Page 37 of Secondhand Smoke
“Good night, Dad.” She turned, moving to walk away, but he stopped her first.
“You know we love you, right? We just want you to be safe.”
“I know,” she said, smiling. “I love you too.”
It was easy to understand their need to keep their china doll daughter in one piece, but at the same time, it was hard to understand why they couldn’t see her suffocating. But she couldn’t stand to break their hearts again, so she suffocated in silence.
14 - Barrett
“What are you guys doing here?” Barrett glared at his three friends, setting down a box full of new cassettes that had just arrived at the shop that morning.
Their faces were bright with cheesy grins, and he could sniff their scheming from a mile away. They hadn’t just shown up to his shift for no reason.
Paranoidby Black Sabbath was setting the mood for whatever was going on.
“Toni, you might as well clock in so I’m not stocking this shit on my own.”
“Tuesdays are slow as hell. You don’t need me. We’re just here to check in on you.”
Barrett filed through the records and put the new ones in alphabetical order while simultaneously moving the ones that had been misplaced by indecisive customers. “Why are you really here?”
“We’re just surprised is all.”
“About what?”
“About the fact you’ve been hiding Janelle Duncan from us this whole time. We feel like, as your band and friends, we deserve to know about a new addition to the group,” Dennis said, and the other two nodded in agreement.
“What is this? An intervention?” Barrett tossed a crumpled price sticker at Dennis’s face. “And what makes you think she’s anew addition to our group? If it were up to me, I wouldn’t let you freaks anywhere near her.”
“You wound us.” Toni put his hand over his heart dramatically. “But what’s done is done. We accept.”
“Youaccept?” Barrett put down his records and turned to them in disbelief.
“She’s way cooler than we thought,” Paulie said. “Plus, it’d be kind of sick being friends with a psycho murderer.”
Barrett’s eyes narrowed at his friend as Dennis lifted a hand and smacked the back of Paulie’s head, making Paulie hiss.
“Shut the hell up, you shit,” Barrett growled at him.
“Yeah, don’t talk about Barrett’s girlfriend like that,” Dennis chastised.
“She’s not my girlfriend.” Now, Barrett’s rage was targeted at Dennis.
Dennis raised his hands in defense.
“Come on, guys. You know better,” Toni said, taking the higher road. “He doesn’t have a crush on her anymore. That wassooolong ago.”
Okay, not the higher road. Just the more sarcastic one.
“Sure, sure. Whatever you say.” Dennis smirked.
It was pointless trying to convince these guys. They already had their minds set on the idea that Barrett still had a crush on Janelle. Which hedidn’t.
He’d had a crush on her back when she was a pretty, sweet homecoming queen. Everyone had a crush on her then. She was still pretty and sweet now, of course, but no crush. He’d grown out of his silly teenage infatuations.
“You should invite her to see us at The Pour House tonight,” Toni said.
“Great idea,” Dennis agreed.
