Shine - Lauren Myracle [29]
“I hear you,” I said. “But, I was actually talking more about the hate crime.”
She cocked her head. Her left earring, long and sparkly with multiple strands of cut crystals, got caught in her hair.
“What happened to Patrick?” I prompted.
“Ohhhh, ” she said. She untangled her earring and adjusted her features to show she was with me. “At the Come ‘n’ Go. Right. It sure was the talk of the town, wasn’t it?”
Was the talk of the town? She was as bad as the easily bored reporters.
“When I heard about it, I was like, for real?” Destiny said. “What kind of monster would do that?”
“Exactly. I’m not saying Tommy had anything to do with it, but—“
“Whoa,” she said. “Tommy’s a dick, but he ain’t that kind of dick.”
“I know,” I lied. “I know. I’m just trying to find out everything I can, because he’s a really good friend of mine. Patrick, I mean.”
She took my words at face value as far as I could tell. Destiny was two years older than me. She didn’t have the slightest interest in my social life, and she certainly didn’t keep up with who I did or didn’t hang out with.
“What do you want to know?” she said.
“Patrick was with Tommy the night it happened. Tommy and my brother. Some other people, too.”
“Like who?”
“Um . . . Dupree, for one.”
“Mama’s boy,” Destiny said scornfully. “Pretends to be Mr. Big Bad Businessman, but he’d wet his pants if his mama found out what he was up to.”
“Making sandwiches?” I said. “I’d hardly call him a businessman.”
She twitched her lips like I was such a dumb bunny. “If that’s what you want to think, go right ahead.”
“I don’t want to think it,” I said. “I think it because it’s true. Dupree works at Huskers with Beef.”
“Day job,” she said breezily. Then she switched gears. “I’m not saying I’d throw him out of my bed or nothing. He’s got it going on with that lazy smile and those eyes of his. He ain’t the marrying type, that’s all I’m saying.”
“Ah . . . okay.”
“That mama of his—you seen how fat she’s gotten? Makes me want to puke. But no woman’s ever gonna take the place of Dupree’s mama, so don’t bother trying.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” I said.
Destiny laughed. She crossed her legs and said, “Who else?”
I frowned.
“At the party,” she said. “The night Patrick was beat up. Ain’t that what you want to talk about?”
“Oh. I’m not sure it was a party, exactly. But that was mainly it: Tommy, Dupree, Beef, Christian, and Patrick.”
“No girls?”
“Oh yeah. And Bailee-Ann.”
She made a face. “Watch out for that one. Little cock tease, that’s what she is. Tried to steal Tommy from me back when me and him first got together. You know that?”
“Well, she’s with Beef now, so . . . yeah.”
“I know she’s with Beef now. I’m just saying watch out.”
“Um, okay,” I said. “But back to Tommy. I saw him at church, and guess what? He cussed at me even though his grandmother was standing right there.”
“Lord,” Destiny said, rolling her eyes. “That woman.”
“You don’t like her?”
“Does anyone like her?”
Good point.
“Ever wonder why the Lawsons stay in this Podunk town when they’ve got enough money to live anywhere they want?” Destiny asked.
“Why?”
“Because she refuses to move, that’s why. Tommy’s daddy is none too pleased about it, believe me. Like, one time Tommy’s daddy decided to take his mother to Asheville for a fancy meal, right?”
I nodded to keep her going.
“Me and Tommy went along. I wore a dress and heels and everything. And afterward, we were going to look at houses. ‘Just to see,’ Tommy’s daddy said.” Destiny dropped her voice. “I’m pretty sure Mr. Lawson had a retirement home in mind, so he could get her nice and put away.”
“What went wrong?”
“Well,” she said. “We got to the restaurant, and they had cloth napkins and special glasses for water and little pats of butter in the shape of seashells.”
“Seashells?”
“I know. It was classy. We ordered our meals, but when the waitress brought ‘em over, old Mrs. Lawson had a cow.”
“What did she do?”
“She was all, ‘Where is my cornbread?