Deep Down

3

Song: The Riddle Of The Model- Sing Street

--

Garner plugs in his phone and plays a track by Motorhead, I vaguely recognize it as being his favorite song. Even as a gangly thirteen year old. "Remember?" He asks and I do; he's talking about the break dancing routine that we made to this song six years ago. God we were embarrassing.

Three minutes later we pull into the small town grocery store called 'Co-op.' Its big shiny logo at the front is out of place from the actual rickety building. I remember a few years ago when the town petitioned to get the sign upgraded. It happened after the second 'O' fell off and almost killed an old man. The sliding door at the front of the building opens us to a small but packed few isles of goods. Garner greets the old lady at one of the two cashier counters, her name is Agy. I recognize her but I hope to god she doesn't recognise me. No more awkward conversation for this gal. The same chill on my spine as when I was leaving Garners house appears. The same un-comforting feeling in my hands and dizzy feeling of my brain. The room is hot but I still cant seem to shake my shivering. I scrunch my nose because I know I'm probably getting sick.

We find the aisle with our favorite items- junk food. Garner lets me pick out two bags of chips and some Twizzlers, how generous.

"How long are you staying- in Greencastle I mean...?" He asks me as we stroll through the aisles.

"A month tops. My dad lost his job so we're in 'desperate need of new employment opportunities,'" I air quote with my fingers. He licks at his lips, the dark skin of his face looking almost sickly in the harsh light of the grocery store. I notice his nostrils flare ever so slightly. He tilts his head in a way that isn't adding to our current conversation. I lift an eyebrow but he doesn't notice as his eyes glue to the glass door. I see nothing, but whatever he's seen makes him stop in his tracks.

"What? What is it?" I ask irritated but also a little scared. Is this the behavior my Gran was talking about? Seeing things that aren't there?

He shakes his head like he's clearing cobwebs. What if he's actually fucked up in the brain now?

"I'm sorry... It's just I can't believe you've had to move all the way here to get a job for your father," he says.  I consider giving him a skeptical look for that dumb excuse, but I let it slide.

"Ye..p," I say as we begin once again walking toward the cashier. I cast one last glance out the glass door as we pass it, seeing nothing but the desolate highway. The road rests in front of a small motel across the road. Cars pass by as usual and nothing seems out of place.

Garner pulls out a bill to pay for our goods as I continue peering out the window by the cash. Looking a little closer, I'm able to see a pickup truck parked across the road. It's at the front of the dirt driveway, facing us. The dizzy feeling of my head as well as the numbness in my hands seems to have amplified.

A man is leaning on the hood of the truck, his position seeming casual. Although even from this distance I can see the strain in his stance. He's huge, and his hair is only a few shades darker than Garner's, although his skin is light. I can't see his face. It doesn't matter  because the thing that hits me hard is that his head angles in my direction, as if he can see me straight through the tiny window. The numbness in my hands moves to my chest, my arms feel like they could fall off.

I notice Garner has finished paying and is now packing our items into a bag. I try to look away from the man but it seems impossible. "Who is that man," I whisper to Garner, ignoring the cashier. "Why were you staring at him?"

Garner's eyes slide to the window, an expression of practiced calm washing over his features.

"That's my uncle I think... I can't be sure though, let's go c'mon," he ushers me away from the counter and toward the glass door. The man by the truck is still staring us down as we exit the building. This time I get a closer look at him, but not close enough. All I can see is how big he is, muscles stretching over is forearms and biceps as I observe his clenched fists. The second thing I notice is how fuckin heated he seems to be. Every muscle in his body is now tensed, and his relaxed position against the truck is now completely forgotten. Before I can try to get a good look at his face, Garner puts a gentle but firm arm at the base of my spine. It hasn't stopped shivering since we left the cashier. He leads me toward his car with speed. I shuffle my feet under me to keep up with Garner's fast pace, trying to look back at the man. My friend opens the door to the passenger side for me and pretty well shoves me onto my seat. He runs to the other side like a man on fire.

My view to the motel parking lot is blocked by a transport truck, and once it passes neither the pickup truck nor the huge man are there anymore. Garner notices this as well, and sighs in almost relief as his hands clutch at the steering wheel. He seems to have forgotten about the girl beside him and moves his head to rest against the wheel. "Fuck," he whispers.

"Alrighty... I'm gonna need an explanation right this minute or else I'm gonna take these Twizzlers and walk myself home,"  I raise my eyebrows. The numbness in my hands has receded, thankfully. I chalk it up to me being freaked out and a little suspicious of Garners sudden change of moods. My Gran's words echo through my head.

My old friend looks to be a little conflicted, turning to me with scrunched eyebrows. "My uncle- Isn't a good guy... I'm sorry about that but I got freaked out and had to get away from him."

I twist my mouth in thought. "He isn't a good guy like he's a dick to you or like he's a criminal...?"

"Try the second one, yeah..." he trails off but my nosy ass wants more.

"What's he done?" Garner starts the car and I can tell he doesn't want to talk about this anymore. Too bad for him.

"...rape, theft," I move my head back into the seat as a way of showing my surprise. "...serious?" I ask.

"Ya, we don't talk to him. He's my dads brother and I haven't spoken to him since I was thirteen."

"Hm," I say, his statement seems weird since he exiled me the same way when he was thirteen. "Like me..." I can't help but throw caution to the wind.

"... Yeah," he says as a dismissal. He pulls the car out of the driveway and passes by the motel without a glance, his stare hardened as he looks ahead of him. The tension in the car becomes thick and suffocating, but I chose to ignore as I open the Twizzlers and start munching. We pull into his driveway through the main road, the road that I should have taken to get here an hour ago. Despite his sour mood, Gar still moves to my side of the car to open my door before I can do it myself. I notice a van in his driveway which means one of his parents is home for lunch. We walk the stone pathway to his back door and leave the slight rain into the house.

A pretty dark skinned women I recognize as his mother stands at the counter of the kitchen. She's scolding Gordo, probably because he decided to play hokey and skip school. When the front door closes she turns her attention to us, and a pretty white smile stretches across her wide cheeks. "I knew thy email would work," she remarks as she takes in my short form.

I smile at her as she comes to give me a quick hug. "Garner missed you alright, he missed you a lot," she winks at me. Garner doesn't even flinch at her attempt of embarrassment, and shrugs as if he agrees.

I tell his mother Kaitie about how life has been for me the past five years. About my family and my brother who was also friends with Garner but was never close with him as I was. When she finally lets us go we climb the stairs to his room, our tension from the car forgotten completely. I throw the bad of junk food down on his bed and pull off my jacket. I giggle when he tells me he thinks his mom likes me more than her own son. "Can't help that I'm charming," I tell him with a smirk.

We pick out a few of our favourite horror movies and decide to go at it all or nothing. We chose the order of our marathon and I ask Gar if he has anymore blankets that aren't contaminated by his 'bitties.' As he likes to call the girl he had here last night. We make a nest of pillows and (questionably) clean blankets. He pops in the first movie to his PS3 and settles in beside me. It's a bit awkward at first, the way he's sitting with his arm tucked under him and his legs straight ahead. I shift so that there is a pillow leaning against his shoulder and place my head in it. "Go ahead," he remarks with sarcasm.

"Thanks for your permission," I shoot back with a smile.

Somewhere around the second movie I start to dose off. Although it's only six thirty, the day has been going on for far too long. In the moments before I fall asleep, I barely register Garner rising from his position beside me. He places my head on the pillow next to him, bringing his lips down in a lighter than air kiss at my hairline. Like I said I barely register it, but that part I do remember.

--

Dudes if you want to look up any of the locations that I use in here feel free. This story is set in Canada because that's where I live and I'm not really familiar with America.

Peach