Page 49 of Honeysuckle
“Fine,” he groaned, climbing from the car.
“Don’t leave your bag,” I said, pointing to it. I checked for cars again and started back toward my own. Pulling out my cell phone, I texted the group chat.
Someone come grab Logan’s heap of garbage.
Cael
What happened?
It broke down on the nineteen, I’m taking him into Lorette. Just tow it back up to the house, or, Arlo, can you look at it? If you have time?
Arlo
Get Van and the truck, we’ll get it back to the Nest. I can’t promise to get it running. It sounded like it was full of water, leaving the lot.
Just try, please?
Arlo
You owe me
Cael
Do you ever collect on those, or do you just say them to scare us?
I shoved the phone back in my pocket, looking up in time to see Josh throwing his bag into the back and climbing into the passenger seat. His dark eyes widened as they took in the console.
“God, this must have cost a fortune,” he whistled.
“Buckle up.” I pointed to his seatbelt and he scowled at me, but I waited until he did it up. “Thank you, and it costs me seven hundred dollars a month to pay for it,” I added, just to see the dumbfounded look on his face.
“You have a job?” He said in a shocked tone.
“Yeah, I do contract construction jobs with Van when I have the time.” I pulled off the shoulder and onto the highway. Josh was silent for a while, the only sound was his phone going off in his pocket. "You can get that,” I said to him.
“No,” he clipped quickly and went back to being silent.
“Touchy,” I hummed, turning onto the highway toward Lorette. It was another hour of uncomfortable silence before Josh started giving me directions. When I’d imagined all the places he might be going, the rough side of Lorette hadn’t been on my list.
Rent-controlled and overpopulated, this side of the city was littered with homeless people and run by some street gang that no one really messed around with. I was ashamed to say that I’d always been too scared to come over here.
“Stay here,” he barked as we pulled up to a ratty-looking apartment building.
“No.” I shook my head. "You aren’t going out there alone…”
“Tuck, listen.” He sighed. "I’ll be fine. Stay put and lock the doors.”
I had offended him.
“I’m coming.” I cut the engine and climbed out of the car, pushing the fob and listening to it beep as I jogged up the sidewalk behind him.
“You should have stayed in the fucking car,” Josh snarled.
“It’s a Jeep,” I reminded him, trying to lighten the mood.
“It’s going to have one less window, leaving it parked there unattended,” Josh muttered darkly, swinging the shattered door open into the main lobby. My eye caught sight of the out-of-service sign on the elevator as Josh ignored my hesitation, already climbing the dirty stairs. The whole place reeked of piss and smoke, and the stairs felt endless.
“How many floors?” I queried.
