Flagger

Chapter two

"I don't know, Nat; I have homework." Harper wrinkled her nose as she talked to her best friend, cell phone up to her ear.

"And I don't?" she argued. "It's not every week the Red Bird Trail runs twice. C'mon, live a little. That homework will be there three hours from now when we're done."

"Three hours from now will also be two in the morning," she retorted, but she was already going to her closet to look for something to wear. Harper had to admit she wasn't getting the full college experience, and she'd only seen the Red Bird Trail once. "Am I wearing you down? 'Cause I'm hearing some movement."

"Maybe." She wasn't ready to admit it yet.

"Great, wear something hot and sexy that will show off the curves you like to keep covered up."

"I'm not going to pick up a date," she argued as she looked through her jean collection. "I'm only going to get out of this house for a few hours."

Nat laughed. "None of us ever go to pick up dates, but you never know what happens on the Trail. I'll come pick you up in forty-five minutes. Be ready."

Harper sighed and threw her phone down on the bed. She loved Nat; they had been best friends since they were in middle school, and Nat had been getting her in trouble since then.

"Are you getting dressed to go out? It's almost midnight."

Her head flew up as she heard the voice of her aunt, her guardian since she had been a kid. "Yeah." She grinned. "Nat's on her way to come and get me, and we're gonna go see some friends." No sense in telling her aunt exactly what they were doing. That was a lecture waiting to happen.

"You're an adult now, and I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you to be careful. Good things don't happen after midnight."

"Don't worry, Cara. I'm not looking to be in the back of a paddy wagon going down to 911 Kentucky Street tonight," she joked, referencing the address for the local jail.

"You see that you don't," Cara warned before turning around and heading down the hallway. Harper glanced at the pair of jeans in her hand and hoped to God those words wouldn't be prophetic. She knew the Red Bird Trail could sometimes get crazy.

*

"Are you going out again tonight?"  Aiden glanced up from where he sat on the couch putting his shoes on at the sound of his mom's voice.

"Yeah," he answered, glancing back down. "I have some stuff I gotta take care of. Don't wait up on me."

"You don't have to do this," she told him softly.

Aiden knew he did. At twenty-one, he was the main breadwinner in the household. His money provided the care his severely asthmatic little brother needed. They always had hope Jay would grow out of his allergies and grow out of the asthma, but until then, there were medications, doctors' visits, and sometimes hospital stays that needed to be paid for. Unfortunately, his mom's job at a convenience store meant there was never enough money for those incidentals. He hoped he was making the right decision going to school for mechanic work. Someone always needed a car to be worked on and a lot of times mechanics were paid in cash.

"Yeah, I do. Who else is going to do it?"

There were tears in her eyes as Jenna Sawyer looked at her son, the one who had grown up way too fast. She'd had him young and then struggled with a drug addiction for much of his young life. She hadn't made it easy on him, but she was doing the best she could. "I can get another job," she argued.

"Doing what and when? You're already required to work at least fifty hours a week since you got promoted to management. Mom, for now this is easy money, and it provides what Jay needs." Not to mention it alleviated the guilt he felt at all the times he'd talked down to her or talked bad at her when she was high. It felt like he would always be making amends for that, but as long as she stayed clean, he would do it and not bitch one bit about it.