“Christ, man.” I run a hand over my jaw. “This is absolutelyridiculous.”
“I know that, alright?”
I raise my arms by my sides. “Oh,do you? Wow, we’ve all beensavednow, haven’t we?”
“Ledge,” Varsha says firmly.
I look at her. “What?”
She jerks her head behind me, making me turn.
I release a puff of air through my lips and press a thumb against my now throbbing forehead. “Please tell me that your car hasactuallygot a problem,” I all but urge the woman.
She looks terrified as she blinks at me. “It’s…it’s making noises,” she repeats herself.
“Jesus fuck,” Varsha mumbles in irritation, just as Alex coughs.
“Right, noises; you mentioned that.” I walk over to the car and crouch behind it to check the exhaust. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, I rise and head back towards the woman, placing my hands on my hips. “Can you describe the kind of noise it makes so that I can get a general idea of where the issue might be?”
“Let’s just go, Brie,” the friend finally decides to join in. “Please.”
Brie, of course, refuses to listen, and instead clears her throat. “So, the noise – it goes something like this…” She suddenly starts making a high-pitched sound, which could very easily rival the neighing of a horse in heat. Please don’t ask me how I know that. I just do.
This shit right here is unnatural, inhuman, and in this moment, I am more concerned aboutherhealth than that of her car.
I am also too stunned to utter a word, and her friend seems to have stopped breathing completely because I don’t think she’s moving at all.
Brie, taking my silence as a lack of understanding, continues neighing – I mean… You get it, right?
She opens her mouth to once again subject me to the torture, but I somehow manage to find my voice before it’s too late. “Please leave,” I say, then clear my throat. “Right now; take your goddamn car and leave before I lose it.”
She tries to speak, but I hold up a hand to stop her. Taking that as a sign of my final straw being stretched tight, she rummages through her purse for her keys, then pulls them out in a hurry before looking at me. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad I got to see your eyes in person, at least,” she rushes out. “Because they are so much prettier than the videos made them look.” And with that, she turns around – shoes screeching against the asphalt – gets into her car, and drives off, with her friend right behind her.
As she pulls out of the street, though, Brie’s car makes a familiar noise. It’s like a consistent rattling that I hear more often than not in my customers’ vehicles.
Well, shit.
Varsha comes to stand to my right. “That was, uh…”
“A wheel alignment issue causing the sound, yeah,” I provide.
“I was going to sayscarring, but yeah, it definitely seems like the car has a wheel alignment issue.” She clicks her tongue. “Well, I hope she can get it fixed somewhere.”
I look down at my sister, who looks up at me. A moment of silence passes between us, before we both break down into a fit of hysterical laughter.
“Oh man, wesuck,” she sputters, making me laugh harder.
As I bend forward and press a hand over my stomach, I glance up, and find Alex grinning at Varsha and I like the idiot that he is.
“I…” He scratches the back of his head. “I fucking love you guys.”
I feel a tug in my gut at his words, and my chest tightens when I see silver lining his eyes.
In a world where things, and people change so quickly, we are the only ones he has. In a time where trusting others is more of a gamble than it ever was, he is the only one me and the others can rely on. Our bond is special, not just because it was founded on loyalty, but also because it’s been tested so extensively that nothing can phase it anymore.
I swallow the little lump in my throat and gesture for him to come over with a wave of my hand.
Alex grins again as he jogs over to me, and when he reaches me, he all but crushes his body against mine before wrapping his arms around my waist. “I’m sorry,” he murmurs, then sighs before moving back to look at me.
