Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas

She leaves, and I bite my bottom lip, because there’s just something about
how even her threats are a turn on.
I shake my head clear. But yeah, I won’t stand her up. She’ll really kill
me.
• • •
“Clay?”
I twist my head, seeing my mom through the open passenger side window
of her white Rover. Her huge, cat-eye sunglasses make her look like a movie
star sunbathing on a yacht in Monaco.
Or a big bug. I’m still not sure.
I move toward her, away from my car. “What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I have my car.”
School let out eight minutes ago, and the parking lot swarms with
students trying to make their getaway.
But my mother tells me, “I’ll bring you back for it.”
I shift on my feet, releasing a sigh. I want my car, because I want to leave
Mimi’s when I’m ready.
Mom cocks her head. “I haven’t seen you in almost two days. Get in.”
I click the key fob, locking my car again as I walk to the Rover. Opening
the door, I climb in and drop my bag to the floor. We’d be back way before
seven thirty. My mom will probably be ready to escape Mimi long before I
am.
She pulls out of the parking lot, taking a left onto the quiet street, and I
take out my sunglasses, shielding myself against the afternoon sun.
The silence consumes the car, and I can almost hear her breathing it’s so
quiet. I glance at the radio, wishing she’d turn it on, but I know if I turned it
on it will be playing The Giver audiobook she and my brother were listening
to before he died. My mother can’t bear to hear it, but she won’t listen to
anything else. That would be like moving on.
“So, I spoke to Cara,” she finally says. “She’s quite concerned because
Krisjen didn’t come home last night.”
I turn my eyes out of the window.
“She probably wasn’t worried,” my mom adds, “just that Krisjen wasn’t
there to make breakfast for Marshall and Paisleigh this morning.”
Krisjen’s dad left them for another woman about a year ago, and her mom