Dirt Cheap

His mother smiled. "So have you been good, Nicky?"

He responded with a relaxed grin that showed a mouthful of crooked teeth. She knew him far too well for him to lie to her. "Hell, no." He climbed the first step up the bleachers. "But I did good."

from Dirt Cheap
by Lyn Miller-Lachmann
Curbstone Press, 2006