The Tales of Flesh and Blood

My Teenage Hormones

And so. The date with Jaxon could have gone a lot worse, but I was willing enough to admit that it could have been better. Perhaps if I'd just had that one bad night with Frenice, and nothing that happened afterwards actually . . . well, happened, then maybe it could have been kicked up a notch or two. I felt bad, especially after Jaxon drove all the way to this car dealership to switch vehicles for my sake. I didn't recognize the name; he later explained that the dealership belonged to a distant uncle, which gave him access to numerous cars. He left the wagon and everything in the truck as we rushed across the yard to the familiar lemon of a car. Jaxon's uncle would not call the cops if we were caught, but I guess we weren't exactly allowed to be roaming around here in the dead of night, either.

"My uncle doesn't care - he knows I come here," Jaxon said, glancing over his shoulder to eye an old, worn garage. "However, if my mother found out that he simply lets me come here to drive untested vehicles, he would be in for a good headache." He grinned at me before saying this last bit, "So if I'm dumb enough to get caught, he'll treat me as he would any other trespasser - or so he claims."

"Did you ever get caught?"

"Well, I don't want to find out if he would really shoot me with a semi-automatic shotgun, so no."

This earned him a chuckle.

"So how do you get the keys?"

"Like this," Jaxon gently prodded the sideview mirror on the driver's side until I heard a faint pop!, and behold, a single key held in place between metal and glass. After carefully popping the mirror back in place, he flashed me a toothy grin, clearly proud of my amazed look.

"That's . . . not bad."

He was beginning to fit the exact stereotype of a badass. It felt cheesy, like he was trying to be one of those superheroes from the movies. Well, if one thing was certain, this guy was really good at making me feel dumb.

He would be seriously useful in helping me figure out a way out of this whole 'giant' mess - if only I could figure out whether or not he was ignorant of the case. And if he was, was I really prepared to drag him into something I wasn't sure if I could get out of myself?

We were driving in silence, now, but it was not as uncomfortable as I would have imagined it to be. I was still tired, but a part of me was alert enough to keep my mind clear, and I caught myself staring at the high school boy on occasion. When we got closer to the neighborhoods, I saw kids (and by kids, I mean teenagers and older) shouting and yelling, laughing, popping caps off of bottles that I was sure were not kid-friendly. There were not many laws that restricted underage drinking, but it was generally frowned upon for a minor to drink unsupervised. For a moment, I longed to join them, just because I never had much use for acting so wild before.

And then Jaxon pulled up into the same parking lot as before, and I hadn't realized I was so lost in thought until I felt his hand on my shoulder.

"I would like to see you Monday," he said, "Alive, preferably. Think you could manage that?"

Well, it was nice seeing someone other than Hadi so concerned about my living status, if I was being honest with myself.

"Didn't know I was doing things for your appeasement," was what managed to fly past my lips. Jaxon took this as answer enough, and he signaled for me to wait as he got out of the car to walk over to my side. I knew what he was doing, and I figured I'd let him, if only to use the few precious seconds to gather in my frantic thoughts.

When he opened my door, I climbed awkwardly out, and then we stood there like a couple of awkward teenagers who had never got in touch with the social parts of life. At least I had an excuse. I spent the gist of my social life throwing punches and spitting out insults. I still was not quite sure what Jaxon's parents did as a living aside from running a security company, but he lived in the wealthier areas of Gallin. He should have known better.