other kids call her Grands so I do, and she’s who I’ve been staying with since I moved here from Cali. Anyway, Grands said that I can use the shed to fix the bike up as long as I cleaned all the shit out of it.
This task was not on my agenda today. However, as soon as my head hit my pillow, Grands came in saying that the guy with the bike called and I needed to come pick it up today or he’d sell it to the guy who was coming tomorrow evening.
It’s almost noon when Josh swings by with two beers in his hand and a smirk on his face. “What’s up, pussy?” He holds a beer out and I grab it, twisting the top off before guzzling half of it down.
Fuck, I’m thirsty!
“Your momma’s feet, little fucker. What the hell are you up to?” I finish the beer and toss it in the trash bin outside the shed before turning around, taking the beer out of Josh’s hand, and walking back into the shed.
Sipping on the beer and using the other hand to toss shit into their ‘trash’ or ‘not trash’ boxes, I hear Josh say, “Nothin’ really. Saw you over here diggin’ in the shed. Wanted to see how last night went with Lil and find out what the fuck you’re doin’.”
“Last night was good. You know how it is with Lil. I don’t ever know what to make outta that girl. One second she’s looking at me like I fucking made the night sky light up with stars. Then the next she’s closing up and pulling her shields around her like I’m the villain.”
Sighing, I wipe the sweat off the beer and then use it to wipe the old dust and dirt off my face before dragging the rag draped over my shoulder to dry my face. “Got any more beer?”
“Yeah, I gotta twelve-pack. Well, ten now. I’ll go grab it.” Josh runs off, but I hear him five minutes later heaving the ice chest up to the shed’s open door. “Here ya go, man.”
I toss the empty beer bottle in the trash and grab the beer from him, twisting the cap off and setting it to the side before I get back to work.
“So, yeah, man. I don’t know what to tell ya about Lil. Y’all don’t ever hang out around us, so I don’t know enough about her or this thing going on between y’all.” He sips from his beer then asks, “Is it serious between you two? Never see you anymore, dude.”
I look up at Josh, sighing and running my hand through my hair, “Yeah, it’s... Ahh...it’s a little more than fuckin’ serious, dude.” I shake my head, walking out of the shed.
I look up into sky. Then I turn around and face Josh. “She’s the fuckin’ one. And I don’t know what the fuck to do with that. I mean, I know I want to keep her, I know I’m not ever gonna let her go, and I think she feels the same way. It’s just... I don’t know, man. I can fight everything, anything, but I can’t fight it when she clams up and gets lost in that fuckin’ mind of hers. It’s a goddamn steel vault... In Fort Knox. Can’t reach her in there.”
“Leo, I never tried to get to know Lil. Shit, even I knew her ass was too young. I know she didn’t look it at the beginning of this summer, but she did not look like that at the ending of last summer. She looked thirteen, dude. If I had known what the hell you were thinkin’ at the beginning of the summer where little Lil was concerned, I would’ve told you to just keep ignoring her ass.”
“Yeah? Why’s that, asshole?” I ask before draining my third beer.
“‘Cause, you don’t know that girl’s daddy, motherfucker. He is a gun-toting, don’t-look-at-my-baby-girl, Republican, quiet-as-fuck, serious-as-a-heart-attack, trigger-happy son of a bitch!”
Well FUCK! There goes a Craftsman wrench in that plan to converse with her old man about how I’m in love with his daughter. Shit! Damn! Fucking hell! Fuck!
“Fuck, Josh!” I toss the beer bottle into the trash box before picking it up and heading towards the front of the house to dump it in the big trashcan by the road. I hear Josh’s feet following behind me.
I spit
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