“Yeah, sure. I don’t do drugs like you chumps.”
“And the weed?”
“What about it?” Kruger says.
“Don’t mess up my car.”
“Don’t mess up my vibe.”
The Escalade’s engine rumbles under me, and I have to force my eyes to stay open. We accelerate, my body rolling back and forward every time Kruger brakes or hits the gas.
Street lights flash through the window above my head, and it feels like I’m being scanned by some intergalactic being.
A thought I quickly shove out of my head before it can grow babies and infest my mind.
But when I crowd out all other thoughts, it’s just Haven.
Blond-haired, blue eyed, five-year-old Haven pouting at me because I told her she can’t play the part of Columbus, she has to be Jane. Because she’s a girl. And because I don’t want to be a girl.
Dark-blond Haven, almost sixteen years old. Wringing her hands, biting her lip, waiting for me to answer her. And my heart pounding, pounding, as I say yes. Yes to her fucked up plan, yes to those blue eyes I’d fallen in love with many, many years ago.
Mousy-brown Haven. Nineteen years old.
Naked, collared, leashed, humiliated.
And I did nothing.
I grab the back of the seat and haul myself up. With my left hand, thank God, because my right is pretty fucked up. “Where is she?”
Kruger glances at me in the rearview mirror. iPhone has his arm slung over the back of Kruger’s seat and rests his chin on his arm as he looks at me over his shoulder.
“Bro, that’s where we’re?—“
A high-pitched wail cuts him off. We all turn back to the road as an ambulance tears past us. Red and blue lights paint the cabin of the Escalade, the siren deafening until we’re past.
iPhone sounds terrified when he says, “Dude, you think that’s for?—“
“Shut it, man.” Kruger blows out a breath. “You know how to roll a joint?”
“Uh…”
“Better learn fast. Here.” He digs a baggie out of his shoe and tosses it at iPhone.
I turn to stare out the window, my eyes feeling like they’re filling my whole face.
That ambulance was headed for the country club.
For my brother.
He’s not just gonna walk this off.
Fuck him.
I wanted this.
Right?
That’s why I didn’t stop.
