“I need you to call Reed.”Tea said, holding her phone out in front of me.

My eyes dipped to the device. It was a few years old and had seen better days, but Tea was kind of a cheapskate when it came to things like that. I knew she worked her ass off just to afford to eat, and I felt for her…

But only a little.

We’d both been raised in similar situations: with single moms struggling to pay the bills. But where her mom struggled because she was a teacher and they didn’t make shit, my ...