Private School Playboys novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Boathouse

The Winter Formal was Friday, and I still didn't have a dress.

On Tuesday night, Jude took me back to the boathouse.

He had a key, a blanket, and a bottle of cider, and he led me up the narrow stairs to the rowing loft.

It was an open room under the roof, full of old oars and stacked boats and a window that looked down on the frozen lake.

He had lit a space heater and spread the blanket on a pile of cushions.

"This is where I come when I want to be alone," he said.

"And you brought me."

"I'm making an exception."

We sat on the cushions with the cider between us.

The lake glowed silver in the window.

"Tell me something true," I said.

He looked at me for a long moment.

"My father hasn't spoken to me in two years."

"Why?"

"I got thrown out of my last school for a fight. A real one."

"A boy said something about my mother, who died when I was eleven, and I broke his jaw."

I said nothing.

"My father said I'd shamed her name."

Jude turned the bottle in his hands.

"He pays Hollis every year so he doesn't have to see me. The check clears. Nobody calls."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's what I deserve."

"Nobody deserves that."

"Some people do."

He didn't say it like a joke.

I wanted to ask what he meant, but his face had closed, and I knew a locked door when I saw one.

"My turn," I said.

"You don't have to."

"My mother cleans offices at night. She's done it since I was five."

"She has a bad back and she's never once told me."

"I found out when I was twelve and she fell asleep on the kitchen floor in her work shoes."

My voice caught.

"I got into Hollis because I wanted her to stop."

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