Page 5 of Coveted Justice

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Josh nudged Amanda on the arm and nodded toward the exit of the restaurant. Her father’s speech was finished and he had a crowd of people around him. He wouldn’t even notice if they slipped out for a few minutes. Her mother was busy talking to Aunt Presley and wasn’t even looking her way.

Like two thieves in the night, she and Josh ran out, giggling and breathless as they came to a stop under a tall light in the parking lot. Brianna, Colt, Lulu, and Lizzie were already there.

“I love your dad, but that speech was boring as shit,” Lulu declared. “Who cares about taxes anyway?”

Brianna laughed and elbowed Lulu. “Grownups. Careful, you might be one of them one day.”

At twenty Lulu was still a wild child, constantly giving her poor mother more gray hairs. Or at least that’s what Aunt Presley was always saying. In the last year alone Lulu had quit school, gone back to school, almost been kicked out of school, and also dated a long line of dudes that Amanda wouldn’t even want to be in the same room with. Lulu’s taste in men was shit. She liked them all dark and edgy.

Amanda thought they were just pretentious as hell. The guys always thought they were so cool, spouting depressing poetry in some dreary coffee shop or talking about how they suffer for their art, whatever it was. Luckily, Lulu’s relationships never lasted long. She bored easily.

“Growing up is a trap,” Lulu declared. “We all know it. When you’re an adult you don’t get to have any more fun.”

“I don’t know about that,” Josh said with a shrug. “People can still have fun. They just can’t be stupid about it.”

Lulu pouted a bit playfully. She loved to tease Josh. “Are you saying I’m stupid?”

“No, but you often forget to use your common sense.”

Colt doubled over laughing, his cheeks turning red. “Score. Direct hit. Lulu doesn’t have any common sense.”

“Neither do you,” Brianna groaned. “Grow up, will you?”

“You’re just pissy tonight because Ben hasn’t paid any attention to you,” Colt scoffed at his sister. “He barely knows you exist.”

“He doesn’t pay attention to anyone,” Lulu said with a roll of her eyes. “He only wants to hang around his friends. And who would want to talk to him? He’s so boring. All he talks about is his new summer job and how he’s going to go to graduate school in the fall. He’s not even kind of fun. I asked him to buy us some beer or get us a bottle of wine, but he wouldn’t do it. All I got was a lecture on drinking before the age of twenty-one. As if he never did that. I know he did. He’s so pompous lately. Honestly, Brianna, you’re better off without him.”

“He’s yesterday’s news,” Brianna replied, sending a death glare to her brother. “I don’t even like him anymore. Lulu’s right. Ben’s a bore. He’s always acting like he’s better than the rest of us because he’s older. He thinks he knows everything.”

“He’s starting a new job. I bet he’s nervous and just trying to cover it up,” Josh said. “I don’t think he seriously thinks he knows everything.”

Josh was always the peacemaker of the group, the level-headed one. Amanda’s mother always said it was because he had a hard life starting out and had to grow up fast. The adults were always urging Josh to have fun and relax a little bit.

Colt, on the other hand, had far too much fun. The grownups were always urging him to take his schooling and life more seriously. It had worked to a certain extent as he’d pulled his grades up to As and Bs. But he was still the life of the party. He loved to cut loose and act the fool.

“He just acts like he does,” Colt replied. “I tried to talk to him earlier and he pretty much just brushed me off. I guess I’m just a nobody because I’m still in college.”

Amanda liked Ben. Most of the time. But she couldn’t argue that lately he’d been acting…kind of like a jerk. She put it down to his new girlfriend who was sort of standoffish and snooty. She’d made it clear that she didn’t want to spend time with anyone who wasn’t important. It appeared that her biggest criteria was a person’s bank account. She’d been fawning all over Jason Anderson all evening.

“It’s probably just a phase,” Lizzie said. “I would think that the transition from college to a real job would be stressful. At least I would be stressed.”

“Ben was just born serious,” Josh said with a shrug. “He’s always been that way so now is really no different.”

“He’s a pain in my ass,” Lulu said. “He’s always trying to tell me what to do like he’s my third parent. I already have a mom and dad, thank you very much. Let’s stop talking about him. Let’s talk about something more interesting. Brianna, did that guy from spring break ever call you?”

“He did, but by that time I found out he had a girlfriend. He was just trolling for chicks in Florida. I told him to get bent and he got all upset. He said I led him on or some shit like that. What an asshole. Amanda, how are things with Derek?”

She wasn’t sure she really wanted to talk about Derek. Their relationship - if you could call it that - was complicated. She was scrambling to find a way to change the subject when they all heard a ruckus coming from the entrance of the restaurant.

Abby and her husband Marty were stomping out of the building, both of them yelling. Despite their distance from the unhappy couple, Amanda could clearly hear what they were shouting about. Marty had been flirting with another woman and Abby was “tired” of it. Apparently, it happened all the time if the woman was to be believed. Marty, on the other hand, was telling his wife that she was blowing it all out of proportion and that it wasn’t a big deal at all.

“Whoa, that is one pissed-off lady,” Colt whispered loudly. “Good thing she’s not armed.”

“She probably has good reason to be,” Lizzie said. “Her husband was acting like a jerk right in front of her. I heard him telling one of the waitresses that she had great legs. He did it right in front of his wife. What did he think was going to happen?”

“I saw them arguing earlier,” Amanda admitted. “I guess they’re still mad at each other.”

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