The Badboy Smokes

Chapter Ten

Friday morning starts with a bang. Literally. A gunshot coming from somewhere near my house, but definitely not in it. I shoot out of bed and throw on leggings with a college hoodie and my Vans.

After running down the stairs, I pause in the living room and turn back to my dad, who's sitting at the counter with his newspaper and coffee.
"Hey, honey," He says, not looking to me.
"Hey," I answer, "Did you hear that?"
"No, honey," He says, not looking to me.

I step out onto the front porch and fold my arms, looking around the small cluster of houses in the middle of the countryside. I see Mrs. Benson across the street, also on her porch looking around with a phone pressed up to her ear.

The only excuse I can think of is that someone must have seen a deer or a duck and shot at it--which is still illegal this close to houses and at this time of year.

When Mrs. Benson hangs up her phone, she looks across the street at me with widened eyes and a shrug so I return the look.

Ten minutes later, the police show up at Mrs. Benson's house, but by then I've told Jenna I'll be late, grabbed my stuff, and rushed over to Mrs. Benson's house. When I arrived, she hugged me with one arm and continued to tell the police about what she heard with not a lot of detail. 

Another gunshot rings through our ears.
"Handgun," The sheriff answers, "Definitely a handgun. I'd say it's about a hundred yards away. Ladies, I'm going to ask for your own safety that you step inside."
"I need to go back to my dad," I inform him, but he stops me from walking away.
"No, I'm sorry, you need to get inside," He informs me, "I can't have civilian casualties."

"But my dad," I say as I'm ushered into Mrs. Benson's house.
"He'll be okay," The sheriff says, then looks over my head.
"Sheriff Bernard is right, dear," Mrs. Benson tells me.
"You know how he is," I say and turn to face her, recieving a solemn look.
I give up and stand at the window, watching my house.

Finally, another police car shows up to give me an escort to school, but for my own sake, he stops a block away to not embarass me.

Nothing special happens throughout the course of the day other than Jenna needing to leave early to go to the dentist. This leaves me with no ride home. So thank you, so much, police officer. I really enjoyed that. I call Mrs. Benson to see if she can give me a ride, but after seven hours, she's still caught up with the police and investigations. Apparently Mr. Smith shot his wife and the man she was apparently having an affair with, so the police have been going around talking to everyone.

I groan and lean against my locker, sliding to the floor. Since school got out an hour and a half ago, nobody is around to give me a ride home (including all my friends and acquaintances). I lean against my locker to think of how one could possibly get out of this situation. My friends are working, Jenna got a tooth pulled, Mrs. Benson is dealing with police, there's no real uber service. I'm doomed.

"You really are a loser," Someone says and I open my eyes to see Jayce standing over me.
"You don't seem to realize that you're here, too," I comment and close my eyes again.
"But I know why I'm here--I don't know why you are," He answers and I hear him sit down next to me.
"There was a small shooting in my neighborhood this morning and so I had to have a police escort me to school," I answer, "And I don't have a ride home, now."
"Oh," Jayce replies and I sigh heavily.

"I have a car," He says after a couple minutes, "But you have to ask politely."
"Can you give me a ride," I say and give him a deadpan stare. Jayce gives me a pointed look so I rephrase, "Can you please give me a ride?"
"Of course, Hollie," He answers and stands up, offering me a hand.
I ignore his hand and stand up myself, dusting the dirt from the floor off my ass. Jayce rolls his eyes over me neglecting his gesture and leads me out the door.