Free Tomorrow's Lies (Promises #1) by S.R. Grey Page A

my suspicion.
    “Damn, Mandy.”
    She pauses for a beat, looks away. In a soft voice she tells me, “I have to be honest, Jaynie. I thought about it more than once.”
    “Hooking?”
    She nods. “Yeah. There were times when I was so hungry I couldn’t sleep. Those nights, hooking didn’t sound so bad.” She takes a breath, while I hold mine, imagining a fifteen-year-old Mandy contemplating selling her body.
    “I always came to my senses, though,” Mandy says. “I’d remind myself how there’s always a pimp who shows up and takes a cut of the money you earn lying on your back. Then, if you refuse to work for him,”—she makes a fist and punches the air—“you get your ass handed to you. Hell, even if you do agree to work for the dickhead, he still lays you out from time to time. So, yeah, hooking was out.”
    “That’s crazy,” is all I can think to say.
    Mandy has clearly lived much more than me. Sure, horrific things have happened in my life, but there are far worse things that could still occur. I sure as hell don’t want to end up selling my body to untold numbers of men. One man taking what he wanted damaged me enough. But the worst could still lie ahead. Living in the world of the unwanted is like living on thin ice. It could crack open at any time, and God help you if you fall in.
    I feel the blood draining from my face, and Mandy asks, “Jesus, are you okay?”
    Shakily, I reply, “Yeah, I’m good.”
    Clearly, I am not, and Mandy stares at me like she’d like to ask more. I know she’s curious to hear my full story, but I’m not ready to get into what I went through. Still, my reticence to speak about myself doesn’t mean I’m not curious about how Mandy ended up where she is. Like, how’d she land in foster care in the first place?
    I don’t have the courage to ask, not now, so I focus on the story at hand.
    “So,” I begin, “what great thing happened in Morgantown that has you so set on returning when you get out of here?”
    Mandy lights up, and not from the fresh flash of lightning illuminating the room. “I met this guy when I was there,” she says softly.
    “Ahh, it’s always a guy.”
    She smiles. “Seems that way, huh?”
    I can’t believe it, but the unflappable Mandy is flustered. “Are you blushing?” I ask.
    I feel so normal all of the sudden. I mean, here we are in a crappy situation, but we can still smile and blush over a boy. Emboldened, I take a chance and nudge Mandy with my knee. I wait for the panic to set in, but everything is fine. I feel good. Maybe there’s hope for me yet.
    Mandy glances down at my knee, then back up at me. I know she’s surprised I made contact with her, but, to my relief, she says nothing. Instead, she treats me like I’m normal, nonchalantly smacking me with the edge of the top sheet.
    “Shut up,” she says. “I am not blushing.” She ponders for a few seconds, and then qualifies, “Though I have to admit that Josh is certainly a blush-inducing kind of guy.”
    “Josh, huh?”
    “Yeah,” she sighs. “Josh.”
    Mandy clearly cares for this “blush-inducing” guy. I mean, hell, he’s her reason to return to Morgantown, so I feel confident in asking, “Is Josh the special someone you told me about in the work barn?” She nods, and I add excitedly, “Well, tell me more about him.”
    We both hunker down in the covers. I scoot lower on my pillows and she moves an inch closer.
    “Okay,” she says. “I may be biased, but I have to say Josh is really super cute.”
    “Go on,” I prompt.
    Smiling, she tells me, “He has wavy blond hair and the bluest eyes you’ve ever seen. And, Jaynie, he is freaking built .”
    I nod approvingly. “Nice.”
    “ Very nice,” she agrees with a waggle of her eyebrows.
    We laugh for a minute, but then things turn serious when she says, “More important than all those things, though, is that Josh is a great guy. He’s a good soul, Jaynie. Like Flynn.” She smiles at me, and I smile