Page 109 of Bring You Back

“Yeah, so, my skateboard,” Banks says next, pushing himself up and giving the ice cream another loud suck. “I found it. Know where it was?” He waits for me to guess but I just stare. He raises his brows and I raise mine back. Finally, he rolls his eyes, then finishes. “Broken. That’s where it was. Fucking Peake scattered the parts all over my porch. Dad tripped over them and almost fell to his death and I got reamed.”

I laugh at the same time Reyna releases a traumatized, “Ew.” We take in the concern now on her face, which makes me laugh harder.

“Notthatreamed,” Banks clarifies, the thought actually hitting him as he releases his own traumatized, “Ew.”

“Wait,” I say through my sputtering. “You think Landon did this?” My amusement dies at my own question. Of course he did. Why am I even asking? I knew the skateboarding assholes would try something once they knew about me and Banks.

“Duh, dude, where have you been?”

Ignoring that, I ask, “How bad is it?”

“Pieces, dude,” he reiterates like I didn’t hear his normally exaggerating ass the first time. “Scattered all over my porch.”

“So you can’t fix it,” I conclude.

“Nope,” Banks says with a pop of the p, leaning forward. “So what are we gonna do to get back at him?”

I push his cone clutching hand away from the counter as more ice cream runs down the side. He finishes it off in two bites, licking his hand, as I say, “I’m not doing anything, man.” I’ve dealt with Landon and his cronies long enough to last me a lifetime, and I have more important things to worry about right now. He’s on his own for this one.

“Wha—”

“Yeah,” Reyna chimes in, apprehensive. “I mean, I know you guys were kinda friends at one point, but I wouldn’t mess with them. They do drugs,” she points out like a whispered secret, and I laugh.

“Weed, Reyna. I’d hardly call that drugs.”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid.”

“I’m not,” I deny, brows narrowed, but her expression isn’t convinced, and I try to dial back, but she cuts in with another point.

“Weed is still a drug.”

Well. She’s not wrong.

Banks slams his hand down onto the counter, ending the motion with a point of his finger. “We snipe their stash.”

Reyna and I open our mouths to protest, but mine comes out first. “Okay, no. Now thatissomething you don’t wanna fuck with.”

“I thought it was hardly drugs, Julian?” Reyna mocks. “It’s just weed.”

“Yeah, dude, it’s just weed,” Banks says, playing along.

I stare at Reyna, and her face morphs to a pointed look. My lack of rebuttal brings out her dimple, which in turn brings out my own amusement. “Look, I’m sorry I said that,” I say, and her smile simply fades at my apology as she continues to hold my stare. Not exactly an acceptance, but not a rejection, either.

I have no clue why I planted such a blasé thought about weed into her head. I guess I didn’t want her to be so worried. But maybe she should be. She’s already dipped her toes in alcohol, we don’t exactly need her doing the same with pot. Luckily, she didn’t buy it.

Drugs are drugs. And whether it’s weed or something hard, you can get yourself into a world of shit if you fuck with someone’s stash. Banks knows this. He’s just running off a bruised ego and a power trip. There’s no sentimental value. He’s already broken in three different boards since he started skating, maybe more. And it was hell for him every time, so I’m betting he doesn’t want to relive that again.

“So, what are wedoingto him?” Banks asks again with impatience, the fact that I already refused involvement going right over his head.

“Don’t you have a play to write?” I say, trying to redirect his focus to the one goal that will get him in the least amount of trouble.

“It’s getting done,” he says, waving me off, but before he can bring us back around, Reyna says, “I’ll help you.”

Banks and I whip surprised stares at her already resigned one, a “Seriously?” leaving our mouths at the same time. She nods, having obviously been thinking about this—please letthisbe the play Banks is trying to write and not his ill-fated quest for revenge.

“Yeah,” she says, then proceeds to pull the hope out from under me. “As long as it’s nottooillegal.” She smiles with the tease, and Banks whoops.

“That’s what I’m talking about! Me and Blondie.”

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