Fucking small towns.
Nok rolls his shoulders, stands, and flexes his neck. “I know a bit.”
“Have at it,” I say, waving my oil-slick hand at my machine. “I’m too fucking high for this shit right now anyway.”
“You been on the ganja?” Joseph asks, looking surprised as I start scrubbing the grease from my hands with a damp towel.
“Needed something to bring me down after last night,” I reply and look at Nok who is now sitting on my bike as Joseph works on it. His eyes look at my house.
“Your parents home?” Joseph asks, noticing Nok’s eyes. “’Cause we can’t be here and not introduce ourselves.”
I shake my head. “Mom’s at work, will be until tomorrow.”
“Dad?”
My cheeks puff out as I blow into them. People in this town ask so many fucking questions.
“Is he working too?”
“Joseph,” Nok warns and they share a look between them. Brown eyes clash as Nok silently tells him to shut up and Joseph silently replies that he’s not doing anything wrong.
I alter the conversation. Something I’m good at. “You want a beer?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“I’m good. Thanks.”
I lick my lips and look at my bike. “Is this your way of saying thanks for saving your asses last night?”
“I had it handled,” Nok retorts, as firm and as harsh as always. I respect that about him, he doesn’t feel the need to kiss ass with a changing tide. He stays true to himself.
Still, I laugh while shaking my head. “I know. I just gave it a new angle.”
Joseph snorts and looks at his friend. “I like her.”
“I don’t,” Nok states and looks down his nose at me. “What did you do with the gun?”
I tap my nose. “Why would I tell you? You don’t like me.”
“Guns in the wrong hands are dangerous.”
I quirk a brow. “I took it out of the wrong hands.”
“Let me have it. I’ll get rid of it.” He sounds and looks genuine. “Let it be my burden. You’ll get into serious shit with somebody else’s gun in your possession.”
With flat lips and an even flatter stare, I click my tongue against my palate and curb my temper.
I’m no damsel. I take care of business myself.
“Why are you here, Nok?”
“This is me paying you back for last night.”
“By fixing my bike?” I ask incredulously. “No, this is you inserting yourself into my life when I didn’t ask for your help.”
A muscle in his jaw flexes.
“I’m not sure that you’ve noticed, but Justin is doing all the leg work.” I grin a genuinely sadistic grin and stand so we’re almost at equal height, putting my weight onto the tips of my toes, brushing my chest against his.
“It’s Joseph,” Joseph replies but we both ignore him.
“From what I’ve heard, you natives like to owe favors when people do things for you. And I did some pretty big things for you last night.” I walk my fingers up his chest like I did last night and tap him on the tip of his perfect nose. “You owe me. Like it or not. And I will cash that in eventually. You do not get to say when.”
“What about me? Do I owe you?” Joseph asks, looking way too excited as Nokosi glares so intently at me I feel the heat burning my profile.
“Yep.”
“Awesome.”
I laugh but then stop, worried my sister might hear. I look up at her bedroom window, but the drapes are drawn shut.
“Who’s upstairs?” Nok asks, following my line of sight.
“None of your business, that’s who.”
He stares at the window for the longest time, until I feel like pushing his face away.
Joseph with his cute dimples and shining hazel eyes pulls a face behind Nok’s back. I snigger to myself and walk towards the truck. I open the passenger side and climb up without permission, surprised when Nok charges at me, grabs my hips, and yanks me back down so hard my entire body collides with his.
Unfortunately for him I really don’t like it when people sneak up on me, especially not after he got the drop on me in school. I react instinctively by bringing my elbow up and jabbing him in his throat. He moved in time for me to not accidentally collapse his esophagus, but he still chokes and cups his neck.
“Don’t sneak up on me,” I snap, pressing my back to his truck and holding myself.
He continues to act like he can breathe despite the fact he clearly can’t.
“Dude,” Joseph mutters, looking concerned. “You okay?”
With red eyes Nok nods and looks at his friend. “Fine,” he husks, his voice breathy and hardly there.
“You both need to go,” I snap, feeling edgy and irritated. My anxiety has been triggered.
They don’t move.
“Now,” I snarl. “Go. I can fix my own damn bike.”
“I’m almost done.”
“Go,” I yell, tucking my trembling hands into my pockets.
Nokosi grabs Joseph by the collar and yanks him to standing.
“Don’t come back here,” I shout after them, looking around me to double check that nobody is listening in. I’m not in the mood for any more invasions of privacy and personal space today.
“She’s a bit loco,” Joseph mutters as he climbs into the car and I resist throwing a wrench at his head.
I look at my phone in my stained hand when a text comes through. It helps to take my mind off everything that just happened.
But when I see it’s from my sister, I glare up at her bedroom window, directly at the part where the curtain is twitching.
Willow: Why do you put yourself through this?
Lilith: Go back to sleep. You need your rest.
Willow: *Insert middle finger here*
I laugh through my nose and look at the road where the truck no longer is.
Then I finish my bike myself.
I can breathe again now that they’re gone.
I can’t say the same for Nokosi, however. I bet he won’t sneak up on me again.
“Heyyyy!” Winona calls when she sees me exit the tree line. I wave back and hit the track. This place is contagious, the weather is perfect, the views are beautiful, and the school isn’t terrible, it’s making me almost wish I didn’t have to leave.
My bike is fixed so all is right with the world again. It took me less time than expected. So much so that I got to sit and watch my sister pick her food, dose herself, and pass out. Mom didn’t come home either, but she did text me telling me she’d be home later and not to wait up.
I don’t plan on waiting up for her but chances are I’ll get home later than she does.
About twenty minutes and two sweet runs later, I stop and head over to where Nash is.
“Watched you clear that double, that was sweet,” Nash says as he raises his knuckles for a fist bump that I reciprocate. “You’ve been watching and learning.”
“That and I’ve memorized the track,” I pant after ripping my helmet from my head. “And I fixed my bike.”
“She sounds a lot healthier.”