Vigilante

001

Reed pov.

"Reed, can you pass me the wrench?" Dad grunts, pushing his glasses up his nose. I hand him the wrench adjusting my pair as he tightens a bolt on his weird machine. It glowed an annoying blue light in the dim garage, apart from his other "junk" as Mom put it that lay messily on the floor. Bolts and screws, parts and pieces on every inch of the floor.

"What're you making, Dad?" I asked, playing with a bent metal pipe. Dad takes it from my hands and hands me a huge piece of paper. Blueprints with huge words and scribbles scattered on the paper. At the bottom was Ae12. "Dad, what's Ae12?"

Dad squats down looking under the machine. "It's a generator for a bigger machine, son" he ruffles my hair and leans over my shoulder looking at the paper. "You'll understand when you're older".

Understand when I'm older? What if I wanna understand now?

"Yeah, but what does it do?" He arches a brow, a small smile on his face.

"You ask a lot of questions" he pushes my forehead and I laugh, "like your mother" he whispers and we snicker until Mom clears her throat.

"Like who?" she says, leaning against the garage's door frame. Mom's face is serious and Dad holds his hands up in surrender, jogging up to her.

Dad kisses Mom's cheek, and she hides her smile. "Like his mama," Dad lifts Mom, and she squeals, gripping his shoulder as Dad jumps. I can't control the laugh that forms when Mom grabs Dad's glasses, holding them above his head. God, I love them.

"Mr. Willingham!" Mr. Hill slams my book on my desk and I nearly jump out of my seat. Shit.

"S-sir," I mumble, eyeing the board and flipping the textbook to the page numbers on the board. The class was on page 33; I'm still on page 24.

"Pay attention, Mr. Willingham. It's the third week of school and your grades are not impressive. Do. Better" Mr. Hill's always had a "stick up his butt" according to Dante and to this day he's not proven wrong. Mr. Hill's bald head shines in the morning sun from the windows and the wrinkles on his face deepen with the annoyance.

"I apologize," I say and he rolls his eyes, continuing his lecture and I sulk back into my seat, trying to bury myself in my hoodie. The constant thumping under my seat shakes the desk and I try to ignore it. Tyson Beckford. A raging asshole with a drive to annoy the shit out of me since the 5th-grade snickers behind me when my pencil falls.

"Pick it up Reeces" he whispers and I lean away from his hot breath. Jake and Talon laugh when Tyson kicks harder and I grimace. Stupid asshole.

The same asshole that took my glasses in freshman year, broke them and scattered the pieces all over the football field. I couldn't see anything for a month.

...an exaggeration but still.

The bell rings and Mr. Hill shuts his projector off, announcing the homework as the class empties. Tyson shoots up behind me, scratching the chair on the floor before pushing my head and stepping on my pencil with his timbs. The mechanical pencil cracks then Talon pushes my books off the desk. I stare ahead of me as they laugh and taunt my name.

Reeces. Seriously? How old are we?

I glare at Tyson when he leans towards me. "Punch him, Reed. Slam his head into the desk." " Be kind, Reed, always be kind." I don't want to hurt him, if I do it'll be on my record and I could get expelled. Kiara wouldn't be too happy if I slammed her boyfriend's head into a desk or pushed him face-first into a wall.