Page 3 of Dare You to Run
“Yeah. I think,” I tell him.
Danté reaches out to help me up and I hiss, my left shoulder screaming in pain.
“Fuck. Sorry, man. Think it’s broken?” Danté asks.
I push up on my right elbow and move it slowly. “Nah. Probably dislocated.”
The two of them help me to my feet and when I’m fully upright, Malik looks closer at my shoulder. The expression on his face tells me that my initial assessment is definitely correct.
“Yeah, I’m like ninety-five percent sure it’s dislocated. Want me to help?” Malik places a hand on my wrist and lays one gently on my shoulder.
I inhale and blow it out, closing my eyes and nodding my head. “Do it,” I tell him.
“Want a stick?” Danté asks me, and I shake him off. “Alright. Your call.”
“Lay down,” Malik tells me and I carefully lay back down on the grass. “Relax your body and just go limp. You know, like Danté’s dick when Sadie tried to suck it.”
“Fuck off, you little bitch. That girl has mad brace face and I wasn’t trying to get my shit caught up in that.”
I let out a chuckle then relax my body. My left arm rests at my side, and Malik grips my wrist like he’s shaking my hand. It tightens and he says, “One…two…three.” He moves my arm slowly until it’s a ninety degree angle, then jerks it straight up and pushes at the same time.
“Fuuuuck,” I grunt.
I’m pretty sure this is not the way to fix a dislocated shoulder, and I should most definitely be at a hospital getting it done by a doctor. But seeing as I don’t have insurance to cover that, andI’m supposed to be in bed at the moment and not out stealing a bike, this is my only option.
The pain still radiates, but at least now it feels like it’s somewhat back to what it should be.
“Sorry, man. You a’ight?”
“Yeah. Thanks. I’m good.” I struggle to push to my feet again but when I do, I look around at the fence that is laying partially on the bike. “We better get out of here. I don’t know how no one has come out to see about the noise, but I don’t want to be here when they do. C’mon.”
We rush over to the fence and while Malik lifts it up, Danté and I pull the bike out from underneath. This time when it’s upright, we begin running as we push and pull. Brandi’s house is just three away from where I crashed, and she told me how to get to her backyard without being spotted and where to stash the bike.
“Hey, I just thought of something. What if there was some riding gear that had like, airbags in them and could alert you to any possible injuries?” I huff out.
“That’d be pretty fucking rad,” Malik replies.
And it was there, in the middle of the night on a quiet street in Cattywump Bay, Mississippi that a million dollar idea was born. Make that a two point five million dollar idea.
ONE
13 YEARS LATER
My stomach growlswith anger as I push on into the fifth hour of my drive. I’m so close to where I need to be that I just can’t stop now. That cup of coffee and bagel from the hotel buffet didn’t quite fill me up. And the five fitful hours of sleep I got after driving for six hours into the middle of the night is really starting to wreak havoc on my clarity.
It was close to midnight when I stopped at the twenty-four hour super gas station that is more of like a mini Wal-Mart with a restaurant and bakery that, oh yeah, sells gas. My body was aching from having my butt in a seat and my foot on the peddle after hauling ass away from home.
It was all just too much. I had to get out of there. My chest felt like it was caving in when I overheard my parents talking, and I just had to leave.
“Are you kidding me? They said that? God Vaughan. I am so tired of their shit. I know they’re her grandparents but they’re disgusting human beings who protected a rapist.”Mom’s voice was laced with anger and sorrow and I couldn’t understand what she was talking about.
I crept closer still, eavesdropping on their conversation. My Mom –stepmom, actually– and Dad sat close and looked worried as I peeked through the slit in the door.
“They said that if I didn’t convince her to take the internship at Derek’s firm they would tell her that I was divorcing Steph because I was cheating on her.”Dad said to her, and I realized they were talking about my grandfather and my late mother, Stephanie.
“Lemme guess. Was I the person you were supposedly cheating with?”I watched Dad nod his head from where I continued to watch.“I fucking hate them. I can’t even sugar coat it. I hate them with a passion. How dare they threaten you with such lies. And the internship is up to Day. She’s not even studying pre-law. Why in the hell would they think that a marketing major would want to work at a law firm? Did you tell them CeCe already has an internship set up for her with the Wranglers?”
I was shocked to hear that Aunt CeCe had gotten me an internship with the Wranglers because it was the first I had heard about. I was excited as hell, but in that moment there was something that was stealing my joy.
