Chapter 16: The Shoebox

Asher's POV

I told Sabrina I couldn't say why I bit that man's wrist.

I lay awake all night knowing it was a lie.

The man in the last fight had grabbed a freshman by the arm and wouldn't let go.

I didn't decide anything.

My jaw just closed on his wrist.

It had done the same thing once before, in a gas station in Dunmore, when I was eight.

I had never told anyone about that.

Last night a girl across a noodle counter asked what I was scared of, and I gave her a different answer.

I got on the bike at six in the morning and rode two hours to my mother's house.

She opened the door in her robe with a spatula in her hand.

"Who died?" she said.

"Nobody. I need to ask you about Dunmore."

She looked at me for a long moment, and the spatula went down.

"Sit," she said.

I sat at the kitchen table where I had done my homework.

She put a plate of eggs in front of me, and I did not want them.

"There was a gas station," I said. "My sister had gone to the bathroom, and I stayed by the ice machine."

"Asher."

"A man had a boy by the arm, and the boy wasn't making any noise."

I swallowed.

"I remember that most. He wasn't making any noise."

My mother sat down across from me.

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