She throws the vehicle in park then turns toward me. “You’re no more licensed than I am when buzzed.” She holds out her hand. “Lemme see.”
I lean over, and we both read the prompts together. “Click the link, enter your phone number, wait for the next text with your one-time authorization code and link for tonight’s event.”
I tap in my cell number then hit send.
We both hold our breath until the text comes.
When it comes, we both recite it aloud, “Zero, three, eight, two, zero, seven, nine.” And then repeat it as I type it in, “Zero, three, eight, two, zero, seven, nine.”
“Get your phone and take a picture of the screen so—”
“I lost it on the beach, remember?” She scrunches up her nose. “Zero, three, eight, two, zero, seven, nine.”
“Then we better both memorize this shit like it’s the periodic table.”
“God, I hate chem.”
“Focus, Brisa, focus.” Just then, Patrick calls. “Shit!”
“I’ll answer on the Rover, you keep your eyes on—”
“No! We’ll call him back.”
She holds her hands up. “Fine.”
My heart starts beating harder as I stare at my screen. Come on, come on, come on, I plead in my head, at the same time wishing that I didn’t give a damn.
When I hear a different ringtone than mine, I look at Brisa, who jumps in surprise.
She turns and leans over the console to pull her duffle bag from behind us. “Apparently, I didn’t lose it.” She unzips her bag, digs through it, and then pulls out her phone. She hits accept and then speaker. “Hey, Tricks.”
“B, everything chill?” he asks.
“Yeah, we’ll be there in a couple minutes. Truth just got an invite from The Sound.”
“Tell her fuck them. I found a bunch of chill people to hang with.”
“You’re on speaker.” Brisa laughs. “She heard you.”
“Well, come on and get me. I called Uncle Cyrus and—”
“We know,” I tell him.
“Did I tell you when you come get me I’m gonna call him and ask if he minds us going to an early breakfast so we have a couple hours more?”
Brisa and I look at each other, both knowing this could work in our favor. Then reality kicks me in the ass.
“Sounds like fun, but Brisa is driving and—”
“You drunken tonight, T?” He laughs.
“Clearly you’re drunken more than me.” I laugh, eyes still glued on the screen.
“We’ll be there in a few, mmmkay?” Brisa asks.
“Cool. Savvy and I’ll chill.”
I look at Brisa from out of the corner of my eye and mouth, “Who?”
She shrugs as she tells Patrick, “Cool.”
As soon as she hangs up, my messenger lights up. I hit it to open the message.
For your QRT code, reply I’M IN to this message.
I tap in I’M IN, hit send, and then another site link pops up.
Brisa sighs. “This is a pain in the ass.”
A Venmo request pops up.
“Venmo?” I ask as I hit the link.
“A hundred freaking dollars?” Brisa gasps. “I’m gonna go with what I said earlier on the beach—fuck them—and what Tricks just said, also—fuck them.”
“They mentioned something about a fight. Maybe we can watch one of those douchebags get their asses kicked by Manbun.”
“Mmmman bun.”
I smack her. “He’s old.”
She grins. “Still nice to look at.”
“You think we can get Patrick to—”
“He’s drunken, so yeah, I do.”
She starts the car while I send the money from the account that Sergeant Cyrus doesn’t have access to.
My messenger lights up again.
I read it out loud to Brisa, “2925 Industrial Boulevard, Lakewood. One hour.”
“So, what you’re telling me is Truth got drunk, you made friends with some bikers, and broke into a house?” Patrick asks.
I sigh. “First, there were no bikes; and second, the door was unlocked, so we didn’t break into it, just opened the door.”
“Yeah,” Brisa says then asks, “Now, let’s talk about the girl who didn’t want to come with us or drive your Jeep home. Savvy? What’s the deal with her?”
I watch his reaction in the mirror as I try to stretch out Brisa’s shirt that I slid on after Patrick asked why I was in a soaked sweatshirt. She’s got perfect Bs where I have a real full C.
“She’s cool as fuck, like you two.”
“Ew.” Brisa laughs as she slows to a stop.
“What’s ‘ew’ about that?” Patrick leans forward and ruffles her hair.
She bats his hand away. “You compared a girl you’re trying to bang to your cousins.”
“The fuck, Brisa!” He actually sounds offended. “Told you she’s cool. Not trying to tap it.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Right, because why bang a girl you actually like?”
“Exactly,” he replies as if it makes any sort of sense at all.
Brisa and I both laugh.
He leans forward between the seats. “Not trying to encourage either of you to lose the V-card, but—”
“Who says we haven’t?” Brisa huffs as I point left for her to turn.
He laughs. “No guy in their right mind is going to fuck any of you unless he plans to put a ring on it. Trust me.”
I point my finger in his face. “You know how wrong that is?”
He flops back and scrubs his hand up his face. “No different than your father letting you stay out later because I’m with you, T. Girls are different. You get in your feels, and then some stupid fuck would hurt you because controlling your dick as a young man is a serious problem. Like taking a shot of mental health issues followed by a chaser of physical need.”
“But instead of your brains being out of whack, it’s your balls.”
He smiles. “See? You get it.”
“No, you dumbass, I was mocking you.”
“Not dumb, T. Just a reality. You know how many women our fathers had before finding our moms?”
“Again, ew.” Brisa crinkles up her nose.
“You don’t fuck a girl who wants you to love them unless you want it, too. It’s that simple.”
“Well, maybe love a girl before you fuck her,” I suggest sarcastically.
“Wasted youth,” he sighs.
“So, if we’re still virgins, then we’re wasting our youth?” Brisa huffs as she pulls into a parking lot where a few cars are parked.
Patrick leans forward. “You stick to bean flicking and electronic toothbrushes.”
“What!” I gasp as Brisa puts the vehicle in park.
“Rather you waste batteries than some punk’s life.” He shrugs then pops a kiss to my cheek.
Turning off the Rover, Brisa looks back at him in disgust. “What does that even mean?”
“As blood, it is my responsibility to mess someone up if they fuck with your head or heart. As crew, I got a body to hide.” He leans back and opens his door. “Now, let’s roll.”