Page 3 of Dirty Roulette
She slips out and finishes filling the tank. I flip open the glove compartment, where I stash a music collection in a black CD case for our late-night adventures. Charlie talks non-stop-shit when I pull this sucker out. I ignore all the yada about how it’s easier to store music on phones and connect it to the car, but this seems more authentic. I love the smooth, reflective metallic color I stain with my fingertips when I slide it out of the case.
Once Charlie leaps into the Jeep, the perfect mix is wedged between two fingers. We peel out, and I slide the CD in.
Chapter two
Ryder
I’m stoned like a biblical whore with a joint wedged between my lips. Since summer started, there hasn’t been a day that I’m not numbing myself. I always thought my life was on the right path, but the choices I made threw a potato sack bag over my head and dumped me off on the wrong road.
It’s a little past midnight and I swing a leaky trash bag into the rusty dumpster reeking of bullshit and rotten pizza. I’m ready to break out of this jail called a job, but it’s like digging a hole with a plastic spoon to freedom. All night I’ve delivered wrong orders left and right in a shitty Honda that the Pizzeria is forcing me to drive. The kitchen staff is tripping on acid and incapable of putting together a simple pepperoni pizza without screwing something up.
I light up the remainder of the joint, then pull out a handful of tips. I’ve collected four Lincolns, and half a dozen quarters after ten hours. A chuckle creeps under my breath at the irony of picking up a double shift for money and being thrown scraps. I fold the bills and stow themin my front pocket. I slide to the backside of the dumpster, inhaling a deep hit and letting the weed settle into my lungs until they catch fire.
My phone buzzes in my back pocket and muscle memory has me pulling it out.Lovely. My ex sent me a video on Snap. Brittni. I’m tempted to leave it unread, but curiosity gets the best of me. She’s drinking again, and that’s not a surprise. Throwing her head back, she’s downing a shot and sucking on a lime. Pretty blonde hair tumbles over her shoulder blades, her rosy red lips beam into a smile. Then Brody comes into focus and my blood runs thin. He’s lifting a bottle of beer, cheering, and I can’t shake off the simple fact that she cheated on me with him. All while he was dating my little sister, too.
Brittni always tasted like sugar, and I was always closer than the dress on her skin, but now I’m divided from her by the screen on my phone. Thesinglelabel hasn’t betrayed me as I scroll through pictures and videos of thirsty girls sending pictures of their cleavage and undies, but I can’t get myself to be interested in any of them.
A loud thump of a trash bag flies into the dumpster, and I peek over the edge, spotting Jared, my teammate – a wide receiver that cleat-chasers cling to. He is my best mate. “Are you working late too?” I ask, soaking in another hit and offering it to him.
“Yeah, it was a shitshow. I hate working during happy hour and on a Friday night.” He runs a hand through his curly brown hair and pries the joint from my fingers. Lucky him, he works across the street at a local bar, where he delivers shots and peanuts.
“While you’re getting chicks drunk, these dumbasses didn’t even put barbecue sauce on the wings.” I chuckle and relive the nightmare playing on repeat, but it’s always chaos here. “Twenty in tips, and I’m making six an hour.”
“I managed one-fifty tonight.”
“Shut up, man! All my orders were fucked. I had cooked dough. No sauce, no toppings, and it wasn’t even cut. They just put bread and banana peppers in the box, dude.”
Jared laughs in the midst of releasing a wave of smoke. “Just come work with me. You’ll have chicks riding you after your shift.”
He hands back the joint and I take in a bit more. The next wave settles into my bloodstream, and the tips of my fingers tingle. “No, I ain’t gonna work there with that prick.”
“Brody? You’re still not over him screwing your girl?”
“Fuck him and fuck her.”
“Dude, we start practice on Monday. You’re gonna have to let it go. Come on, I really don’t want a damn losing streak because your head is up your ass.” He licks his lips.
My skin turns cold. The ugly truth is, any girl worth getting with has already hooked up with Brody. All summer, I’ve tried to wash myself clean of Brittni, knowing we will never be together after what she pulled. Refusing to let the thoughts of her cheating run rampant in my brain again I change the subject.
“I shouldn’t have picked up the phone when Karen called.”
Jared chuckles. “That’s why you don’t pick up the phone. Her name is literally Karen.”
“I need the money.”
“Are the ‘rents on your ass again?”
I take off my cap and run a hand through my hair as I lean into the brick wall stained with grease residue. “I came home this summer and my dad was gone. Charlie doesn’t know when to quit. I was completely blindsided.”
“Damn... he really left?” Jared asks.
I take in a long drag and hold it in as long as I can until I’m coughing up a lung. As smoke billows out my nose, I say, “Yep. And for some bitch young enough to be my sister.”
“That sounds like an intense mid-life crisis. I’m sorry man. But I have to ask, do you know what your sister is in for tonight?”
“What do you mean?”
Jared puckers his lips as I hand him the rest of the joint. “Don’t be mad at me.”
