Читать книгу Small Town Monsters - Craig Nybo - Страница 40

Craig Nybo

10

Lucy grossly belted out the lyrics, off tune and way too loud under the influence of her headphones. She stopped working her math for a moment so she could pour everything she had into her singing.

I’m moving on and I don’t need,

Your nothing anymore more.

And the next girl to come along,

Will learn how nothing you are.

The mattress shifted as someone sat on the bed next to her. Startled, she took in a frightened breath and glanced up from her homework. Her dad looked back at her, the swollen capillaries in his nose blanching his skin and giving him that I-don’t-give-a-shit look Lucy most feared.

Marty smiled at her. He’d been standing at the door, watching her sing, braying like an animal, from the broken door for half a minute, leaning against the jamb, his arms crossed, his mouth twisted up into an easy smile.

Marty delicately removed Lucy’s headphones. She recoiled under his touch and looked away.

“You’re home, early,” Lucy said. She glanced at her watch: 11:00 PM. She’d hoped to go to sleep before he came back from Pearlman’s where he hung out with his creepy friends who sometimes came over with their nasty jokes and crawling eyes.

“You shouldn’t listen to your music so loud, sweetie; you’re going to blow out those pretty ears of yours.”

Lucy shrugged.

Marty looked at the headphones, trying to make out music from the rhythmic sizzle that came from them. “What is this stuff anyways? Ain’t real music. You should try some Zeppelin or something.”

“I like it,” Lucy said and went back to her homework.

Her father sat there on the bed, looking at her for a long moment as she worked out the problems. The usual electricity built between them. Lucy became less able to keep her mind