Run Away Baby

“Nope. I don’t,” he said.

“What’s the matter, Chuckles?” she asked. “Usually you’re always smiling and in a good mood.” She pulled a handful of tall grass and tried to tickle his chin with it. Rake ripped it out of her hands and threw it on the ground.

“I am?” asked Charlie.

“Well, when I see you.”

Charlie shrugged. He was looking at Rake. They were sending one another some kind of message with their eyes. Abby was trying to send her own message to Charlie, but he wouldn’t look her way.

“We’re gonna have to get some smokes,” Meggie said to Rake.

“Like I already told you, we’ll go into town in a little while. Hold your horses,” Rake said to her.

“I want some now. We should have got some on the way. You said we were going to have a campfire and drink some beers, and I can’t drink without cigarettes. You know that.”

“Beers and a campfire?” Abby asked. Wouldn’t neighbors notice the smoke and flames? She looked at Charlie, desperate for him to make them go away. Why would he though, when he had clearly invited them.

“I don’t smoke weed,” Meggie said to Abby. “It makes me paranoid.”

“Okay.”

“Beer is my drug of choice. In my family there’s a lot of alcoholics, but if you stick with beer you’re pretty safe. Do you smoke weed?”

“No.”

Meggie laughed. “I didn’t think so.”

Rake and Charlie started walking away together. Abby began to follow Charlie but he turned and said, “I need you to stay with Meggie, okay?”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

Abby went back to where Meggie was standing.

“Why were you going to follow them?” she asked Abby.

“I wanted to stick with Charlie.”

“You’re not his only girlfriend, just so you know.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you’re not. He’s never been serious about anyone.”

“I think he’s serious about me.”

Meggie shook her head. “He’s not. Chuckles is a heartbreaker. He’s broken a lot of hearts. Not mine, thank God.”

“Where are they going?” Abby asked.

“Why don’t you stop worrying about them. Guys hate uptight girls and they hate meddling. When I get too involved in what Rake’s doing, he don’t like it. I imagine Chuck’s the same way. Right?”

“I guess, but I’m curious about what’s happening.”

“Haven’t you been listening to anything going on? They’re going to get us some smokes from town. Hopefully more than one pack if they know what’s good for them. But for right now I guess they’re talking about something. Guy shit. You know how guys are. They always got something big going on. Want to see pictures of my kids?”

“Not right now.”