Page 22 of Pen Me

He huffed and raised his head. I thought I saw a faint pink mark on his cheekbone, but he tipped his head back the other way before I could be certain.

“So– You are saying if your sister, Presley had HPV and might need medical attention, you’d betray her confidence?”

I rubbed at the stubble along my jaw, “HPV?”

Sauce nodded.

“Don’t they have a vaccine for that nowadays? Like to prevent it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Sauce shrugged. “My mom wasn’t really on top of all of that after Ruby drowned. She struggled with a lot of things. Doctors triggered her anxiety.”

“Right.” I cleared my throat, having forgotten how sensitive Zig’s ex-wife could be about certain things.

“You gotta make her think logically. If she goes now, what is the worst thing that could happen? A procedure? A medication?” I took a few guesses, “If she waits it could spread to other cancers or parts of her body, right? That’s fuckin’ stupid.”

My voice carried with those last few words, having gotten more passionate than I intended. I felt bad. Zig was preparing for a war I threw him into, and his little girl needed him.

“Inmate,” the guard warned, drawing my attention to him.

I forced myself to let out a slow breath and tried to relax.

“Give me her address.”

“What?” Sauce’s eyes rounded and locked on me.

I hefted my shoulders and stared back at him.

“I got nothing better to do with my time. I might as well help you persuade her to take care of herself.”

“You’d do that?” Sauce leaned back and his shoulders dropped like I’d taken ten years of stress off his young shoulders.

“Yeah. I’ll do it.” I glanced toward the shelf with broken toys and used up coloring books they kept for the kids. A green washable marker was poking out a little.

“Get it.” I nodded.

When the guard checked in with the front desk, he leaned from his seat and snatched it from the shelf. I quickly extended my arm for him to scribble on.

We both knew the zip code. So, all I needed was the digits and the street. It was barely noticeable with the tattoos.

“I appreciate this, man. Really.” Sauce sighed. “I don’t know who else to tell without betraying her trust. She slapped the shit out of me because I didn’t know her friend was inside her house and I went rambling, demanding she see a local doctor like you said.”

“What friend?” I casually asked, unsure why I even cared.

“Her bestie. That chick she used to bring to the club barbecues and stuff. Maelyn Rossi or something like that.”

“Oh.” I grunted, before nudging his foot with mine. “Is she tappable?”

“What?” He laughed.

I laughed and shook my head, “I don’t know about you, Sauce. I don’t know, man. You think my sister had a friend I didn’t try to rail?”

“Trying and succeeding are two different things, my dude. Did you ever succeed?”

I laughed, “Once, when we were in high school. Presley sucker punched me when she found out and she never invited that girl over again.”

“You’re ate up.” Sauce grinned.

“Yeah, but you guys still love me. At least I hope they do. Zig still cusses when my name is mentioned?”

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