The Last Thing He Needs Read Online Free Page B

finger wagged in his face.”
    Davey narrowed his eyes, but he grumbled a “Fine” as he finished his breakfast.
    Looking at Colleen, Tommy asked, “Don’t you have school today? You’re not even dressed.”
    “I was gonna pick up a shift at the diner. Figured I’d just ditch today.”
    Tommy had made it halfway to a chair, but he stopped and went back to Colleen. “Excuse me?”
    “What?” she asked distractedly as she wrote down when she’d given the twins their medicine that morning. She stuck the note on the refrigerator and looked back at Tommy. “I’m taking my GED this summer anyway. Not like it matters if I show up for class.”
    “We haven’t decided that, Col, and it does matter.” He knew he didn’t have any right to tell her she was finishing high school, especially when he’d dropped out at sixteen and started working wherever and whenever he could to keep the lights on and the taxes on the house paid, but he was firm with her. He didn’t want her to ruin her chances of getting out of there. He had always hoped she would be the first of them to break the cycle.
    “We need the money, Tommy.”
    That was true enough. Even with her tips, she didn’t make much, and Tommy was only a couple of dollars over minimum wage. They always needed money. “It’s one more year, Colleen, Christ. Just… go to school and gimme a chance to figure something out, okay? Please.”
    She sighed and looked doubtful. “Fine, but honest to God, Tommy, we’re not gonna make it another year like this.”
    “I’ll find something that pays better or… something, just… we’ll work this summer, we’ll save up a little. It’ll be fine, okay?”
    “All right, but it’s an option, okay?”
    “No it’s not. Now get your ass ready.”
    She glanced at the clock. “Shit, now I’m gonna be late.”
    Tommy watched her run out of the room and let himself laugh. They were a fucked-up little clan, but they were his. That was the way he saw it, anyway.
    Mikey brushed past on his way through the kitchen. Nearly fifteen, he was tall and gangly with a mop of brown curls flopping over his forehead. “Where are you taking the trashcan?” Tommy asked him.
    “They’re starting to stir, and I’m not cleaning up after them again.”
    “It’s your turn,” Davey told him.
    Tommy could tell by the tone of Davey’s voice he was afraid Mike was going to try and get out of the chore.
    “Yeah, and if this works, when it’s your turn, you remember this.” Mike tapped the can. “Find us a new one today after school. This will be the official Cheryl and Cal Puke Bin.”
    He looked overly pleased with his new plan as he drummed the plastic bin and walked with a bounce in his step to the living room.
    The door to the kitchen was propped open and Tommy could hear him as Mikey stood over their parents. “Hey, wake up, old man. This is for you and stepmonster, got it? Puke on the floor again, and I’m using your faces to wipe it up.”
    Laughing as he sipped his coffee, Tommy wondered if he should get onto Mike about talking to them that way. He decided respect should be earned, and neither one of them was even in the running for that.
    “Did you fix the wheel on the stroller?” he remembered suddenly, asking Davey if it was still usable.
    “Yeah, last week, why?”
    “Gotta take the kids to the doc.”
     
     
    “H UNDRED AND twenty-eight goddamn dollars and they have the balls to call it a free clinic,” Tommy muttered to the twins as he crouched in front of them. The stroller wheel had come loose again and he was trying to fix it as midday cars rushed past him. “They should call it the ‘fuck you in the ass’ clinic,” he grumbled, jamming the wheel back on and giving it a good hit. “The ‘we’ll let you die if you don’t pay up front’ clinic.” He gritted his teeth, his hand burning as he finally got the wheel back in place. “The—”
    “The ‘you’re better off treating it yourself’