by A. J. Downey
“Ah,” Mr. Hunter looked relieved, and I let him assume, which clearly he did, that Archer’s little brother was my age. I felt myself blushing hotly, but I could probably get away with him assuming it was just the cold.
“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” I told Archer and he gave a sharp nod.
“No problem, I do anything for my brothers, but you know that already I’m guessing.”
“I do,” I said and smiled.
“How long is it to your place?” Archer asked, Mr. Hunter standing by and watching the exchange. Archer put the jumper box back into his saddlebag and closed it up, buckling it tight.
“About five minutes or so.”
“Ideally you should drive it for thirty to make sure the battery is fully charged,” he straightened and pulled on his wallet chain, bringing the rectangle of battered leather out of his back pocket. He opened up his wallet and pulled out a twenty, “Take the kid to his favorite fast food place for dinner tonight; that ought to do it.”
“Oh that’s too much, I can’t…”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, folding my fingers around the crumpled bill. “My wife would have my balls if I let your car die on you again and I’ll wring the twenty outta Nox.”
“Then I will be sure to pay him back,” I said laughing softly.
“Do whatever you’re gonna do, just make sure that thing runs for a good half hour before you shut it off for me.”
“I’ll do that.”
I took the money and he got back on his bike, “Satisfied I’m not a chi-mo now?” he asked my vice principal.
Mr. Hunter frowned, and Archer laughed, “See you around, Jailbait.”
I colored at the nickname and nodded faintly, “See you later,” I said and he pulled up the scarf around his face and rode off. Mr. Hunter rounded on me, concern written all over his face.
“Maren, that was a Sacred Heart,” he said and I nodded.
“I know what you’re going to say,” I started, but he cut me off, saying it already.
“Do you know what kind of a reputation they have around here?” he asked.
I shook my head, “No, and I don’t care to hear it. They’ve always been nice to me. I met one of them the day my dad died and the next thing I knew, they were at my house the day before Christmas Eve with toys and gifts, and money to make sure my brother and I had a good holiday and then some. They’re good people.”
“Maren, I don’t think you understand…” I raised my hand to stop him.
“Mr. Hunter, I can appreciate that you’re looking out for me, but they’ve only shown themselves to be good people to me. Abraham Lincoln once said, ‘character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. While the shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.’ I called one of them because I didn’t have anyone else to call when my car just died… he was here in less than five minutes. Don’t let the shadow of their rough appearance fool you. I’m glad I didn’t. I don’t know where Sage and I would be without them.”
Mr. Hunter sighed and ran a hand through his light thinning hair, searching my face with his blue eyes so full of concern. Finally, he nodded, “There you go, the student teaching the master… again, might I add.”
“Not the first time, eh?” I asked smiling.
“Not by far, Ms. Tracy. You should get home to your brother.”
“I really should. Thanks, Mr. Hunter, for looking out for me.”
“Of course.”
I did what Archer told me. I picked up Sage, running into the house just long enough to call him down from his ivory tower so we could go get tacos from his favorite fast food Mexican place.
“Seriously?” he asked and I nodded. He came down without a complaint and got into his coat, and then the car.
We drove in silence for a minute, Sage staring out the window and finally he said, “Sorry I was mean this morning.”
Surprised I said, “It’s okay.”
“I thought you were going to forget.”
“Forget about what?” I asked and he looked at me.
“Taco Tuesday.”
I blinked, was it Tuesday? I smiled and said, “How the heck did you think I would forget about Taco Tuesday? I know I’m busy, and the holidays were crazy, and that they aren’t homemade, but I figured you’d forgive me for the fast food version.”
Sage nodded, “I really don’t want to take the bus anymore.”
“Listen, about that; I will try to take you to school every morning, but you’re going to have to take the bus home on the nights I have work. Okay?”
Sage nodded after a time and said, “Deal.”
“And Sage?” I said after some more silence.
“Yeah?”
“If I forget things, like Taco Tuesday, all you gotta do is say something. This whole being an adult thing has a lot to it. I can’t always remember everything. Some stuff gets lost in the shuffle.”
“Okay,” he said with a nod and it looked like he was about to cry.
“I love you,” I said and Sage went back to staring out the window.
“I love you, too.”
Meanwhile, inside my head, I thanked my dad, Nox, and Archer for the confluence of events that led to saving Taco Tuesday for my brother. That led to having this small heart to heart and a truce or two declared on some things. I mean what was it, if not some divine intervention? How weird, right?
Chapter 13
Nox
“What can you tell me?” I asked when I picked up the phone. Archer never was one for formalities and always appreciated the short version. He didn’t like long stories, and so I tried to keep everything simple. It was just how we were. So my picking up the phone and asking straight out what I wanted to know wasn’t exactly frowned upon or considered rude. It just was what it was.
“There was glass. Looked like a bottle of some kind, whatever that shit kids like to drink with the fuckin’ lizards on the label. Anyways, she was safe, in her car. Hooked up the jump starter and she fired right up. You owe me twenty bucks by the way.”
“What the fuck for?”
“She needed to drive the thing for a half hour or so to make sure the battery was charged, I gave her a twenty and told her to take her kid brother out for some fast food for a change.”
“Oh, good call. I’ll get you back next time I see you.”
“Fuckin’ yeah, you will.”
“Cheap bastard,” I accused.
“Dumb cunt. Anyways, her principal or some shit came out to make sure I wasn’t some kind of pedo. I think he was keepin’ an eye on her from inside. He didn’t look any kind of thrilled about one of us showing up for the save. Better watch your ass. Maren may be a good kid, but she ain’t what you gotta worry about. One of these well-meaning bastard’s will be the ones to have you up on charges and AZ was downright liberal compared to these bible thumping assholes out here.”
I rolled my eyes, “I get you, bro. Later.”
“Bye.”
I hung up with Arch and sighed. My hands ached some, and I still had some clean up to do. I’d do it, and then I’d call Maren, see what I could get out of her. I’d heard that little cock-weasel on the line clear as day, threatening my girl. Something wasn’t right. That wasn’t nobody and it sure as hell wasn’t nothing.
I stripped down my table and threw the sheets in the in-house washer, tossing in a couple pillow packs of soap. I’d turn it on first thing in the morning. Then, between massages, I’d throw the shit from the washer into the dryer. By the time my second massage of the day was up, they’d be dry and ready to use.
I made up the table tonight, that way it was one less thing I had to do come first thing in the morning. I drank down a bottle of water from the mini-fridge, crushed down the bottle, capped it, and tossed its little carcass into the recycling underneath one of my cabinets where I kept it alongside a gallon jug of massage oil. I washed my hands at the sink in my area and dried them off before picking up my phone to call my girl.
She picked up on the fourth ring, “Hello?”
“Hey, Angel. Heard your car started right up.”
She blew out an explosive breath and said, “Yes, thank you. I’m sorry I had to call you. I promise to pay better attention to what I’m doing in the future.”
“It’s no problem. Archer treat you okay?”
“He’s… intense,” she said and I laughed.
“Yeah, yeah he is. Always been that way, too. So what are you doing?”
“Um, took Sage out for Taco Tuesday and now we’re at the table doing our homework.”
“Aw, shit! I missed Taco Tuesday?”
She laughed. “Yeah, yeah you did.”
“How’s homework going? Almost done?
“Yeah, it’s almost bedtime for us. What about you? Late night at the office?”
“Yeah, Tuesday nights aren’t usually, but I been trying to fit one or two extra massages in to clear up the gift certificates from over the holidays. Been putting in some tens rather than my usual eights.”
“Going home to get some sleep yourself then?”
“After we talk about what I heard earlier, yeah. Can I come by?”
Silence on the other end of the line, and finally she murmured, “Tonight isn’t the best night.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, disappointed, and sure now, more than ever, that something wasn’t right. “You guys got much longer on your homework?”
“Not too much longer. Like I said, we both need to get to bed soon.”
“Tell you what, I’m gonna head back to my place, fix some dinner and by the time I do that, and grab a shower, you should be in bed. Call me or text me when you are and we’ll finish this conversation that way… and Maren?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re not in trouble, Angel. I just really didn’t like what I heard, and I need to know what’s up. I can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“Nox, it’s okay, really… there’s nothing for you to fix.”
“If it makes you sad, it needs to be fixed.” She sighed heavily and it was a frustrated sound. I said, “Call me or text me when you go to bed.”
“I will,” she promised and I nodded before I realized she couldn’t see it.
“Talk to you then.”
We hung up, and I pulled on my riding gear over my scrubs, glad for the ride home, despite how fucking cold it was going to be. When I got to it, I skipped pulling up out front and rode around back, heeling down the kickstand in front of the outbuilding that housed my room. I went in and took a hot shower, pulling on some comfortable sweats. I skipped food, I just wasn’t hungry or feeling it right then.
Instead, I flopped down on my bed and waited for my phone to ring or chime. It finally did around nine-thirty. It was a text, not a call.
Maren: He’s my ex-boyfriend, Lucas. When my dad started getting sick to the point I needed to take care of him more, I broke it off with Luke. He didn’t take it well. Started some rumors about me; that I gave him the clap – which I never did. I will even go to the doctor and prove it if you need me to. Anyways, things have gotten progressively worse, the more that time goes on. There’s nothing the faculty can or will do about it except to tell me to ignore it, so I do my best. Today was a tough day. The newest rumor is that I murdered my dad, sped things along for him so I could inherit everything and that getting rid of Sage is next on my list of priorities. I’m doing everything I can to protect my brother and keep him with me and everyone is saying I’d do anything to get rid of him. That I killed my dad. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I don’t know, I guess it’s just exhausting listening to their shit. Just when I thought that they couldn’t get more evil… there you go.
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them a few times as I worked my way through the wall of text on my phone, my blood growing hotter by the second until it very nearly boiled.
Me: He ever hurt u with more than just words?
Those three bouncing dots sure took their sweet fucking time, as I waited for her to respond. Shit, hasn’t this girl been through enough? I wondered. I mean fuck, how low can you go? Treating a girl who was losing her dad like shit because you got temporarily shut down? Fuck, as far as reasons for a break up go, that is a pretty fucking understandable one.
Maren: He was the boy I lost my virginity to before I found out he was such a selfish ass. He’s ‘accidentally’ bumped into me in the halls, knocking me off balance into lockers and things, but other than that… no. He hasn’t put his hands on me. As for the hurt me with more than just words? He’s the boy I lost my virginity to. My first love and all of that. So I guess, yeah. Who am I kidding? It all hurts. It all hurts a lot. I hate going to school, which sucks because I love learning. I lost the one place that made things bearable before my dad died, then I lost my dad and it’s everything I have left in me to hold on to what I have left that’s dear. My brother, my home… I thought that was going to be it for me, you know? And then you showed up, and I’m scared if you knew just how monumentally screwed up things are in my world that you’ll leave. Too much drama, you know?
I sighed sharply. “Fuck!” I uttered out loud and decided I needed to get one thing straight with her, right this minute.
Me: Here’s the deal, Maren. I’m sure that u noticed but I’m a grown ass, fuckin man. U got more shit going on than most grown fuckin women twice ur age. That being said, I ain’t going nowhere – because I’m a *grown ass fucking man* and grown men handle their shit, and when they find a woman of quality? They don’t make shit worse for her – they make it better which is just what I’m gonna do. Am I crystal fuckin’ clear?
Those dots remained maddeningly absent for a really long time. I watched the little message below what I just sent read ‘read’ for a long time and I pictured her, laying in her bed, that dark hair of hers splashed across the pillow, her smooth skin lit with the blue glow of her screen as she read and reread the message I just sent and I couldn’t help it. I popped a serious fucking boner at the thought. Finally, those damn dots started their shimmy and their shake across the bottom corner of my screen, but only after I’d had to wake up my phone twice.
Maren: I don’t know what to say except I think I love you for so many things right now. For listening to me. For coming to the rescue as much as you have and even for things that I didn’t even think I needed rescuing from until you were there to do it. Lucas is an ass. He’s a little boy, and annoying, but I can handle it. It’s only for a few more months until I graduate, anyways. It will be okay.
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
Me: Maren, Angel, u just don’t get how this works, baby. I’m here to take care of u, and part of that means I’m here to protect u from asshats like this.
Maren: That’s sweet, Nox. Really, but there isn’t anything anyone can do. There just isn’t.
I smiled and I knew it wasn’t one hundred percent nice. I sat up and typed back quickly, thumbs flying across the screen.
Me: U forget something, Angel. There isn’t anything anyone can do that follows citizen rules. I’m not your average citizen. Just give me the kid’s name and I’ll handle it.
Maren: You won’t hurt him will you?
Me: Club’s rule is ‘no women, no children’ he’s a minor, so no – I won’t hurt him.
Maren: Then how would you get him to stop?
Me: U leave that to me.
I waited for a long time and finally grew a little impatient.
Me: U want it to stop, don’t u?
Maren: Lucas Triggs
Me: Thank you.
Maren: Be careful, his dad is a piece of work… When I dated Lucas, I kind of wondered how he could be so sweet when his dad, well, wasn’t. Now I know better.
Me: Don’t u worry about me, Angel. I’ll try and get things taken care of by the end of next week.
Maren: You’re too good to me. You know that?
Me: I ain’t even got started yet.
***
>
I asked Maren how her day was, and practically grilled her on asshat’s behavior every day for the rest of the week. Between my work schedule and her work schedule, I wouldn’t be seeing her until Sunday night, which was a major bummer. With Sage’s best friend’s mom being the twat of the century, Maren was worried about what she’d do with Sage on Sunday during the day when she put in another ten-hour shift, so I volunteered to spend some time with him.
I went over and made it about an hour after she’d left for the Douglas Street Wally World. Sage opened up the door and glared at me.
“She’s lying to you,” he said by way of greeting and I felt myself scowl.
“Spill,” I told him and he sighed, stepping aside to let me into the house for our great superhero movie spree.
“I hear her talk to you, she says it’s not bad, and that everything is fine but I hear her cry herself to sleep at night. I don’t care if you hurt him. I want you to hurt him, or at least scare the piss out of him.”
“Now Sage,” I said, dropping a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “You know that violence doesn’t always solve problems, right? That Maren has it right, just because he’s mean to her, doesn’t necessarily mean that he needs to be hurt for it.”
Sage jerked his shoulder out from under my hand and sighed, he went over to the couch and flopped down on it dramatically.
“Yeah, I get that, but it’s not just him being mean to her, he’s got all of them doing it. I’m tired of her crying all the time and being all stressed out. It’s bullshit.”
“Language,” I said sternly and he arched an eyebrow at me and it was so like his sister I had a real tough time not laughing.
“You swear all the time.”
“I’m over the age of eighteen.”
“Yeah, way over,” he said rolling his eyes.
I couldn’t help it. I did laugh at that. I went around and dropped onto the other end of the couch and faced Maren’s kid brother. He was a skinny kid, lanky; a real beanpole. He was going to be tall, and probably a basketball player if he had any interest in the sport, which judging by the fact he’d asked if we could put the hoop up in front of the garage? I was betting there was at least something there. He had dark hair, just like his sister, and chocolate brown eyes. He was just about old enough to start hitting the weights and I thought about that for a minute. He’d be an unlikely work out partner, but it might keep him out of trouble.