Loose Change~ Montgomery De La Cruz / Zach Dempsey/Scott Reed

Chapter 9

"You want the aux, O?"

Ophelia glanced towards Montgomery in the drivers seat. He was holding out an auxiliary cord towards her.

"I'm good" she told him.

Montgomery shrugged, and handed it to Justin, who then put on hip hop. Justin turned the stereo on high, and she could feel the bass through her seat. She tightened her high ponytail. The wind coming into Montgomery's jeep caused her hair to whip back and fourth violently. She straightened her sunglasses, which were the only thing keeping her hair from flying into her eyeball.

Justin, who sat behind Montgomery, leaned up and began talking to him. But because of the loud music and wind, it was more like yelling.

"Hey man, you think I could crash at your house tonight?" Justin asked his friend, "Seth's in a real mood, man."

"Sorry" Montgomery told him, "I'm not even at my house tonight. My dad went on a fucking bender the other night. I dipped. Probably not going back for a few days."

This surprised Ophelia. He always called her when his dad went off on him. Yes, she had been avoiding him, but she didn't want him to have to deal with his dad alone. She wondered how many of those missed calls was him hurt and in need.

"When did that happen?" she asked him.

"I think last Thursday."

Last night, the night before, the day she came back...

He had been on his own all that time. And she didn't even know it.

"Where have you been staying?" she asked him.

He looked at her through the rear view mirror, "You know where."

Ophelia knew exactly where he was talking about. She cringed thinking about it. In the ruins of an abondoned building. In the middle of three concrete graffitied walls and no ceiling. In the dirt. Probably no sleeping bag, or blanket. He was the worst packer she knew, so he probably only had a single pair of clothes.

She studied his outfit. He had a different shirt on then the day before, but the same jeans.

She bit her lip. She didn't want to point out the dirt on his pants, or the ketchup stain that she remembered seeing at the pool house the day before. But she thought it would be worse if one of his friends did.

She licked her thumb, before bringing it down to the crusted dirt near the front pocket of his jeans. She wanted to rub it off, but as soon as she touched him the whole car swerved.

"Monty, what the fuck?" Justin yelled from the backseat.

"Shut the hell up" Montgomery snapped at him. He glanced at Ophelia, "The fuck are you doing?"

"Your jeans are really dirty" she told him.

"Yeah, I know. You don't have to grab my dick while I'm driving."

"I didn't-" she stopped, and rolled her eyes. She tried to surprise the laugh that was building inside of her by shutting her mouth, but that only caused her to let out an unattractive snort. She couldn't stop herself after that. She let out a soft laugh, that Montgomery wouldn't have heard if he hadn't turned down the radio.

He laughed too, as did Justin.

Skidding into his parking spot, Montgomery came to a sudden halt.

"Jesus Christ, Monty. You're going to hit someone" Ophelia scolded, but she was partly amused.

Justin had already began jumping out of the back.