“Come back! We aren’t supposed to be running!”
Ally squealed as she ducked out of Joel’s arms and dove into the hallway. Despite being half of Joel’s size, she was surprisingly swift and nimble. In her grubby hands, she held his homework. The more they ran, the more her hands clenched the paper, creasing it further. He couldn’t really grab the assignment from her, since that would most likely tear the paper. So, he was forced to awkwardly fumble around with sore limbs in his attempt to grab Ally off the floor.
After a few minutes, the duo heard a clap from the living room. They turned to see Victoria on her knees, arms wide open with a smile on her face.
“Come on, Ally.”
Ally grinned and toddled over to her sister, jumping into her lap, knocking Victoria back. Ally dug her face into her sister’s shirt as she giggled into Victoria’s stomach.
The woman laughed and pulled her sister away. “Stop, that tickles!”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5KMJy4MSVB
The two got up, and Ally dropped the now crumpled homework assignment. Joel sighed as he saw how crinkled the paper had become. Victoria took notice and winced. “Erm…sorry ‘bout that.”
Victoria frowned at Ally. “You can’t be doing that! Look how wrinkled the paper is now.”
Ally noticed, and looked down. “I’m sorry, Joey.”
Joel tenderly picked up the paper and examined the damage. It was readable, and wasn’t too crumpled. “Ah, its fine. Just be more careful next time, ok?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwkGrwLY8rt
Ally ran over to Joel, and gave the tightest bear hug she could around his legs. “I love you!”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN2ESi335qk
Joel stiffened at the sudden declaration of love while Huck suppressed a smile and Victoria laughed outrageously.
He looked down to Ally’s shining face. “I…uh…thanks? Thank you, Ally.”
“Do you love me too?”
“Ah…yeah. I love you, Ally.”
“Yay!”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ19aeLQ93GJ
Ally ran over to her sister and jumped into her arms. As Victoria stabilized her sister under her arms, she smiled at Huck and Joel. “Thanks for watching over her. I know it isn’t easy, so if there's anything I can do to pay you guys back, let me know.”
Huck shook his head. “I’m not going it for you, I’m doing it for Ally.”
“Aw, and here I thought you loved me.”
Victoria pouted as Huck rubbed his face with his hands. She then turned to Joel and gave him a wink, making Joel’s heart skip a beat. “I was also talking to you, just clarifying. Anything I can do for you, let me know, aight?”
Joel chewed his lips. “Yeah, sure.”
Huck grabbed the keys to Carlos and nodded to Joel. “I need to drive these two home. Think you can stay out of trouble for a few minutes?”
Victoria opened her mouth to protest, but Huck leaned in and whispered something in her ear, causing Victoria to falter. She scowled, but nodded.
Joel gave a thumbs up. “Yeah, I’ll be doing homework and stuff, don’t mind me.”
Huck nodded. Victoria waved at Joel with a free arm, and Ally muttered as her eyes began to droop. Seems as though her exhaustion was finally starting to catch up in one massive energy crash. The three of them stepped outside the house, and Joel was left alone with his thoughts. He grabbed the dictionary from Huck’s bookshelf and placed it on top of his homework assignment in an attempt to flatten out the wrinkled, then laid his gaze on Huck’s laptop.
He plopped down in Huck’s chair and scanned the contents of the screen. There wasn’t a reason why Joel was snooping around. Still, he was curious about Huck’s personality and job. What better way than to look through the sheriff’s emails?
He opened up Huck’s emails and began to read the subject lines. There were a lot of complaints from multiple different parties. Citizens of Blackerd, the mayor, county members, and so on. Joel wasn’t too familiar with a sheriff’s duties, but it seemed weird for a simple sheriff to have to organize through numerous complaints throughout the city and even the county. Guess Huck was a glorified janitor as mentioned during dinner. Well, it would at least explain why he seemed so busy and exhausted all the time.
He clicked a few older emails to get an idea of the contents of the messages. There seemed to be a large portion of emails from the mayor (whose name was apparently Aaron). They were fairly formal, and a lot of news was centered around troubled citizens. From a homeless woman who was running around to some shoplifters, it seemed as if Huck was responsible for any misfortune that might’ve been conducted in Blackard. As he scanned the older emails, a certain subject line caught Joel’s eye. The subject line was titled ‘New case: student ditching class’. Since there was only one school in Blackerd, Joel couldn’t help but feel intrigued on the topic. He opened the email and began to read it’s contents.
The email was, once again, from the mayor. It’s contents were about a female student named Zephia, and how she suddenly vanished from school. However, the house that was listed as her residence showed constant activity, so it seemed as though she were simply ditching school.
Joel frowned. Zephia. A female student whose name started with the letter ‘z’. This was probably the student that was ditching school. Normally, he wouldn’t care too much, but Victoria had seemed to be worried the second he had mentioned how Zephia was ditching school. Joel copied the information from the email onto his phone’s memopad, then reset everything to how it was before he poked around.
Joel then backed away from the computer and pulled out his flattened homework assignment from under the dictionary. As he finished the fairly easy homework, he began to create a mental plan for tomarrow’s schedule. His interest was piqued, and now he wanted to at least visit this student. If things worked out, she might work as his scapegoat. Of course, that was hopeful thinking…but the possibility was there.
After a few minutes passed, Joel heard the rattling of keys at the frontdoor. He looked up from his homework to see Huck’s tired body step into the house. He nodded at Joel, then took a quick glance around the room.
“Any issues?”
Joel rubbed his forehead with an eraser. “I mean, apart from learning the difference between a pronoun and a noun? Not much. Pronoun is a stupid name.”
Huck nodded. “Eh, stupid as it is, its not too bad of a system to make sure future generations have proper grammar.”
Joel wrinkled his brow. “Why don’t we all just speak in a way that sounds right then?”
Huck walked over to the fridge, opened it and peered inside. “Because right is subjective. When speaking in a small community, sure, speak however you want. However, in the grand scheme of the world, certain rules need to be set to keep everyone on the same page. You want anything to drink?”
“E-I’m good, thanks though,”
Huck shrugged, and pulled out a juice carton. He walked over to his laptop and sat down in his chair. Joel watched this juggernaut fiddle with the tiny straw between his fingers.
“Why juice?”
Huck scoffed. “Juice tastes great.”
“There’re puppies on the front of the package.”
“Juice is juice, I don’t care if dogs are endorsing it.”
Joel shrugged and continued onto his assignment. Huck sipped away at the tiny juicebox as he typed through his emails. Joel pretended to be stumped on his homework assignment as he laid a mental map of what he needed to do. Once a gameplan was created, he grabbed his last math assignment and cleared his throat.
“So uh, I saw you have a printer. Can I use it to copy my math homework?”
Huck frowned. “Reason?”
Joel shook the assignment at Huck. “Ally kinda scrunched it all up. I figured it wouldn’t look too good on me if the first homework assignment I turn in was messy, so I was hoping to copy it to make it more clean.
Huck chewed the juicebox straw for a second, then slowly began to nod. “Honestly, kid? You’re overthinking this too much but if that’ll put you at ease, go for it. The power button is on the right side of the printer, I think you can figure out the rest.”
Joel got up, slightly wincing as his body was still recovering from the “run” he had made to Blackerd, then hobbled over to the printer next to Huck’s workstation. He rubbed his hand across the side of the machine, feeling for the powerswitch. Once he found the switch, the teenager flicked it on as the machine clicked and whirred alive. He poked at a few buttons on the printer screen, placed his math assignment in the printer, then clicked the copy button. After the green light scanned his paper and the printer quickly shot out a copy of his homework, Joel checked out the warm piece of paper. There were a few spots where the ink hadn’t fully been copied, but it was eligible enough. Now he had an excuse to visit Zephia.
He gathered his things, put them into the folder handed out at school, then placed his materials into the backpack that Victoria had bought him. Joel stretched, then walked over to the bathroom to wash up and prepare for bed. After getting ready, he went out to the living room and waved at Huck, who looked up from his laptop.
“Going to bed. Do you want me to sleep on the couch? Im fine with that.”
Huck waved him off. “Its fine, go sleep on the bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“You sure? I really don’t mind where I sleep.”
“I wouldn’t be suggesting it to you if I gave a damn. Go sleep, kiddo.”
Joel nodded, then went off to bed. The bedroom still smelt musty, and the bed still felt stiff. Despite these unfavorable qualities of the bedroom, Joel found that sleep overtook him fairly quickly once his head hit the pillow.
...
The chatter of the cafeteria was loud, with the boys screaming idiocy and the girls swooning over said idiocy. Joel sat in the corner of the cafeteria, trying to be as unnoticable as possible. Noise exhausted Joel’s social battery, so he did all he could to stay out of the way from everyone. Despite him quietly munching his ham and mayo sandwich, he still grabbed the attention of Bob.
Bob strode over to Joel, grinning crudely. He nodded at Joel’s sandwich.
“Whatcha eating? Turkey?”
Joel muttered. “...Ham.”
“Cool, cool. Hey, mind if I take a bite?”
Before he could protest, Bob snatched the sandwich from Joel and took two quick bites, devouring more than half the sandwich. Joel simply sat there quietly, as Bob laughed with a full mouth.
“Thanks for the meal, Joe! Say, I’m hosting a party this Saturday, you wanna come?”
Joel hunched his shoulders tightly and looked down. “I..uh…”
Before Joel could respond, a girl slid across the lunchtable seat and bumped shoulders with Joel, causing him to flinch. He looked over and saw a blue-eyed brunette, grinning a full braced smile. She held out a fist, to which Joel cautiously fistbumped. She nodded to Bob, who flinched and looked down.
“Hiya Bob, whatsup?”
Bob looked away, refusing to make eyecontact. “...Nothin’.”
The girl frowned. “Aighty. Say, is that party still happening on Saturday?”
Bob and Joel both flinched. Bob coughed loudly, and stammered out an answer. “Ah-uh-er-ye-yeah.”
The girl grinned as she bounced in her seat. “Cool, cool!” She turned to Joel. “Say, Joel. Do you wanna come? It’d be fun!”
Joel squeezed his hands and looked at his lap. “I dunno yet. I’ll… think about it. I might have work that day.”
Bob scowled. “Bullsh-”
The girl shrugged. “Ah, really? Eh, things happen I guess. Still, you should try to come if you can! I’d love to see you there!”
“...We’ll see.”
Bob cleared his throat. “I, uh, gotta go piss. Be right back.”
As Bob left, Joel left out a shaky breath of relief. Now that they were alone, he turned to meet the girl’s gaze. “Thanks, Jordan.”
Jordan punched Joel’s shoulder and laughed. “For what? I did nothing. But seriously, it’d be cool if you could come to Saturday’s party. I know for a fact Bob would want you to attend.”
Joel tightened his lips and broke eye contact. “I bet.”
Jordan grinned widely, and looked as if she were about to say something, but stopped. Jordan proceeded to absentmindedly chatter about topics and recent trends as Joel sat there and quietly listened to her excited rambling. After a few minutes, some other girls showed up and hugged Jordan while squealing, completely ignoring Joel’s presence. Jordan laughed and hugged her friends back, then nodded to Joel.
“I gotta go with my besties, but you go think about that party, ok? I really do want you to come!”
Joel hesitated, but nodded. As Jordan got up to leave, Joel heard snippets of their conversation.
“Ew, why invite him? He’s so quiet.”
“And? He’s a good listener, Steff. He’s a really kind guy once you spend some time with him!”
As the gaggle (Gaggle? Cornucopia? Flock?) of girls left the table, Joel quietly finished what remained of his ham and mayo sandwich in solitude. As the schoolbell rung, the edges of his vision faded to white, blending in with an alarm.
...
Joel’s head rose up with closed eyes, turning into the direction of the beeping. While disoriented, he grabbed his phone, and checked the alarm’s time. 7:15.
He turned it off, and then snuggled back under the covers. It took fifteen minutes to drive to school, and school started at 7:45. He could afford five minutes of sleep.
Suddenly, the door to the bedroom opened, and the blankets were torn off. Joel groaned as his eyes were violated by sunlight dripping from the cracks of the window blinds. He squinted at his attacker, and saw Huck in a tanktop and sweatpants. He nodded at Joel.
“Morning, princess. You aren’t going back to bed. Up and attem.”
Joel groaned as he slowly rolled out of bed, his feet making contact with the unforgiving cold floor. He simply stood there, waving back and forth, trying to simply stay awake. Huck left, and shortly returned with a cup of clear liquid. Huck handed the cup to Joel, nodding to him.
“Vodka.”
Joel absentmindedly took the cup, and sniffed it’s contents before he could comprehend what Huck had said. Joel blinked, then sniffed the cup with further purpose. “Wait, what?”
“Woke you up, huh? It’s just water, drink up.”
Joel muttered as he drank the cup of cold water. Once downed, he nodded in appreciation to Huck, handing the cup back. “Thanks.”
Huck nodded. “Go wash up, there’s some wings on the table if you want a small bite before we head out.”
Joel rubbed his eyes. “Wings in the morning sounds more of a crime than a cup of vodka.”
“Food is food, now go wash up.”
...
Once he had changed and washed up, the duo got into Carlos and drove off to Blackerd’s institute of multilayered education (which Joel thought was an extremely stupid name for something that was just a school for multiple grade levels). Joel kept low, attended classes like normal, and turned in all his homework assignment except for his math assignment. After the final bell had rung, his teacher, Mr. Mackelson, nodded to him.
“Hey, Joel. Stick around for a sec.”
As the other classmates absentmindedly looked at Joel as they left, he quietly stayed in his chair. Once it was just the two of them, Mr. Mackelson walked over with a sigh and sat down in front of Joel. He nodded at the boy.
“So, what’s with you not turning in the math assignment?”
Joel considered telling the truth, but ruled against it. He wasn’t even sure if he was allowed to visit Zephia. “Accidentally fell asleep and woke up late, sorry.”
Mr. Mackelson rubbed his face. “I get things happen. It isn’t the end of the world if you miss a homework assignment or two, but habits do build. I don’t want to see you suddenly fail all your classes because you build bad habits, alright?”
Joel nodded, and Mr. Mackelson rapped the table with his knuckles. “I honestly wouldn’t mention this, but this is your first homework assignment. It’s like missing the first day of school, you feel? If there’s anything you need help with or want to talk about, tell me. I’d rather you eat up an hour of my time than for you to go down the wrong path.”
Joel nodded quietly. Mr. Mackelson slapped his thighs as he got up. “Welp, you’re free to go then. Try not to miss any more homework assignments, alright?”
Joel muttered a quiet “Sorry, thank you.”, then kept his head low as he left the classroom. He quietly slinked out of the school hallways, before he heard a squeal.
“Hiya Joey!!!”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡILKI1thsBM
Joel flinched, and sighed. He turned just in time to get tackled full forced by a blond toddler. Ally giggled as she hugged him. Joel couldn’t help but smile, despite being completely embarrassed by the extra attention.
“Hey, Ally. Why are you here? This is the highschool section.”
Ally nodded. “Yah yah, but Vicky showed me a shortcut through this hallway.”
Joel frowned. “Oh, really? Didn’t know about it. Is she coming to pick you up?”
Ally nodded, her gold locks bobbing up and down. “Yah! Let’s go talk to her!”
Joel tried to turn her down, but found it impossible to protest the girl tugging his hand through the hallway without looking like an absolute villain to the students surrounding him, so he defeatedly accompanied her.
Once they took the shortcut to the east exit of the school, they saw Victoria standing under a luscious green tree, peering through the students for her sister. Once she locked eyes with Ally, Victoria’s eyes brightened, then her eyebrows raised in surprise as she saw Joel accompanying her. Victoria knelt down with her arms open, and Ally ran full force into her sister, knocking the two down.
Victoria laughed and ruffled her sister’s hair. “So, how was school!”
“Good!”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡspdQQ0Oihp
Victoria grinned and planted a kiss on her sister’s forehead. “Wonderful!” Then she looked up to Joel, standing awkwardly as he kicked the ground. “I know you guys go to the same school, but I’m surprised you guys managed to meet. How was school?”
“Ah, good?”
Victoria grinned and gave Joel a thumbs up. “Wonderful!”
The sisters got up from the floor, and Victoria brushed the dirt off her knees. She nodded to Joel. “You need me to accompany you home?109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8QmvyQpWYz
Joel shook his head, but right before he could decline, Ally blurted out her thoughts.
“Doyouwannacometoourhousetoplay?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJrk9wQjyit
Both Joel and Victoria flinched. Though it was brief, Joel noticed Victoria’s hesitation. Joel cleared his throat, and spoke up.
“Sorry, Ally, but I can’t. I gotta go home to finish my homework, but we can play later.”
Ally looked down to the ground, and toed the ground with her shoes. “Aw….”
Victoria smiled and patted her sister’s shoulders. “It’s fine, Ally. Joel can play with you later when he has no homework, right?” She looked up to Joel and narrowed her eyes with mock anger.
Joel mocked fear and held his hands up. “Yep! Absolutely!”
Ally looked up, eye’s rivaling the sun in it’s brilliance. “Yay!”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCwPAQLkB4s
Victoria chuckled, and held her sister’s hand. “Say bye to Joel, Ally.”
Ally wildly waved her free arm at Joel. “Bye bye!!!”
Joel stifled a laugh as he waved goodbye, and the duo walked off to a part of town Victoria had never introduced. Joel made a quick mental note of today’s interaction, then turned around and reentered the school. After all, Zephia’s house was closest to the west exit, and Ally had forced him out the east.
Damn that adorable child.
...
As Joel’s footsteps crunched against dead leaves that were scattered on the sidewalk, he made note to check his phone constantly to make sure he was taking the correct path. After about an hour of walking, he looked up to see a one story apartment in a pale peach color. The windows were mildly stained, with flecks of dirt crusted onto the bottom of each one. The grass was fairly overgrown, with a manual lawnmower lying defeated near the porch. One of the windows was open with a beautiful (and familiar) voice humming out, accompanied with strums of guitar chords. After triple checking the address, he walked up and knocked on the metal screen door with a soft knock. When that failed to attract attention, he rapped the door with more purpose three times. The singing and guitar playing from inside the house stopped, and Joel heard footsteps quickly approach the door. The front door opened, revealing a girl with a nose ring and a streak of grey in her hair. She wore a plaid flannel and grey sweatpants. She looked down and nodded.
“Yes?”
Joel swallowed nervously, then looked down at his phone. “Uh, are you Zephia?”
The girl narrowed her eyes and her right nostril twitched. “Who’s asking?”
Joel quickly fumbled with his backpack, pulling out the copied math assignment. “I was told by Mr. Mackelson to come see her and guide her through the homework.”
The girl at the porch slowly nodded, running her tongue across the inside of her right cheek. “Riiiiight. If you give it to me, I’ll make sure she gets it.”
Joel frowned for a second. This girl had every right to turn him down, but Joel’s curiosity needed to be satiated. His eyes narrowed on the girl’s nose ring. He swore he saw her before.
Then it clicked. He snapped his fingers. “Wait. You’re the one who was singing at The Bottlecap. The girl on stage. Bera, right?”
Bera’s eyes flickered, and her face morphed from suspicion to confusion and worry. “Wha…who…how?”
Joel tightened his lips and held up his hands. Seeing the opportunity, he chose his next words carefully. “I’m guessing from Gustavo’s wording that you aren’t really allowed to work there. Relax, I’m not here to snitch on you or anything. I happened to visit with the sheriff and saw you play that night, that’s all.”
Bera’s face mildly paled. Her lips trembled. “Uh…”
Now it was Joel’s turn to be surprised. The girl was acting way too shocked and scared about her recognition. Joel could investigate it later, but for now…
He took a small step back. “Look, I’m not asking for trouble. Not trying to make a mess. I just need to see Zephia and go over the homework. I promise, that’s all.”
Bera hesitated, obviously weighing the options between slamming the door in Joel’s face, or letting him in. After a few seconds, she opened the screen door with a scowl. “Fine. Make it quick, and don’t try anything. I know aikido.”
“I have no idea what that is. Please don’t kick my butt over some math homework.”
He stepped inside and awkwardly looked at Bera. “Do I need to take off my shoes? Or…”
Her face twisted in confusion. “What? No, just wear the shoes.”
“Sorry, sorry. It’s an Asian thing, and I-never mind.”
Joel gingerly stepped inside the house, and took a quick look around. The first thing he noticed was the lack of, well, anything inside the house. The walls were bare, and there was no dining table, TV, couch, coffee table, anything. The only pieces of furniture in the living room were a mattress on the living room floor with a green lawn chair unfolded right next to it. On the mattress lay a guitar and scattered music sheets. The kitchen had one dirty white fridge and some chinese takeout on the countertop. Tucked inside a kitchen drawer was a plastic bag that served as a makeshift trash can. The house did not smell good, nor bad. It simply smelled like dust.
Bera noticed him looking around and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. We’re poor. Get over it. Follow me.”
She led the way, her hands in her sweatpants, and Joel followed. Once they reached a dark brown door, Bera knocked solidly. She took a deep breath. “Yo, Zeph. You have a guest.”
She opened the door and nodded. “You’ll get used to the smell. Let me know when you’re done.”
He entered the room, and a wave of filth invaded his nose, making him mildly reel. The room was dark, with the only light coming from a lone lamp in the corner of the room. The yellow light illuminated multiple trash bags piled in the corner of the room, a pile of books in another, and a mattress with multiple pencils and paper scattered ontop of it. A mildly chubby girl with greasy black hair lay among the clutter of the mattress wearing a large black shirt. She looked up at her guest, revealing dark circles under her eyes. She frowned, the mole under her nose lifting slightly.
“Who are you?”
Joel lifted the homework assignment and flapped it in the air. “I’m Joel. Mr. Mackelson told me to give this to you and go over it with you.”
“I don’t care what he wants.”
Bera shrugged and left to the living room. Joel scratched his ear, and put the assignment down on the book pile. He checked behind him to make sure that Bera was out of earshot, then nodded to Zephia.
“Look, this is kind of a courtesy call. If you don’t do this, Bera might find complications with her job. Doesn’t need to be the entire page, but could you at least do some problems so more questions aren’t asked?
Zephia’s jaw opened. “Huh?”
Joel nodded. “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m working as an assistant for Sheriff Huck. It’s just what I overheard. I don’t know much details, but I figured you guys wouldn’t want that lifestyle interrupted, right?”
Naturally, Joel was shooting crap out of his ass, but she didn’t need to know that.
Zephia clutched her chest, her breathing slightly increasing. After a few seconds, she spoke softly with a trembling voice. “I…I guess.”
Joel grabbed the assignment from the book pile. “Cool, then let’s do problems one through eight together.”
...
Bera wasn’t wrong: Joel really did get used to the stench. The two of them sat in the middle of the room, using books from the book pile as makeshift clipboards. Joel also found that Zephia was slow in her calculations. She wasn’t stupid, but it took Zephia two to three times as long as Joel did to solve a single problem. After they finished problem three, he nodded to Zephia.
“So, why don’t you show up to school?”
Zephia tightened her lip, and gripped her pencil. “None of your business.”
Joel shrugged. “Maybe, but I only started going to this school a week ago. I have no attachment to anyo-”
“I don’t care. None of your business.”
Joel held his hands up. “Fine, fine. Your call.”
The duo worked on the rest of the assignment in silence, with Bera’s singing echoing in the background. After half an hour, Zephia scratched out the last answer, then looked up as she yawned.
“There, are you happy?”
“Homework never makes me happy. Still, at least I have something to show to Mr. Mackelson. Thanks.”
He got up, brushed off his butt, then placed Zephia’s homework assignment in his backpack. He nodded to the girl who sat still on the mattress. “Same time tomorrow?”
Zephia blinked. “Huh? Why?”
Joel rolled his eyes. “Seriously? It’s homework. You didn’t expect to do eight problems then be done with everything, right? Mr. Mackelson would want to see progress, you know that.”
Her eyes lowered. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. What was your name again?”
He held out a fist. “Joel, was nice meeting you.”
She hesitantly returned the fistbump. “Yeah, I guess.”
Joel waved farewell, then closed the door behind him and took a deep breath of fresh air. Holy crap, did oxygen smell (dare he say, taste) delicious. As he exited the hallway, the singing grew louder. As he entered the living room, he saw Bera softly strumming chords as she sang lyrics that were scribbled onto a notepad. Noticing his entrance, she stopped singing and nodded. “Finished?”
“Yeah.”
She nodded. “Cool, I’ll see you out.”
The pair walked to the entrance. Once Joel stepped out on the porch, he nodded to Bera. “I probably need to return tomorrow, same time, same reason. That ok?”
Bera rubbed her neck. “Ugh, fine. Just don’t tell anyone.”
Joel still wasn’t too sure what he was supposed to keep a secret, but he nodded. Bera waved goodbye. “Welp, see you tomorrow, then.”
He waved a small farewell, and Bera closed the door behind him. The sky slowly turned to liquid gold, reminding Joel that there was indeed some beauty left in the world. He befriended a rock on the sidewalk, kicking it all the way to Gustavo’s bar.
...
By the time he reached The Bottlecap, the liquid gold sky had dissolved into murky dusk, with late birds chirping their solitude song. Standing in front of Gustavo’s bar, Joel took a deep breath. Then, he opened the door with the bell tied to the door clinging to its monotone chime.
The bar was just as busy as it was the last time Joel had visited, and equally as hectic. Two men were drunkenly slurring, well, slurs at each other, causing Gustavo from behind the bar to snap at them. Tipsy men were uncomfortably flirting with sober women, and there was constant laughter from one party or another. Seeing the door swing open, Gustavo stopped swearing at his drunk customers and turned to his new guest. Seeing Joel, his eyebrows raised in surprise, but he nodded once to Joel, then tilted his head to the two men throwing racial slurs at each other. The message was obvious. ‘I’ll be with you shortly, right after I deal with these dumbasses.’
Joel nodded, then grabbed a corner barstool to collect his thoughts. He mentally rehearsed his lines over and over as Gustavo dragged the two men out of the bar. After the men were removed, Gustavo returned to the counter with a mildly annoyed look on his face. He stood in front of Joel with a taut jaw.
“Seriously, neither of them were Asian. If they’re gonna throw out slurs, at least use the right race.”
“You weren’t bothered by the slurs?”
Gustavo chuckled. “Nah, kid. I’ve been out in the field. Oddly enough, racism ends up being a massive subject to bond over. Once you’ve seen a man blown to bits, a slur really doesn’t hold the same weight. However, the customers were feeling uncomfortable, so I had to step in. So, what’s up kiddo? You here without Huck today?”
Joel hunched his shoulders as he clenched his fingers and instinctively looked down. Catching himself, he took a deep breath, and looked up. “Can I have a job here?”
The bartender raised his right eyebrow. “Where’d this come from? Huck asking for rent or something?”
Joel shook his head. “No, nothing like that. Still, I think it would be smarter to have some pocket money in case of emergencies or whatnot.”
Gustavo raised both his eyebrows with a smile. “‘Emergencies’, huh? Well…” He closed his eyes and thumbed his eyebrow scar. “...The most I can offer are miscellaneous tasks for minimum wage. Stuff like dishwashing, serving drinks, all that jazz. That sound good?”
“I’m fine with all that, but uh, is it really ok for me to serve alcohol? I’m fifteen.”
Gustavo waved him off. “Eh, it isn’t ok, but I don’t give a damn. It isn’t like you’re drinking it, right?”
“...But you offered to sell me alcohol for three times the price before.”
“Bah, technicalities. Do you want the job?”
Joel didn’t need to consider it at all. Miscellaneous jobs for pocket money seemed more than reasonable. “Sure, that sounds fine with me.”
Gustavo grinned. “Cool, you start tonight.”
Joel blinked. “Like…right now?”
Gustavo slapped the countertop with enthusiasm. “Yessir! Now follow me to the kitchen. There’s a pile of dishes that I’ve been dreading to clean, so you came at a good time.”
...
Gustavo gave quick, but thorough, explanations of all Joel’s responsibilities. From how long to dunk the dishes into the scalding sanitizing solution to how to carry five mugs on the same tray with stability, Joel was frantically running around to keep up with Gustavo’s demands. Time seemed to fly at a rapid pace as Joel’s mind was not allowed to rest for even a second. However, after some time passed, Joel got into a proper groove and routine for his tasks.
As Joel was mindlessly washing dishes, he heard a familiar laugh ring from the bar. He quickly flicked the excess water from his hands into the sink, then poked his head out from the back to see Victoria laughing at an exhausted but smiling Gustavo. She wore a sleeveless pink dress that tightly hugged her figure while also exposing her tattooed arms. Joel’s eyes lit up, and he returned to his dishwashing to quickly finish up his task so he could say hello.
Once the dishes were done, he dried his hands on his jeans and briskly stepped out from behind the kitchen to see Victoria laughing from behind the counter, accompanied by Gustavo and three empty bottles. He stepped out from the shadows of the kitchen, immediately catching Victoria’s eye. However, instead of welcome surprise, she instead looked…horrified. Her face snapped back to a warm and pleasant grin, but her split second of horror was unmistakable.
Joel was confused, but refused to let his emotions show. He acted ignorant to her clear change of emotion and waved a friendly greeting to her. Without missing a beat, she returned her wave with equal energy and a wide smile. Gustavo noticed her greeting, and turned around to see Joel waving at Victoria. Gustavo smiled, then nodded to Joel.
“You’re here? Good. Table six wants three Hermes, chop chop.”
Joel wanted to protest, but a job was a job. He nodded, grabbed a tray from the tray rack, then loaded up the platter with multiple name brand bottles of booze. While he went to serve the rowdy customers, he noticed Victoria quietly watching him, then whispering some words to Gustavo. The bartender chuckled in response, then waved her off, causing Victoria to passionately stab her finger onto the countertop.
As Joel returned to the bar, he wiped his moist hands onto his jeans, the tray tucked under his elbow. He nodded to Gustavo. “What else?”
Gustavo thumbed the scar on his eyebrow. “Eh, go catch up with Vic’. She probably wants to know why you’re here. I’ll be in the back, so let me know if someone wants something or if you’re done catching up.”
Joel rubbed his elbow, nodded, then shuffled to Victoria. He waved to her, who nodded in response with a smile.
She tipped a beer bottle to him. “So… you work here?”
“Yep. Started about two hours ago, honestly.” He gestured to her dress. “So, you go to a party or something? A date?”
Victoria flinched and tightened her lips slightly. She took a quick breath and smiled, waving him off. “Nah, just felt like being pretty today. What, a girl can’t dress up?”
Her response was casual. In character. Smooth. But Joel noticed her small discomfort. If he pushed, he could probably find out what she was hiding.
‘Look, you aren’t a bad kid, but sometimes there are things better left unknown. Try to be more sensitive next time, alright?’
Joel remembered Gustavo’s eyes glazing over. The rapid increase of his breathing. The panic slowly building.
Oh, he was absolutely curious about Victoria… but not at the cost of her comfort.
Joel took the platter from under his armpit and placed it back in the tray shelf. He revealed a small smile and nodded. “Yep, it's illegal to dress up unless there’s an event. Sorry, but I’m gonna have to report you to Huck now.”
Victoria let out a small, shaky breath, as she raised her arms in mock fear. “Oh no, the almighty Huck. I’m soooooo scared.”
Joel stifled a laugh. “The legendary Huck, arresting criminals in Carlos!”
Victoria cracked a grin, and nodded. “Y’know? I’m the one who named that car.”
“I knew it. Huck didn’t seem like the kind of guy to name cars, and seemed ashamed of that name.”
Victoria twirled an empty beer bottle as she chuckled. “Yeeeeep. The dude was so damn stiff when I first met him, so I figured that something as stupid as naming his car would help loosen him up.”
“Did it work?”
She chuckled. “Hell no, but now his car is named Carlos, so that’s funny.”
Joel snapped his fingers in sudden realization. “Wait. Is that the reason? You named the car ‘Carlos’… because it’s a car?”
The woman stared at him. “Oh wait, you’re right. That makes so much more sense.”
Joel blinked. “Wait, what? That’s not the reason?”
Victoria rubbed her arms as she winced. “Er...no. Gustavo was in the bar when I was thinking of a name. I saw he was Hispanic, so…you know…”
Joel’s eyes widened slightly in mild surprise, but he nodded casually without remark. Before he could burst out laughing, he nodded to the other bar patrons. “Well, I’m still on the clock. I need to go back to work, but it was nice talking to you, Vic’!”
Victoria grinned as she tipped her beer at him. “Hey.”
“Hm?”
“You’re started calling me ‘Vic’.”
Joel flinched, his neck and face flushing. “Uh…am I…?”
Victoria laughed, waving the beer bottle at him. “No, I encourage it! It’s just nice to see you slowly loosening up. Now go back to work, kiddo.”
Joel nodded quickly, then ran to the back of the kitchen, where he saw Gustavo moving some boxes in the walk-in freezer. He nodded to Joel. “You done? Or did someone order something?”
“I’m, uh, done.”
Gustavo rubbed his cold hands together, nodding. “Cool, cool. In that case, go FIFO the freezer, I’ll man the front. Let me know if you need help with anything, alright?”
Joel nodded, and Gustavo patted him on the shoulder as he headed out to the bar counter. Joel then spent the remaining time moving inventory around in the back and serving beer in the front, waving to Victoria every time he passed by. When the bar eventually closed, Gustavo handed over a few crisp bills from the register, then proceeded to wipe down the bar counter.
“This is for the night. You can go home, I’ll stay and finish cleaning the bar.”
“You sure? I don’t mind staying more and helping out.”
Gustavo chuckled as he continued to wipe down the bar counter. “Normally, you’d be staying. However, you’re a kid and you still have school. Can’t have you stay longer than normal, or Huck is gonna kill me.”
“Ah. Gotcha.”
“Need a ride? I don’t mind dropping you off.”
“No, it's fine: Huck doesn’t live too far from here.”
“That right? Well then, get home safely.”
Joel nodded, then waved goodbye. As he exited the store, the door chimed as he stepped into the cool mist of the night. In the parking lot stood Huck, arms crossed, staring at Joel. He flinched, then nodded.
“Uh… hi? Why are you here?”
Huck walked over to Joel, frowning. “Gus told me that you were working here for some reason, and that you might need a ride home. I came to pick you up, let’s go.”
“Ah, uh, gotcha. Thanks.”
“Mm.”
As the duo drove home, Huck asked no questions. He didn’t ask why Joel suddenly wanted to work, how long he planned to work, what he planned to do with the money, and so on. The duo simply drove off in Carlos with his windows rolled down, the cool mist kissing their cheeks and caressing their hair.
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