Page 99 of Lake
With his back still to Monty, Sketch gave one firm not.
Then we left, moving down the stairs at a hurried pace. At the door, Sketch paused, reached into his pocket, and set a stack of bills in a box next to the door. Without a word, we made our way back to our bikes, which I might have been a little surprised were still there.
“No one’s going to fuck with MC stuff. Out here you’re desperate but not dumb.”
“Right,” I said speaking for the first time and feeling a little awkward about it.
The night wasn’t over just yet and that didn’t surprise me.
I could see how this was affecting Sketch even if he didn’t say anything. He rode a little more jerky than normal. He took turns sharper sometimes leaving me to blow out a curse under my breath and wonder how the hell he didn’t wipe out. His speed, well, that was on the verge of asshole level and there had been a few times I debated on letting him leave me behind.
Only, I got where he was coming from.
Sometimes you just had to ride out your frustration and try like hell to dodge your demons.
We ended up behind a rundown looking pizza place in a more lively section of the city. Which wasn’t saying much considering that we’d just come from an area that was no longer suitable to live in.
I felt like shit thinking that because there were obviously people living there. It wasn’t right and it wasn’t fair.
But I guessed life wasn’t always fair. Matter of fact, it rarely was.
Despite the cold temperature, the back door was wide open, leaving a rickety, wooden screen door to keep the bugs out. The noise of the kitchen wafted out into the night air.
“Yo,” Sketch called out as be banged on the wooden frame.
“Holy motherfuckin’ shit,” a tall, skinny guy said as he pushed open the door and greeted Sketch in some sort of hand clap thing. “What the hell are you doin’ around these parts?”
“Fuck off. This is still the best pizza in the city.” Sketch smiled.
“Yeah, that’s ‘cause it’s made with my specialty,” the guy grabbed his crotch. “My nut juice. But no, for real, this pizza is shit.”
He paused, taking a good long look over Sketch before turning that same kind of attention on me.
“Seriously, the fuck you doin’ here?”
“Anyone been around?” Sketch asked.
“Nah, not really. I keep makin’ shit and leaving it out. Only like one or two come by a week lately.”
Sketch looked a little down hearing that.
“Word is, there’s someone taking the girls,” the guy said so low I barely heard him.
“Yeah, that’s why I’m here.”
“This one kid keeps comin’ around. She told me her sister got snatched up three weeks ago. She said the men were talking in some kinda weird language. I think she still comes out because she’s hoping to get picked up by them too. Wants to save her sister or some shit. Fuck, the kid’s only fourteen. I don’t know how the hell she thinks she’s gonna do that.”
“You didn’t try to stop her?”
“Been away that long that you’ve forgotten? Out on the streets, you don’t listen to nobody.”
“Yeah,” Sketch said on a sigh.
“You got people now.” The guy’s eyes slid over to mine. “You watchin’ out for him?”
“Like a brother,” I answered without hesitation.
“You got lucky, then,” he said looking back at Sketch. “I’m not sayin’ you should forget what it was like, just don’t look back.”
