BLACK SHEEP | DW

002.

"planning exactly what your players will do is hard, so have them roll the dice in advance."

he let her drive the red, shelby mustang, but only on one condition: she filled the gas tank before she came home.

venus supposed that was bill's way of trying to bond with her. kind of like, "hey, i'm not good with words but i dig you alright kid, so i trust you to drive my car."

she didn't mind the gesture though. quite honestly, if anything, she was happy she got to drive around in it- she always thought the mustang was a tuff car.

also, it didn't help being cooped up in the house for three days with her father playing his old-timer music; it was driving her nuts.

so friday morning, just after breakfast, venus snatched the keys off the wooden hallway table and stepped out into the dry oklahoma heat. she tore out of the driveway so quick you would think she was being chased by the cops. it made bill cringe watching her race down the road, wondering if it were a bad decision on his account, but alas it was too late to take it back now.

it was hot, the climate was a lot hotter than she was used to in jersey, and venus found herself uncomfortable with how her legs stuck to the leather seats. just as sweat started to bead above her eyebrows it seemed as though finding the small corner store was nothing short of destiny.

after putting the car in park, and trekking up to the door, venus was relieved by the blast of cold air she felt as she stepped inside.

she glanced around at first. it was completely empty, with the exception of the store clerk, and it looked to resemble any other typical corner store you could imagine. she supposed that was one constant, no matter where you went a convenient store will be a convenient store.

lurching toward the fridge she pulled out a glass bottle of coke. venus held it in her hands for a moment, feeling the icy temperature through her fingertips, in some hope to cool off her overheating self. the bottle was so cold it might not even be a beverage yet, just a bottle of slushy coke.

placing it on the counter, the clerk looked up to her with raised eyebrows, "that all, miss?" he asks as she digs in her coin purse.

"that, and a pack of newport's please," she said, putting the change on the counter.

he almost snorted with laughter, placing his hands on the counter and leaning towards the girl. "yeah, that's likely. got any id?"

venus smirked inwardly and pulled out her fake, placing it between her and the older gentleman on the counter. it said she was nineteen, and though she wasn't, and the clerk had a hunch she wasn't, he wasn't in the mood to fight with a teenager today.

"what's a pretty girl like you doing smoking these?" he asked as they exchanged hands: cigs to her - money to him.

venus tucked the cigarette pack into her pocket and rolled her eyes in annoyance. she already knew smoking was bad for her, but it didn't mean she wanted to hear about it every time she went to buy a pack or brought the bud to her lips. it was an awful habit, and she wasn't sure she would ever break it.

"what's an old man like you doing asking a pretty girl like me so many questions?" she shot back, breaking away from the counter.

he wasn't mad like she figured he would be, instead venus was surprised to hear the man laugh. "you have a good day miss, don't get caught up with the wrong crowd, you hear?"

as she went to open the door, she turned around fully and smiled back at him, "you too, sir," she says before pushing the door open fully, hearing the little bell chime. she looked over her shoulder one last time, before calling out, "oh and by the way, i am the wrong crowd." the door shut behind her.

the man shook his head amused with the young girl, and he watched her walk back to her car. part of him couldn't lie, he was worried. not because the girl had a sharp tongue or anything like that, but rather because she was clearly new and he saw what this town did to young people like her. he saw how it crushed them.

venus treaded sluggishly back to the mustang, already fatigued at the hot summer air. the sun was stubbornly high in the sky and it was constantly scorching everything in its path. that included the four guys who now crowded her car.

"what are you doing?" she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. the boy, who was leaning on the hood of the car, squinted his eyes to her.

"now you just run along pretty lady, we're waiting for the guy who owns this car to step out," he said smiling. but it wasn't a friendly smile. it was a smile that made venus feel sick to her stomach.

she approached the car now, yanking the door open, and before stepping inside said, "i'm the "guy" who owns this car."

his friends "ooo'd" at him and he chuckled nervously as he got up off the hood. "my bad darlin'. it's a nice car is all. didn't figure a pretty thing, such as yourself, would be driving it."

"well i guess you were mistaken," she shoots back, now sitting in the drivers seat. unlucky for her, the window was still open. he hung onto the door, leaning in to talk to her and venus internally groaned.

she wasn't annoyed at the boys trying to talk to her, but rather she was annoyed because she knew they wouldn't talk to her at all if they actually knew who she was. from the way they were dressed in their preppy clothes, and how they carried themselves with their noses turned up; these were exactly the kind of guys that bullied her at her old school.

"now slow your roll there, lady," he says. "surely we ain't too bad that you want to get away from us so quick."

venus forced a fake smile, finally getting herself to look at the boy. "why don't you come with us?" he asks her smoothly. "see my friends and i were planning on going for a drive, and i want to get to know my new friend here," he says motioning to her.

for a moment, everything within her screams "no don't do it," but against her better judgement, she caves. and boy, does she feel something awful when she agrees.

"venus," she says shortly. the boy looks to her confused and she clears her throat. "your "new friends" name is venus."

he smiles back at her, laughing a bit. "alright then venus, why don't you come with us?" he states in a more matter-of-fact tone than the question implied. "you can leave your car here. you're on the south-side, ain't no one gonna bother it."

she wasn't sure what that meant at the moment, but he said it so firmly that she was inclined to believe him.

so she hopped out of her red mustang, into his blue one, and drove off with the four boys.