Hick - Andrea Portes [47]
“I am. Just gotta run some errands first. Real quick.”
He winks and walks towards the screen door, barely hanging off the hinge. I stick to my guns in the truck.
“Ya coming?”
“No.”
“Suit yourself.” He shrugs and walks in.
I sit there staring at the shack, some shade of ancient aqua faded down to gray, chipping off the sides. The whole thing is leaning off in one direction, like it’s fixing to run south, just waiting for its shot.
Eddie peeks his head out.
“Look, you might as well just come inside. I got some friends I want you to meet.”
“Whatta you care?”
“Well, it looks weird, you just sitting out here and all.”
“So.”
“Well, I think it’s rude.”
I don’t want nothing more to do with him and his stupid bets and his whiskey smoke drinking all night long and who cares anyways.
“Don’t you wanna be nice?”
He gives me a look like I ought to know better and I think back to what my dad said on the stairs about how a girl’s supposed to be sweet, don’t get mean.
Well, what am I gonna do, sit in the truck all afternoon?
I get up, follow him inside and right away I get it.
There’s two girls, actually, girls is stretching it, how bout women dressed like girls, sitting on the bed. The bed is in the front room and they are perched there in their miniskirts like they’ve been there for weeks. Both of them are wearing tube tops, one pink, the other white-and-black stripes. Both of them are wearing plastic chunky heels and they look like they’ve been up for five years straight. One of them has short dark hair like a boy and the other has short red hair like a boy. They look like matching salt and pepper shakers.
But the thing that you get the most off them, the thing that just drips off the bed and into the room, is that they’ve seen it all and don’t care about any of it anymore.
They look up at me when I walk in and one of them looks at the other like they’re in cahoots. The other one looks at Eddie.
“Who’s the jailbait?”
“She’s my niece.”
“Yeah, right.”
Eddie throws some money on the bed and the brunette grabs it, counting it out. She goes into the back room and the redhead looks up at Eddie, her upper lip swirling up into a smile.
“Aren’t you gonna introduce us?”
“Luli, this is Sherri. Sherri, this is Luli.”
“Nice to meet you, Luli. So how long have you been Eddie’s, uh, niece?”
“Um.”
I look up, expecting to see her poised for an answer, but instead she’s leaning over her knees, like a C in a mini-skirt, itching her ankles. she’s scratching like a stray cat and I look closer at the red dime-size sores decorating her shins down to her feet. Some of them are open and bleeding but she keeps scratching and trying not to scratch and scratching again.
The brunette comes back in and throws Eddie a Ziploc bag full of white powder.
“Nearly cleaned me out.”
Eddie tucks the bag away under his shirt and sits down.
“Luli, this is Crystal.”
Crystal looks over and gives me an amused nod.
I look down at the floor, inspecting the wine-colored rug, full of dust and dog hair and ashes seeped in. There’s a joke in the air, a little source of entertainment to the girls that I think might just be me. I try to wonder if it’s my face or my clothes or just my sheer existence that’s turning these girls into silent giggling and sideways glances. Sherri stops scratching and then starts again. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. it’s a busy little movement, frantic, desperate, that the three of us not on the bed are pretending to ignore.
On the other side of the room, Crystal leans against the wallpaper, burgundy and cream, like something regal peeling off. In her tank top and little skirt and short boy haircut, it’s like she’s got a whole different concept of what’s supposed to reel them in. She leans over, lights a cigarette and gives Eddie a nod.
“You wanna hit that?”
Eddie shrugs, takes the baggie out and throws it on the bed. I excuse myself and go to the bathroom to express my disgust. On my way out I give Eddie a look like he better fucking hurry his ass cause I don’t have all day to sit around with a