Read Slate (Breaking the Declan Brothers #2) for Free Online

fierce courage. Like the drugs, I want to let her bleed into my body and take over. But I know the new me, and I’m done. The drugs, they own me. I belong to them. So, I can’t surrender to her. “I can’t do it.” I shrug back from her. I can’t end the destructive alliance with my drugs. My damaged body needs them.
    “Yes, you can. You’re Superman.”
    “I’m not.” I look her straight in the eyes. “All I am is a fuckin’ junkie.”
    “No. You are Superman, but sometimes even Superman needs to be saved.”
     

 

     
    I flip on the monkey bars. The back of my knees is all that holds me up. Body upside down with my long hair flowing downward from my head, I look around the playground and find Slate Declan standing directly below me.
    “Hey, monkey,” he says, eyes squinting against the sun. He shoves a hand into the front pocket of his jeans. “You’re gonna fall.”
    “No, I’m not. I do this all the time,” I say with a confident grin.
    It’s taken some time, but he’s starting to warm up to me. When I steal a glimpse at those pretty eyes, he smiles at me now. Sometimes, I catch him watching me. It’s weird, but I like it; it makes the butterfly wings in my belly flap like crazy. I’m trying hard to be his friend because he doesn’t really have any. He’s not like the rest of the boys. He’s nice, not mean. He doesn’t tease me like some of the other boys do.
    “You might do it all the time, but that still don’t mean you won’t fall,” he says.
    I reach for the bar, pull myself upright, and lean my stomach against it. I bend over the bar and look down at him. “See, I’m okay.” I smile.
    His brows gather. “Get down.”
    “No!”
    “Okay.” He crosses his arms over his chest and spreads his legs.
    “What are you doing?” I giggle. He looks silly like a superhero; all he needs is a cape.
    “I’m staying right here until you get off those monkey bars.”
    “What?” I try to stop laughing. “You gonna catch me or somethin’ if I fall?”
    “Yes.”
    “You won’t be able to, you’re shorter than me.” He is but, then again, so are most of the boys in my grade. Mamma says they grow slower than girls do.
    “My height’s got nothin’ to do with whether or not I can catch you. And, someday, I will be taller than you. Now, come on, get off that thing.”
    I grip my hands on the bar, drop my body, and dangle above him.
    “Rayna,” he says in a tone that reminds me of my dad when he’s mad. It’s funny. I’ve never seen Slate Declan mad.
    “Thought you were Superman and you’d catch me.” I swing my legs, and I see it’s making him madder. That’s funny, too.
    “Stop messing around!” His arms drop from his chest.
    “What? You won’t save me?”
    “If I gotta.” He gazes up at me with those pretty eyes. “Yeah, I will.”
    “Does that mean you like me? You wanna be my friend?”
    His eyebrows come together. “You want me to be your friend?”
    “Yeah, I do.” It’s the truth. Emmie’s my best friend, but if I have a boy as a friend, I can play catch with him. Since my older brother got a girlfriend, all he wants to do is hang out with her, and now he doesn’t play catch with me that much anymore. Emmie won’t do it either, but Slate might.
    “All right, monkey. I’ll be your friend but first you’re gonna have to get down.”
    “Okay.” I let go of the bar and fall right into his quick-to-open arms. We both tumble to the ground.
    I’m holding my belly and laughing as I roll over onto my back. He jumps up from the ground and grimaces down at me. “Why’d you do that!”
    I sit up and brush my jeans off. “If we’re going to be friends, then I’m gonna need to trust you.” I smile at him. “Right?”
    He puts his hand out, and I take it. He pulls me from the ground and smiles back at me. “You can always trust me, monkey,” he says, and for some strange reason, I believe him.
    “I know that, now …” I push him in the chest.