.” He stopped. “But there’s something
about him that’s not right. The way Hayleigh acts around him, it’s
totally different from the way she is, like, when she’s hanging
around me and Josh and Cordelia.”
    Josh and Cordelia. The other two kids who
didn’t buy into Greg’s charm. Four teenagers out of thirty-eight.
They didn’t know why, either.
    “Crazy, huh?”
    “Not at all. But think back. Does she come
on to you? Does she act like she’s angling for anything other than
somebody to listen to her who won’t think she’s crazy?”
    Trevor stared at the floor, silent for a
couple of seconds. “Well, yes and no,” he murmured. “It’s weird.
When Josh is around, it’s almost like she would rather be with him
than me, but— It’s like, she wants me to do something for her, but
won’t come out and say it.”
    “Like...something only you can do that Josh
can’t, and if Josh could do it she wouldn’t be all about you?”
    “Yeah, exactly. Weird.”
    Not weird. Smart.
    Josh didn’t have a trust fund he could use
to whisk Hayleigh away from her father, much less a full-time
union-wage job and his own investment portfolio to support her on.
Josh also didn’t have a father who could protect her from Greg.
Hayleigh wasn’t mercenary—she was confused and desperate to either
untangle her confusion or find an efficient, palatable way to get
away from its source.
    Trevor had cash and Mitch had power.
    It was more than Mitch had had when faced
with the same situation.
    “You know what’s going on with her, don’t
you?” Trevor asked.
    Mitch shrugged. “I have my suspicions.
Nothing concrete. It’d help if you paid attention to whatever she’s
trying to tell you. Then maybe you could pass it along to me if you
feel comfortable doing that.”
    Trevor studied him a moment. “Okay,” he said
slowly. “I can do that.” He remained silent for a while, and Mitch
began to dread whatever would come out of his mouth. A long silence
like that meant Trevor was trying to decide how best to deliver bad
news.
    “Dad, I don’t want to go to BYU.”
    Mitch released a long whoosh of air. Was
that all? “Okay.” Easy enough. “I didn’t go to BYU and I never
expected you to. Where do you want to go?”
    “NYU.”
    Mitch would rather he go farther away from
home so he could feel truly independent, but it was Trevor’s money,
Trevor’s decision.
    “And I don’t want to go on a mission.”
    Mitch had expected that a year ago. “Why
not?” he asked, but he already knew. Trevor had spent a lot of time
with Sebastian over the last