“Fuck's sake, Leon!” she screeched, scowling at him, her lip curling up as she righted herself. “I almost landed in your fucking lap! I’ve got a frickin skirt on here... I could have caught something! I mean, Christ, I’d want to be wearing full PPE before I came into contact with that nasty thing. Jesus!” She gave an exaggerated shudder.
I rolled my eyes back, rocking the back of my head against the fabric of the seat cushion.
“Fuck you, Alissa!”
Her frown deepened. He'd used her full name to piss her off. Worked every time.
“I wouldn’t fuck you with someone else’s vagina, pretty boy.”
“Pretty boy? You know, you could put that smart mouth of yours to better use by wrapping it around my dick.”
“Yeah, Leon, I’ll suck your dick,” she mocked, miming sucking dick with her hand and mouth, “just as soon as you’ve dipped it in bleach.”
“Fucking brutal,” Leon said, pushing a hand through his hair.
“You forget I know where that’s been.” She fake gagged.
“Hey! I always wrap it before I tap it.”
“Aw look at you, putting that last little brain cell in your head to good use. Gotta say I’m surprised.” Leon grinned wide. “And grateful... nobody needs that gene pool expanded,” she deadpanned.
The smile dropped off his face.
Liss turned to the front, her face stoic. “Still wouldn’t fuck you with my blow-up doll.”
Le full on scowled now, shaking his head and muttering under his breath as he turned away from her. Seemingly in defeat.
Yeah, give up, man, you ain’t gonna win this one.
Slumping back in the seat, I let my head fall to the side. Riley’s cheek rested against the window, lids closed.
“Drop me at my place, Le,” I said. Her body tensed for a split second at my words, fingers twitching in her lap. Voice low to avoid being overheard, I murmured, “You okay?”
Her head dipped once in a curt nod, her fingernails tracing circle patterns on her thigh as she stared out the window. Every so often a brief flash of light cut into the car, illuminating the soft planes and angles of her face, contrasting with her troubled expression, before fading out again as we crossed over into Claremont.
“You guys good?” Leon asked uncertainly, his gaze flicking between the two of us as we got out of the car at the entrance to the trailer park. Clearly at a loss of what the fuck to do with us.
Riley stuck up a thumb, not looking at him.
I stood, my hands jammed in my pockets, watching her.
“We’re good, Le.”
Riley walked off toward my trailer. I followed.
“Can I get you something?” I asked, stepping aside to let her go on ahead of me, flipping the switch by the kitchen. “If I have anything,” I tacked on.
“You do,” she mumbled.
I nodded. My eyes lifted to take a slow sweep of the place I’d called home for the past fifteen years. It didn’t feel that way now. I coughed, gaze swinging back to Riley, and forced all the crap that wanted to rise to the surface back down.
“You’ve been coming by?”
She leaned back against the counter and sighed. “Yeah.”
“You didn’t need to do that.”
She shrugged, crossing slim arms over her chest. “I wanted to.”