The Humanity Project Read Online Free Page A

the hell. Next time he had an itch to check out the personals ads, he’d remind himself just how depressing it was to spend time with some weirdo who mostly wanted to display her weirdness to the rest of the world.
    He texted Conner:
U home?
And got back,
Yes wer r u?
Sean answered,
On my way.
He wanted to catch up with Conner, shoot the shit with him, impress on him all over again that if he ever did a bunch of stupid drug stuff he’d end up in jail with all the rest of the losers, and his poor old dad would spend his nights in the tavern, crying into his beer about it.
Home
, yes, as long as he still had four walls and a roof to his name, he might as well enjoy them.
    When she did reappear, she’d visibly freshened up, put a layer of powder or something over the worst of the silver crayon. Before Sean could begin his how-nice-to-meet-you exit speech, she grabbed his arm.
    “Oh my God.” Laurie leaned in toward him to whisper, the kind of whisper you produced in a crowded bar. “Don’t look now, but there’s a guy over there who might be trying to find me.”
    “Yeah?” He took in the portion of the room in front of him, saw nobody who looked to be paying her any attention. “Where?”
    “Don’t look! Are you done with your drink? Can we go? Can you just pretend we’re leaving together, you know, like a date?”
    She still had a hand on his arm, pulling at it, and she looked excited or scared or both. Sean said, “Trying to find you, what, another one of your Craigslist pals?”
    “Please.” She reached up, kissed him. He was too surprised either to resist or kiss back. The sleeve of her silver jacket made stiff, crackling sounds, like the color had been sprayed on. “Just help me get outside.”
    “Jesus Christ, lady.”
    “I would be very, very grateful,” she murmured, her hand still on the back of his neck, her face still close to his.
    “All right, hold on. Jesus.” It looked like he wasn’t going to get out the door without her. He detached her hand, prepared for movement. His back wasn’t going to quit hurting anytime soon. He stood, put on his windbreaker, and looked around the room again, nothing. He was irritated, he thought if there really was somebody who wanted her for some unknown reason, she should make the most of that. But the kiss had been an invitation, and even with a bad back, he couldn’t help thinking what might come of it.
    She was walking a little ahead of him. Maybe she wanted him to watch her tight little ass, which he didn’t mind doing. She waited for Sean to open the door for her. “Where’s your car?” he asked.
    “Over there, I think.”
    He looked behind him at the restaurant. “I’m not seeing your stalker, if that’s what he is.”
    “Will you walk me to my car?”
    Sean sighed loud enough for her to hear it. Laurie led the way and again he trailed behind, thinking
stupid stupid stupid
, meaning himself, mostly. Head full of beer, fists jammed into his empty pockets, halos of blur around the parking lot lights, yup, one more wasted evening, and even though you wanted to believe you had an infinite supply of evenings available for wasting, you didn’t.
    “Hey, your car matches your jacket,” he said, which he thought was kind of funny but the laughs weren’t coming. She stood by the driver’s side, again waiting for him to open doors. Which he did, leaning down, then standing back. “Well good night. Take care of yourself.”
    “That’s him over there.” She was whispering again, tugging at Sean’s sleeve, and the next minute she’d fit herself next to him and was doing some serious grinding, and he couldn’t have said at first whether he liked it or not. Not, he was thinking, but then he felt his dick come to attention.
    “Where is he?” Sean asked, putting his hands on her shoulders to slow her down a little, but she tilted her face up toward his and pulled his mouth onto hers. He tasted something that might have been perfume, making him