“It won’t be just a stupid sign if someone runs over a kid or a dog,” I admitted. “What’s it going to take?”
***
It was hours later that I decided ‘fuck it.’
I probably shouldn’t be doing what I was doing.
Honestly, it was probably going to get me thrown in jail, but I couldn’t stop myself.
My wayward youth was rearing its ugly head, and I couldn’t control myself.
I had a flashlight in my hand, and pliers, an adjustable wrench, and a hacksaw in the other.
I was going to take down the street sign.
Loud, obnoxious voices had me pausing at the mouth of the driveway where the gate was once again closed, and I halted next to one of the large stone pillars as I listened to the men hoot and holler.
It wasn’t until the voices grew distant that I decided to make my way toward the sign.
And holy shit, it was a lot bigger than I thought it was.
I bent down and started to loosen the bolts that were fastening the sign to the ground.
A distant siren that sounded like it was getting closer and closer made my heart palpitate, but luckily being a cop, I was able to distinguish a medic’s siren from a police car’s siren.
And when the ambulance finally rolled past, I was deep in the woods waiting.
The sign was leaning all sideways and shit, but with the storms that Viddy and Trance had told us had rolled through the day before, I hoped that everyone would attribute its leaning to that.
Luckily, nobody else passed as I took the bolts the rest of the way off.
And when I lifted the bitch off the bolts, I groaned with its weight.
My belly smarted, and I knew without a doubt that this was a terrible idea.
I just hoped that I didn’t fuck anything up inside of myself, because there was no way in hell that I’d be leaving the sign here. I’d gotten this far…
Though it was heavy, I carried that monster all the way down the longest goddamn driveway in the state. I even took breaks, as well as switched shoulders.
I took shallow breaths because I was scared that my guts were going to spill out of the hole in my belly, and I prayed that I didn’t do irreparable damage to myself seeing as I really, really wanted to take Oakley on a date.
Being dead from a hemorrhage inside of myself would’ve really sucked.
Finally, I arrived at the house.
Sticking the thing in the deepest corner of the garage that Trance worked on his bikes at, I made my way back inside feeling a hundred pounds lighter.
Literally and figuratively.
Entering the house as quietly as I could, I was unsurprised to find that someone was up when I entered.
“What the fuck did you just do?” Trance asked.
I knew that if anyone was going to notice, it would be him. Even if he’d been asleep for two hours now.
“Would you allow me to tell you in the morning?” I asked, wiping sweat off my face.
He took another swipe of the cake straight out of the box that he’d been eating when I arrived and stared at me.
“I guess so.” He paused. “But you’ll tell me in the morning?”
I nodded.
“Fine.” He took another bite. “Want some cake?”
Actually, I kind of did.
“Yeah,” I said quickly, reaching for a paper plate.
“Just eat off that other side,” he suggested.
So I did, straight from the box like he did.
“You like my girl.”
I nearly choked on icing.
“Yeah,” I admitted, not seeing the point in bullshitting.
Especially not to the man that had so much influence in Oakley’s life.
“Treat her right, or I’ll use you for target practice with the dogs,” he said. “Sans puffy suit.”
I gritted my teeth.
“But also, thanks again for donating a kidney.” He paused. “Without you, I wouldn’t have anything to worry about in the first place.”
With that, Trance whistled to the small puppies still at his feet, who’d been licking up the crumbs he’d dropped as he ate, and walked away without another word.
I watched him go, then went to the room that’d been given to me by Viddy.
It’d been on the opposite side of the house from all the other rooms. A guest room that had so many goddamn pillows that they were taking up half the bed.
After a quick shower, I allowed my heart rate to finally get back to normal levels.
First the stealing of the sign, and then the admitting that I had feelings for my best friend’s father’s girl.
Trying to distract myself of thoughts of said girl, I went back to what I’d done tonight.
I laid in bed for at least twenty minutes, trying to tell myself that the nuts with my fingerprints wouldn’t matter. That there was no way that someone would stop and be able to find them in the tall grass. But I couldn’t help it.