The General Store: Where Innocence Goes to Die

by A. L. Moore

  “No offense,” he added with a wry smile. “I thought I could still get out of this town,” he mused.

  “What stopped you?” I couldn’t imagine anyone getting in his way, except maybe Jayson.

  “Ran out of money,” he shrugged. “Came back here and Tom’s price was right.”

  “You ever think about leaving, again?”

  Staring solemnly out the front window into the night, he said, “I’m in too deep to leave now.”

  “I wish you could take me away from here,” I sighed. Away from Anna, Mason, and all the Robyn and Tonya drama. Senior year was going to be a total nightmare this year. If Marco got his way, I’d never see twelfth grade.

  Liam chuckled, “Yeah, right. Bonnie and Clyde.

  “Would you really leave with me?” he asked, giving me a sideways glance. “Leave your family and school?”

  “They’d be here when I got back.”

  “You’d think so,” Liam sighed, crossing his bare feet on top of the coffee table and gently kissed my hair. “Don’t be in such a hurry to grow-up, Justice. The real world isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Trust me.”

  I snuggled into the warmth of his side as he stretched his arm across my shoulders. "My parents just don't get me. My dad still thinks I'm nine, and all my mom ever worries about is that I missed church on Sunday morning. If I have to sit through one more lecture about how the world is going to Hell..."

  "I used to go to church," he said thoughtfully, bringing me up short.

  I scoffed, bumping him with my shoulder. "You did not." I looked at him skeptically waiting on the punch line.

  "Did too. Went with my grandmother when I was lucky enough to spend the weekend at her house.

  "Aww, your granny to took you to church," I nuzzled his shoulder. "Did you sing in the choir, too?"

  "Hey, no knocking my grandma," he squeezed my shoulder. "If not for her, I wouldn't be the man sitting before you today."

  "What about your mom and dad? I'm sure they helped a little."

  "If by staying strung out on meth, and whatever else they could get their hands on, yeah they helped out," he said indifferently.

  Peeking up at his face, I could see it bothered him more than he was letting on. "Tell me about your grandma," I said, patting his thigh.

  He rubbed his chin and smiled an adorable smile that made him look less like a scruffy biker. "She was a great lady. Worked hard every day of her life. Never asked for help from anyone," he sighed, seeming lost in thought. "For a tiny woman, even shorter than you, she wasn't afraid of anyone either. I remember this one time, my mom had forgotten to pick me up from school, again. Grandma pulled up in her little blue Chevy and took me out for ice cream. She never mentioned my mom. Soon, I forgot about it, too. When it was time to take me home that night, I locked the car door and started to cry. Grandma told me to sit tight while she went inside. The next, thing I knew Grandma was standing in the door of my house with a shotgun ushering out the house quest my mom had over. You should've seen that man, tripping over his pants as he tried to pull them up and run at the same time. Big man, too. He'd make Jayson look like a weakling," he chuckled a little. "Gun or not, my mom was all up in Grandma's face. I could hear her swearing through the car door, but Grandma stood her ground. She set her straight until Mom was crying worse than I was. Grandma got me out of the car and took me inside. There were beer bottles and a needle on the coffee table, but Grandma cleaned them up and tucked me into bed before she left."

  "Why didn't she try to get custody of you?" I asked in disbelief. The thought of a younger Liam, scared and alone with a drug addict hurt my heart.

  He shook his head, "She had temporary custody a couple of times, but my mom would always appear to have her act together long enough to get me back."

  "So, you just had to stay at that house?" I said barely above a whisper. The very idea was too much to comprehend. An innocent child trapped in a situation like that.

  He hugged me tightly and kissed the top of my head. "It wasn't always bad. Every Saturday, I'd sit in my bedroom window and watch for Grandma's blue Chevy. She'd call to me, 'Want to spend the night and go to church in the morning?' I would run out without a word to anyone, climb in the front seat and say, 'Sounds like a plan.' Those were my favorite memories growing up."

  His lips stalled as a noise sounded at the door. We stared at each other wide eyed. He grabbed the pistol from the table and motioned for me to go down the hall. I was frozen. Liam grabbed my elbow and helped me to my feet. It was all I could do to move my legs. I disappeared into a room at the end of the hall and listened for the jingle from the chain lock on his front door. It clicked against the wall like a warning of what was to come. The house was quiet. Too quiet. I didn’t turn on the light in the dark room, but I could see this was Liam’s bedroom. There was a large, unmade double-bed and a television mounted above a tall wooden dresser. The hamper by the door overflowed with clothes, making me wonder if he’d cleaned the front of the house in a haste before bringing me over.

  I waited for his voice. Instead the doorknob to the bedroom turned ever so slightly. My muscles tightened. My mind was ready to make a break for the window, but my body was unable to move. A sliver of light from the hallway entered the door just before Liam stuck his head inside.

  “It wasn’t anyone,” he said, reaching for my hand and towing me along with him.

  Relief washed over me. “What was the noise,” I asked, watching in confusion as he filled a plastic bowl with water in the kitchen. He put the bowl in the floor.

  “This is Harley,” he said, patting a massive, gold colored dog, who’d been hiding behind the counter. “She keeps me company out here in the sticks.”

  “Harley?” I smirked. “Tell me you didn’t name her?”

  “After my bike,” he grinned a boyish grin that made my heart melt.

  “German Shepard?” I asked. “I used to have a dog that looked like her, except Chase was black.”

  “Yeah, I got her when she wasn’t much bigger than my boot,” he said, giving her a firm pat on the side.

  “I didn’t really take you for a dog person,” I said, watching him fill her food dish from a bag of dog food by the back door that I hadn't noticed before. “A snake maybe, but not a dog.”

  “Harsh,” he said with a sly smile. “Is that really how you see me?” He asked without looking up from the counter.

  “No,” I sighed, leaning against the counter. “Tyler, maybe.

  “It’s just that Mason has a dog, and the two of you are like night and day.

  “What kind of dog does he have?” Liam asked, reaching around me for his t-shirt and pulling it over his head.

  “Terrier, I think.”

  “That’s not a dog,” he smirked. “It’s an overgrown rat.”

  “Max is a sweet dog,” I frowned. I’d cried about not seeing that stupid dog after the break-up. “I miss him. He was always so happy to see me.”

  “I’m pretty happy to see you, too,” Liam said suggestively, taking both my hands and pulling me away from the counter, toward the futon.

  “That’s an understatement for me,” I said timidly, ignoring the pleading voice in my head that knew where this was leading. The pleading in my head shut-up when Liam’s gaze turned darker, stifled by a simmering heat I hadn’t enough experience to ignore.

  ***

  I blindly pulled my cell from the floor when it vibrated for the third time. Liam bit lightly on my lip as I dialed my voicemail.

  “Liam,” I giggled, dropping it back to the ground.

  “You’ve got to go?” he asked, his hand tracing my chin down to my naval.

  “My parents…” His mouth took mine. I turned my head laughing and pushed his hovering chest. “It’s late…” He kissed me deeply again. “I should call.” The words staggered out of my mouth, ending in a groan. “Liam.” Pushing him away was like trying to move a boulder. He kept kissing me, not listening. “Liam!” I said louder when my phon
e buzzed a fourth time. “If you don’t take me home, Tyler is going to be the least of our problems.”

  He nibbled at my ear and my fight stopped. Thankfully so did his.

  “Don’t go in hiding for so long next time,” he said, pulling us to our feet, “at least not without me.

  “You won’t have to worry about that,” I said, turning my head away when he tried to kiss me again. “I’m going to be grounded for life as it is.”

  “Call and tell them you’re on your way,” he said, setting back on his knees, allowing me room to wiggle from beneath him.

  “Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “And then what should I say when they ask where I’m at?”

  “Tell them you’re with Robyn. Tell them you lost track of time.” Oh, that would go over well.

  He kissed the delicate skin beneath my ear, almost making me drop my phone, again. “Liam!” He chuckled, bouncing off the futon in one leap and drawing a halo over his head. A shirtless angel in frayed blue jeans.

  “What if they see Robyn?”

  “They won’t,” he said, pulling his boots into place. “Everyone’s at the cabin.”

  My stomach dropped. I covered the phone as it rang. “And where are you supposed to be?”

  “I’m going up this weekend,” he said just as Mom answered.

  Mom panicked, making me feel like the worst person on the face of the Earth, especially when I couldn’t tell her the truth. I promised to be home in the next thirty minutes.

  “You realize even if I fly, it’s going to take at least forty-five minutes,” Liam said, fastening my helmet and sweetly tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. I clinched my arms around his waist, breathing in my favorite smell in the world, Liam.

  “Will you call me from the cabin?” I asked before he started the bike.

  “I was hoping you’d come with me,” he said, rubbing my hand.

  “What about Tyler? If I show up with you, he’s going to know something’s going on.”

  “Jayson’s bike is in the shop,” Liam explained. “He’s driving a loaner. You can ride up with him and Robyn. She had to come back when you quit.”

  “But I didn’t quit, yet,” I said. “I’ve still got two weeks.”

  “Trust me, you’re done,” he said firing the engine.

  Chapter 15. Lies

  I hadn’t been grounded since I’d forged my Mom’s name on my report card in the eighth grade, but coming in at two in the morning, on the back of a stranger's bike, was a declaration of war at my house. I'd tried to tell them that Liam was a friend of Robyn's family, but they didn't want to hear it. Dad wouldn't even look at me. Being grounded hadn’t seemed as embarrassing at eleven. At seventeen, it was humiliating. Even more humiliating was the fit I’d thrown when my parents threatened to take away my cell phone. Since then, I'd pretty much been confined to my room except for meals, which suited me fine. They just didn't get that I was an adult, and I was tired of trying to explain it to them.

  “Are you going in today,” Mom asked, peeking in the door.

  “I told you last night,” I said evenly. “Mr. Smith told me not to come back.” She sighed, studying me from the doorway. “If you don’t believe me, call him,” I insisted, waving my hand toward the phone. “The store’s open.”

  She pushed the door open, and I got up and closed it. She could ground me, but she couldn’t make me come out of my room. I scrolled through my phone for the first time in two days. The battery had died, and my parents had refused to give me the charger until this morning. It was their peace offering. There was so much I’d missed. Anna and Mason were posting selfies together now. Ugh! It looked like more of an effort on Anna’s part. Mason wasn’t even looking in the camera. It still made me nauseous. I couldn’t see what he was looking at in the pictures, but I would’ve bet my last paycheck, it was a video game. I wondered if that was getting on Anna’s nerves yet.

  Served her right.

  I uselessly searched again for Robyn’s name, knowing it wasn’t there. Why couldn’t she make a profile like everyone else? It was aggravating how easily I could know what was going on at the cabin if she weren’t so antisocial. There wasn’t even a tag with her name in it.

  “We’re going to the store,” Mom said, grasping her beige clutch purse as I started for the shower. “Do you need anything?”

  I shook my head and closed the bathroom door, rattling the towel racks with the force. At least I was still allowed to go to the bathroom by myself.

  I’d just gotten the soap out of my hair when I heard the doorbell ring. I ignored it, letting the hot water run over my ears. By the time I turned the water off the knocking had stopped. I wrapped in a fresh towel and headed back to my room just as something tapped on the window. I pulled the curtain back a little, but there was no one there. Another knock sounded at the front door. The alarm was set. I could see the red display screen from my door. Slowly, I crept down the hallway, careful to stay away from the glass on the front door. My mind raced with the possibilities of who it could be. None of which set well in my stomach. My cell phone burned in my hand, ready to phone for help. Peeking out the side of the curtain, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was Liam.

  I opened the door quickly and pulled him inside.

  “The alarm!” I gasped, dashing to the panel just in time.

  “Are you crazy?” I said completely and utterly elated that he was standing in my living room. The past two days without him had been torture. Not knowing what he was doing or who he was doing it with. “My neighbors could see you.” I pulled the towel tighter to my chest, peering outside the window for his bike.

  He grinned, hugging me off the floor. The only boyish thing about Liam was his grin. He was all man, and I always felt like a child in his arms.

  “Your neighbors don’t know me.”

  “They know your bike,” I insisted.

  His eyebrows shot up as if I were missing something obvious. “You mean the one parked across the street?” he said, kissing my cheek. “You worry too much.” He smoothed my forehead. “It’s going to give you wrinkles.”

  “Good. Maybe then I’ll look old enough to be with you,” I muttered.

  “I keep forgetting how decrepit I am,” Liam smirked. “Why would you say that?”

  “Something to do with my birthday,” I hedged. I didn’t know how old Liam was, but it didn’t take a brain surgeon to know he was too old for me.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Since you can’t come out, I figured I’d come in,” he said as if it were a logical solution, and he wasn’t out of his mind. “Besides, you saw mine. It’s only fair that I see yours.” My jaw dropped as he drummed his fingers along his chin.

  “Your house,” he chuckled at my expense. “Show me your house.”

  “Right,” I breathed, taking his hand. “Would you settle for just my room? There aren’t as many windows in there.”

  There’d never been a guy in my room other than Mason. My dad didn’t count. Liam made the space seem small, claustrophobically small. It made me nervous as he looked over the pictures on my dresser and examined the messily thrown clothes and books in every nook and cranny. He rolled his eyes when he saw the poster behind my bed.

  “Kid’s a punk,” he smirked.

  “Yeah, but he’s a cute punk,” I countered, pressing my back against the bedroom door. “I look over a lot, if someone’s cute.”

  Sauntering toward me with a mischievous grin, he said, “Oh, you do?”

  “Who do you listen to?”

  “Not kids pretending to be gangster,” he smirked. “I thought you were deeper than that Justice. Frankly, I’m disappointed.”

  “I am,” I trailed my hand down the middle of his t-shirt. “I like the real bad boys, too.”

  His eyes turned dark and playful. He put me on the bed in a wrestling move, pinning my shoulders just as a car door slammed outside. I froze, my already pounding heart frantic, but Liam didn’t seem concerned. His hair tickled
my face as he moved close enough to give me a slow, intense kiss. Another slam sounded outside. Maybe the trunk. My eyes were immovable from Liam’s intense gaze. I clutched his forearms prepared for Armageddon. It was coming, carrying grocery bags.

  “Jayson’s going to the cabin,” Liam explained, “as soon as the store closes tonight. He just has to wait for Robyn to grab some things from her house.” Footsteps sounded on the porch. “Do you think you can get out?” he asked hopeful.

  “I can’t,” I said panicked. “They would freak. You’ve got to get out of here!” I insisted, pushing hard against his unmovable chest.

  The front door opened and closed. My dad’s voice drifted from the kitchen.

  “You’re so cute, Justice,” Liam said amused, a daring twinkle in his brown eyes. “Don’t ever change.” He grinned and ducked out my window.

  I laid at the end of the bed and watched Liam leisurely cross the freshly mowed grass. Throwing a leg over his bike, he appeared camouflaged against the dark seat.

  I never wore all black. It made my skin look pale and sickly, but on Liam, it looked sinister and hot.

  I had to get to that cabin!

  It was going to be a long shot, and beyond awkward, but Anna was my only hope. I needed an alibi, and she owed me. I waited until after dinner to make the call. Mason was in the background, which made it that much worse.

  “Justice?” Anna answered surprised.

  “Hey girl,” I said as casually as possible.

  She didn’t buy it for a second. “Is something wrong?” she asked, the room falling silent on her end. I could picture her shushing Mason.

  “Can anyone else hear me,” I asked, closing my bedroom door. “You don’t have me on speaker, do you?”

  “It’s just me,” she said, whispering along with me. “Mason’s here, but he has in earbuds. “What’s up?”

  “I need your help,” I started. That little voice in my head was screaming, "This is wrong! This is wrong!"

  “Are you in trouble?” Anna whispered.

  “No, nothing like that,” I said quickly. “I need you to tell my parents I’m at your house tonight.”