Jerk It by Lani Lynn Vale

PROLOGUE

Sorry for the mean, accurate, awful things I said.

-Alessio Murphy Romano’s secret thoughts

ALESSIO MURPHY ROMANO

I liked the girl.

A lot.

I wasn’t sure why, because she was a girl after all, but she was pretty fun to play with considering.

“Come to my favorite spot tomorrow,” Mavis ordered.

I wasn’t about to tell her no, even though I should. Mavis was my favorite person in the world. Sweet, funny, caring and considerate—she was the complete package. Even at thirteen years old, I knew that Mavis was something special. Something unusual that most kids her age weren’t, especially when you considered who her grandmother was.

“I’ll be there.”

And I was.

That next day, when I came to Mavis’s favorite spot, the old crone that employed my mother saw me.

And guess who wasn’t there? Mavis. It was as if she’d done this on purpose—this invitation to her favorite spot, which just so happened to be smack dab in the middle of her grandmother’s favorite garden on the estate.

I should’ve known in the beginning that this couldn’t be our ‘spot’ because of whose spot it actually was.

At first, I didn’t realize that.

Two hours later, my mom and I were kicked out. She lost her job and the included housing. We had nothing but our clothes, a few sentimental items and our car, and I learned the true meaning of being homeless.