Page 24 of Puppy Love

The rain soaks into my clothes as I stare blankly at the cables in my hand. I’ve never actually had to use these before. Not by myself, at least.

It’s definitely Red to Neg… right?

I hook them up, looking at them for a moment before nodding to myself as if to say “Yes, Cam. Looks great.” My fingers hover over the little black button, ready to turn on the battery.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Sparky!”

I look up, squinting through the heavy rainfall, and my eyes adjust onto Violet. Her arm shields her eyes from the thick falling droplets as she approaches me.

“You’ve got it backwards,” she says. I stare down at the wires.

I could have sworn it was Red to Neg.

“Oh,” I mumble, embarrassed that my boss was seconds away from watching me possibly cause an explosion in the middle of the parking lot. Or whatever happens when you do it wrong. “Thanks.”

I unclip the clamps, swapping their positions, and look back at her for approval. She nods, and I hold down the black button on the battery, waiting for the light on the side to shine a luminescent cherry red. Nothing happens. I press it again.

“Do you want some help?”

“No,” I say. I’ve already humiliated myself enough. I press the button again.

“Are you sure?”

I press it again.

“Yeah. I just think maybe—” I press it again. “I think it’s dead. But I’m fine.”

I try to say this in a tone that comes off grateful for her assistance, but simultaneously tells her to please leave me alone. I think I’d rather be stranded in the rain with a dead battery than ask Violet Wolfe for help.

“I can call Hayden.”

Violet frowns, standing directly in front of me now with an unconvinced expression on her face. “Doesn’t he live like, thirty minutes away?”

Shit. I forgot she knows exactly who Hayden is.

“Twenty-eight,” I mumble, but she’s already walking toward her obnoxiously large Jeep. The flooded rain sloshes underneath her off-road tires, and I have to step back to avoid getting splashed when she pulls up in front of me. She hops out, grabs a pair of jumper cables from her back seat, and attaches them properly between her car and Luigi.

“I’m going to start my car, but wait a minute to start yours, okay?” she says. I have no choice but to comply.

I grab a towel from the floorboard and drape it over the driver’s seat before climbing inside. My father would roll over in his grave if I sat on the leather soaking wet. Dawson whines in the back seat, scratching against the barricading seat cover. After a minute, Violet flashes her headlights, and I turn the key in the ignition, completely blind.

Violet might be a little cocksure, but I didn’t take her for the obnoxiously-bright LED headlights type of person.

Nothing happens, so I twist the key again. Still, nothing from Luigi. Violet hops out of the Jeep, mud splashing up the legs of her jeans as she steps into a puddle. She doesn’t seem to care. Reluctantly, I climb out of the dry safety of my own car.

“We can try letting it charge up for a few more minutes,” she says, leaning forward to peek under the popped hood. Her eyebrows shoot up, and her gaze flicks over to me, her jaw slack.

My brows drop over my narrowing eyes.

“What?” I ask. Violet shakes her head.

“Dude. Your battery is like, completely corroded.” She tilts her head, examining it closer. “How did you even make it to work this morning?”

I know I should probably feel embarrassed, but the only emotion running through my veins right now is defensiveness. It isn’t Luigi’s fault that his battery is older than me.

I cross my arms over my chest. “I drove just fine.”

“Just barely.” She points at a spot on the battery, and then another, and then another. “That’s a hazard, Sparks.”

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