Page 24 of Getting It Twisted

I slam a couple of bills on the table and grasp Daniel’s arm, yanking him up from his seat. We’re halfway to the car when a voice calls from behind.

“Hey! Hey, Antler!”

I curse and turn around. Joshua Tennyson staggers toward us. He looks drunk as shit. Great.

“Yeah, what’s up?” I ask casually, hands in my pockets.

Five years has done him no good. He was a tweaker at eighteen, but now he looks the part of a full-blown junkie: eyes and cheeks sunken in, jaw covered by patches of scruffy beard.

“You’ve got a lotta nerve to show your face in town, Antler. What’s it you owe me? Four grand, interest excluded?”

“I ain’t paying you shit. Come on, Daniel,” I say and turn to the car, but he doesn’t move.

“Nate, what’s going on?”

“Oh?” Joshua barks out a laugh. “He didn’t tell you he skipped town with four grand worth of drug money in his trunk? I let you off the hook, Hastings, ’cause this was between me and him. Butmaybe I should hold you accountable too? You were always his little accomplice bitch.”

Daniel stiffens next to me, gravel crunching under his shoes. “We don’t want any trouble.”

“Yeah well, you’ve got it already,” Joshua says.

I sneer at him. “You weren’t this feisty when I was sucking your dick behind the principal’s office.”

“Fucking faggot,” he spits and lunges at me.

Daniel steps ahead, blocking him. “Hey, no need for that. We’ll get you the money.”

Joshua glares up at him, no doubt sizing up his own scrawny frame to Daniel’s bulky six foot three. “I ain’t letting you off the hook this easily,” he says, nodding to me. “I should teach you a lesson. I know a couple guys who would love to rough you up.”

“I told you, there’s no need,” Daniel says. “We’ll get you the money.”

“Plus interest.”

“Plus interest.”

“Fucking hell,” I hiss to Daniel. “Not much for negotiating, are you?”

Joshua points a threatening finger at me. “Don’t push.” He turns around and staggers back into the steakhouse, likely to order another beer.

I push my hands into my pockets and give Daniel a sideways smile. “That went well.”

He spins to me, and the glare he pierces me with has me take a step back. “Went well?When were you gonna tell me you owed Joshua Tennyson four grand?”

I wave a dismissive hand in the air. “Didn’t think he’d still be around, honest! Dude’s sketchy as hell. I thought he would’ve OD’d by now or gotten run over by a truck or something. Anyway, I can handle him.”

“Didn’t look like it. Tell me what went down between you two.”

I purse my lips, shuffling my foot against the pavement. “I was selling off some of his pills and speed right before I left town. Couldn’t get a hold of him before I was leaving, so I brought the money with me. No big deal.” It isn’t exactly a lie, but it’s not the whole truth either. Without that money, I would’ve been hard-pressed to make it my first couple of weeks on the road. “Anyway, that shit’s forever ago. Statute of limitations and all that.”

Daniel shakes his head, chuckling in disbelief. “I can’t fucking believe you. Then again, I don’t know what I expected. Do you know what kind of friends Joshua Tennyson has?”

I evade his gaze and mutter, “Those biker dudes.”

“Yeah.” He sighs, rubbing at his face. Some of the tension bleeds out of him, and he glances at me between two fingers. “I didn’t know you sucked him off.”

“There are a lot of things you don’t know, Daniel.” My darkly spoken words land like an anvil between us, splintering the tentative camaraderie I’ve tried to rebuild.

It’s true though. He has no idea what I’ve been through. And that truth will continue to widen the divide between us until nothing remains but a dark, lonely shore, where I’ll watch him sail as far away from me as possible. And I wouldn’t blame him.

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