Crushing on the Bully by Sarah Adams Page B

onto the carpet. She grinned up at him, both thankful and impressed that he had actually remembered this time. She grabbed two sodas from the refrigerator before rejoining Skull in the living room. He was sitting on the sofa leaning back against the arm. His pose was self-assured as always, but the worried look in his brown eyes let Clarissa know that he was more concerned about their ‘talk’ than he wanted to let on.
    Clarissa sat down next to him, handing him one of the cans.
    “Thanks, Bookworm,” he said.
    “Not a problem,” Clarissa said attempting to keep her voice level, as not to betray the panic that was twisting her insides, “So, what’s up?”
    “I don’t even know where to start,” Skull said, shaking his head.
    “How about why you were arrested tonight?” Clarissa suggested.
    “Because the charges were dropped,” Skull laughed.
    “That doesn’t tell me why,” Clarissa crossed her arms.
    “Because I was watching a house where a drug bust happened,” Skull said.
    “What? Watching a house? Like spying on someone or something? Are you trying to play at being a government agent or something?”
    “No,” Skull shook his head, “Nothing like that, unfortunately, because that would be a freakin’ cool explanation.”
    “Yeah, too bad,” Clarissa laughed, trying to ignore the tension that had locked her shoulders and made her body ache, “So why exactly, were you there?”
    “Looking for my brother or to be more specific I was looking for someone who might have had information to where Aaron might be,” Skull said.
    “Is Aaron in trouble or something?” Clarissa asked, cocking her head to the side.
    “That’s just it, I don’t know,” Skull sighed.
    Clarissa touched his face and kissed his lips softly, but he was the one to pull away this time.
    “Don’t or I’ll never be able to tell you everything,” he said shaking his head.
    Clarissa nodded and sat back on her heels, settling her hand in his.
    “When I was six and Aaron was twelve our father went down for a long time for heroin,” Skull began, “Our mom did her best, but Aaron was already determined that he had to be the one to take care of everything. Mom worked her fingers to the bones, but nothing was ever good enough for Aaron. He always wanted more, not that I ever blamed him. I wanted more too, but not badly enough to go the route he did. He was getting in with the wrong crowd by the time he was fifteen. Then when I was ten, our...”
    Skull paused for a second and swallowed hard. Clarissa gave his hand a reassuring squeeze and reached out to touch his face, but Skull shook his head and looked away for a second. Clarissa took a deep breath and bit her lip. She felt guilty for making him talk about it.
    “You don’t have to say anymore, I’m sorry,” she said, “You’re right, it’s none of my business.”
    “Yes, it is,” Skull said, looking back at her, “If we’re going to be together, it is, because I won’t stop until I find out what happened to Aaron, if he’s alive or not. When I was ten and my brother was sixteen my father was killed in a prison fight. From what we heard he died lying on his dirty cell floor. When they went through his belongings they found that someone had been smuggling him drugs from the outside. They suspected Aaron was doing it, but they could never prove it.
    “Things were going fine, but as soon as he turned eighteen he took off. He spent time in jail for a minor charge of assault, he called it minor, Mom was more pissed than I ever seen her. He was getting cleaned up, but then four years ago he just took off in the middle of the night. Mom and I tried to find him. Hugo and the guys helped us look for awhile, but eventually they all gave up.”
    “But you didn’t,” Clarissa smiled at him.
    “He’s my brother,” he said.
    “I think it’s sweet. More than that it’s the right thing to do, but what if you can’t find him? Are you going to look forever? Are you going