Free Inside Out by Grayson Cole Page B

here?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œShe’s been here almost a solid month.”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œJust saying.”
    â€œLook, Clay, she’s always over here.”
    â€œYeah, but for a while there you weren’t.”
    â€œWhat’s chapping your ass?”
    â€œNothing much, really. It’s just that when I was home last I went shooting with Charles and his dad and your dad.” Clay hesitated. “You know Charles has a big mouth.”
    Rett didn’t say anything, just went still. There was something Clay was trying to tell him, and he was guaranteed not to like it. “And just what was Charles letting his mouth run about?”
    â€œWell, he basically was saying that you’d been away from the house a lot lately. When they made the assumption you were out with Kim, he made sure quick, fast and in a hurry that they knew you weren’t out with Kim. He also made some comments about who you were out with.”
    â€œAnd who was that?”
    â€œI don’t know. And, for that matter, I don’t know how he would know, either. All I’m sayin’ is that he made it sound like you were goin’ out with somebody you ought not.”
    â€œAnd how did I come up in the first place?”
    â€œAww, Rett, you know how it is. We were just shooting the breeze.”
    â€œIt’s nobody’s business what I do, when I do it, and who I do it with.”
    â€œHey, man, don’t get pissed at me. I just thought you ought to know.” Clay stood, getting ready to go back to bed. “I don’t care what you do. I’m for real. Whatever it is, man, it’s cool with me. But you might want to watch yourself.”
    Rett immediately felt apologetic but didn’t say anything. He just watched his friend walk to his bedroom. That was a warning. Ever since they had been kids, Charles had done one thing or another to get at him. Hell, sometimes Rett returned the favor. But this was not cool. He wouldn’t put it past Charles to follow him one night.
    As Clay disappeared down the hall, Kim appeared in Rett’s jersey. Charles was behind her.
    â€œWhat is this? A party?” Charles asked, grinning. He was wearing only sweatpants. Rett noted absently that Charles still outsized him, as he always had, but Rett had never lost a fight to him.
    â€œNaw, I couldn’t sleep,” Rett answered tightly.
    â€œI just came to see where you went,” Kim added, a lot more alert than when he’d left her. And she sounded guilty, too. Rett knew her too well. And he knew his friend too well, also.
    â€œWell, you found him,” Charles said and smacked her hard on the backside. “Why don’t you go and get me some water while you’re up.” And there she went. Charles turned his attention to Rett then. He wanted to see if that little show had hit its mark.
    It hadn’t. Or if it had, Rett wasn’t about to show it. He stood finishing his soda and opening his beer. “I think I’m sleepy now. You don’t have to send Kim on—she always knows how to find her way back.”
    Charles said to his retreating back, “I hope you have a good time this weekend huntin’ with Big. We sure had a good time last weekend.”
    Rett didn’t answer. He just went to bed, barely noting that Kim was taking her sweet time to follow.

Chapter 10
    Tracey was in a rotten mood, she really was. When Moni called that morning and asked why she hadn’t come down to the center, she explained that she just wasn’t feeling up to it. Moni asked why. Tracey told her she didn’t know. Moni invited her to a matinée movie and lunch with her and her kids to shake off her doldrums. Tracey agreed because she needed the company, anything to get her mind off things.
    Tracey got to the mall way too early. She slowly wandered to the area where the theater was located and eased down onto a hard bench positioned in front of a