Dead Apples

4- Mall Trips

The money that Robby had given me to bury in the yard is bail money. I've gathered that much now. He knew that our father wouldn't offer up the bail money and so he planned ahead. But if that money in the yard is from the robbery, he doesn't deserve that money. I want him to come home but every time I think about digging up that money to take to the police station, I think of that man lying in the hospital room all helpless and in pain.

So I decide not to touch the money at least until I can talk to Robby about what the hell is going on. But until I can get in contact with my brother, I have to keep myself distracted. So I'm driving to the next town over today with Sage so that we can go to the mall there because we don't have any decent shopping centers here.

We don't go to the place where Robby stabbed a guy but we go west, the opposite direction, and hit a bigger town that's about a half an hour away.

"Ty is pissing me off," Sage tells me on the car ride over to the mall. "Why does he have to drink at two o'clock in the afternoon?"

"Is he drunk right now?" I ask her.

"Yes," She admits, obviously frustrated by that. "And like, what am I supposed to do with that? He's just texting me a lot of nasty shit that I don't want to deal with. He always gets so horny when he's drunk. But by the time that we get back home, he's going to be passed out so we won't even be able to hang out today. I swear to god, him and his friends just get up to the stupidest shit."

Dex is one of his friends. I wonder if he told anybody about what happened at the park a few days ago. I hope to God that he didn't because I know that if he did, the story would get back to Sage and she'd start making fun of me for it or something.

"And Dex is over which sucks because he always gets into trouble when he hangs out with Dex," Sage continues to rant. "Jake is a child but he is all talk, never actually does anything. He's still bitter about that shiner you gave him, by the way."

"He deserved it," I defend.

"Yeah, I know. He's still bitter though. Anyway, Ty is always getting into trouble when he's with Dex. So once we get back from the mall, I'm probably going to have to go drag him out of a hole somewhere."

"You're not his mother," I remind her. "And he's not your responsibility."

"In my heart of hearts, I know that. I know that I don't have to be there whenever he does some stupid shit. But whenever he calls me and asks for help, I just love that I'm the one who he calls, you know? And I don't want to let him down. I know that it's stupid," She admits quickly.

"It is stupid."

"But I can't help it," She mumbles.

"Why is Dex trouble?" I ask her curiously, trying my best to sound indifferent about the whole thing. Like I don't really care all that much. I don't even know the guy.

"He's just fearless. And an idiot," Sage explains to me. "And he's the 'cool guy' so Ty and all of his friends always feel like they need to live up to Dex's level of fearlessness when he's around so that they can impress him. It's pathetic."

"You should just dump him," I suggest even though I know that she won't listen to me. "He's bad for you."

"I know that he's bad for me," She admits to me. "But you know how I am. That's just the type of guy that I go for. I like to be needed and Ty needs me. And I love him."

"You've only been dating for a month," I remind her slowly. "You don't love him."

"I do," She disagrees. "He's sweet. Kind of. Well, when he wants to be. And when there's nobody else around, he's sweet. And he's great in the sack, you know. He's high maintenance but I like having him around. I know that it's hard to understand, I don't expect you to get it."