Lazy Lizzie

Twenty-Five

Leo flipped the phone, screen down. Sofia didn't insist.

"And you," she turned to Lizzie, "Who are you running from? You don't have to answer, but I'm just curious who's the mystery woman Leo is helping."

"My ex," Lizzie was honest. Lying took too much effort.

"Ah, Leo's specialty. Bad exes. What did they call you?" Sofia turned to Leo.

"I can't believe you know that!" he laughed. "Let's not--'

"X-Man, yes," Sofia laughed harder. "To the rescue! He kept getting involved with his friends' exes," she told Lizzie.

"By coincidence!" Leo insisted, his sister ignored him.

"He was way bigger then, but when he started talking, you ended up five hours later in the middle of a story you didn't know you cared about. Voice acting and everything. He was fun to be around, got his fair share of girls."

"Even did amateur stand-up comedy," Leo remembered. "People didn't get my humor," he shrugged.

"Romanian, dark and dry. Needing alcohol to be really funny," Sofia declared.

Also like Californian humor, Lizzie thought. That universal sense of irony, when you're down on your luck.

"The funniest thing is that now, years later, his friends?" Sofia continued, "They all settled down with someone's ex. It's a small neighborhood."

"Are you visiting anyone?" she turned to Leo. "I think only TJ got out before you did."

"No," Leo looked down. "I'm done with them."

"Learned your lesson," Sofia tilted her glass to him. "Took going to prison to get it."

Then, to Lizzie, "He was big but completely harmless, and it wasn't like his friends were some drug lords. Just some junkies trying to make a living out of their hobby."

The disappointment in her voice activated Leo, "I never sold drugs. I got paid in drugs. There was a running joke that you couldn't leave any with me," he told Lizzie, who was much more amused than Sofia and surprised about how sad he sounded. "They took me when they needed to be more intimidating, as a group. I'm a big guy, and the sleeve tattoos helped."

"I see you got more," Sofia pointed to his neck, "In prison."

Leo touched his skin as if to remember the snake was there.

"He easily gets dragged into stuff. It's never his fault," Sofia poured some sarcasm over his story. "Even at the trial, they all said Leo wasn't part of the bigger plan. That he'd thought it was a usual drug run across state lines. Didn't expect them to try to rob a gas station on the way. The law doesn't care if your robbery idea came on its own, or while committing another felony."

"Police caught us all in twenty-four hours. I surrendered right there, in front of the gas station. Wasn't going to run," he laughed.

"Actually, I was done with my friends even before I got sentenced," he looked down into his soda can. "I got off easy cause all of them said the same thing: I didn't know about the robbery.".

The women drank the last of the wine, and he added, "TJ said on the stand the only reason they had me tag along was that I wasn't that connected to the rest of the group. If I got caught, they knew I wouldn't drag them down with me. I think his exact words were, we took him with us cause if anything went wrong, all we had to do was outrun him."

Lizzie laughed at that, he was a fast runner, although his chase after Dale might've proven the opposite.

"He laughed with the judge, and I got off easy," Leo remembered. "The DA was even more insulted than I was: Kid, do you think the police just catches one perp and then stops running to get the others?"

Sophia laughed harder, "I remember TJ on the stand, in the suit he wore at his dad's funeral, saying with a dead serious face, Yeah?"

There was a moment where they were all silent after they'd all laughed.

"TJ also got a reduced sentence. His IQ was borderline, they said," Sofia told Lizzie.

They all looked at each other, Lizzie nodding seriously, not having anything to add.

"So, where are you two off to, from here?" Sofia got up. "Let me get another bottle."

"No, it's late," Leo also got up. "Our trailer is parked outside town. Got a long drive ahead. Then, Canada."

He wasn't that convinced. And Sofia's answer didn't help.

"You can stay here, overnight. The girls' beds are too small, but this couch is extendable. If you want," she told Lizzie, as if it were her choice.

Maybe it was.

"Sure," she said, then turned to see what Leo would say.

He was caught, his eyes wandered from Sofia to her, then exhaled, "Thanks. Maybe I can look at that sink in the morning. I noticed it's leaking."

"It's fine, Andy will fix it in the weekend," Sofia lifted the couch seat to reveal sheets and pillows stacked in its box. "Help me pull this out."