Lord Have Mercy (Possum Creek Prequel Novella)

LORD HAVE MERCY

Chapter 1

David was almost asleep when his phone started vibrating in the pocket of his hoodie. He looked up, briefly startled out of the trance he'd let Mrs. Brewer's monotone drone lull him into as she muttered endlessly about the value of adverbs and adjectives.

Two rows of desks ahead, Johnny Cash's version of Ghost Riders In the Sky started blaring. Mrs. Brewer abruptly stopped extolling the wonders of grammar. She glared at Cal, who was digging around in the pocket of his jeans in an effort to shut his phone up.

David decided to use the distraction to his advantage. He pulled his own phone out and opened the offending text message. A picture of a familiar bright red Jeep Cherokee appeared on the screen. The Jeep was sunk in mud up to its headlights.

The message itself was simple. 'Come get me. I fucked up.'

"Fucking Addy," David muttered under his breath. He couldn't help smiling as he slipped the phone back into his lap and looked up at the clock. Twenty minutes until 2nd period was over.

"Mr. Walker, do you have something going on in your personal life that is more important than our class?" Mrs. Brewer was glaring down her nose at Cal.

"Uh, no ma'am. I don't think so, anyway." He'd gotten his phone out and was rapidly pressing down on the volume button in an attempt to silence the device.

"Are you sure, or would you like me to check that for you?" Mrs. Brewer stepped up to Cal's desk and waggled her long, bony fingers at him.

"I'm sure," Cal replied. His pale cheeks were flushed pink from the embarrassment. Cal hated being called out or reprimanded in any way. He always expected everyone to kiss his ass and he never failed to be just a little bit horrified when someone didn't.

"How can you be sure if you don't check your message?" Mrs. Brewer still had her hand out, as if she really expected Cal to hand over the phone.

David bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

"Because my folks would have called the school by now if it was an emergency." Cal stuck the now silent phone back into his pocket. He leaned back in his desk chair and met the teacher's eyes with a smile full of thinly veiled defiance. The look would have been more impressive if he hadn't been crammed into the tiny desk like a summer sausage that didn't quite fit its wrapper. Cal's broad shoulders and less than delicate waistline made him a poor fit for the rigid single-piece chair and desk combinations that filled the classrooms at Possum Creek High School.

David didn't have Cal's problem with the desks. He looked down past his own narrow chest and into his lap. He quickly swiped one finger across the screen of his phone and typed out his reply to Addison. 'Stuck in class. Give me 30 minutes. U at the creek?'

"I suppose you're right." Mrs. Brewer narrowed her eyes at Cal. David could almost see her weighing the odds as to whether or not it was worth it to take away the Mayor's grandson's cell phone. David was betting the answer would be 'not'. Cal rarely got in trouble for committing the same sins that the rest of the peons had to burn at the stake for.

Never getting punished was probably the reason Cal never bothered to follow the rules.

Never following the rules was the reason Cal was David's best friend. David grinned to himself as his phone vibrated again.

He looked down at the message. 'Crooked view trail. Near the west end. I'll share my beer.' The photo that accompanied the text was of a lonely, slightly grubby cooler. A dozen or so beers were visible just underneath the ice.

Mrs. Brewer let out an irritated huff and went back to yammering about nouns. Score: Calvin Walker 1, Teacher 0. No surprises there.

David slipped his phone back into his hoodie. He glanced out the window and idly wondered what had possessed Addison to plunge his Jeep into three feet of sloppy mud on a cold, miserably soggy winter day. Then again, David rarely found a good explanation for anything Addison Malone did. The vast majority of Addison's actions seemed either completely illogical or utterly random. Sometimes both.