Chapter 6
I had the dream about Nick again. I woke up wet and angry. I rolled off my bed growling, searching for some socks, and then growling anew as I realized I'd gone to sleep in them. I pulled on a loose pair of running shorts and five minutes later I was in my tennis shoes and the shirt I'd slept in, standing in my front yard.
I was smoking. It was a bad habit I'd picked up along the way to graduation; I tried to convince myself it wasn't an addiction by only smoking my mother's cigarettes. I'd take a few from her purse and scoop a box of kitchen matches into my pocket. I felt like I was twelve-years-old and stealing money all over again.
My house was dark behind me, the street before me likewise, but the deep indigo of the early morning was just beginning to brighten. I heard act
