Page 16 of Side Hustle
The mayor snarled, but didn’t shift as we were once again in motion, going around him and hightailing it to Rip’s truck. He held my hand in a vise grip the entire way. I didn’t complain. I needed that little thread of pain to keep me tethered to reality. I’d just gotten in the mayor’s face in front of the whole town, my mother was twenty paces behind me looking for some sort of twenty-year-too-late reunion, and the boy I promised myself I’d never trust again was saving me like some kind of dashing hero.
Oh, and I was still dressed as a pair of sweaty balls.
Shoot me now.
7
Rip
“What do you want to do?”
Taking a left out of the roundabout, I circled around Auburn Hill again, giving us both time to digest what the hell happened back there. I’d been looking for Hazel all day, even if I didn’t want to admit it. She was the whole reason I even participated in the race, and the girl didn’t show up. The hair on the back of my neck was on high alert the whole time. Something just wasn’t right and I was worried about her. It wasn’t until I headed over to the registration table after the race to see if she’d checked in that I saw the most spectacular pair of legs, topped with a pair of hairy balls. I’d know those legs anywhere.
Minus the balls. Those were new.
I was in the process of choking back laughter at her costume when I saw the woman standing at the table and Hazel’s frozen expression. Didn’t take me long to think back on the photographs I’d seen in Yedda’s house years ago and come to the conclusion that Hazel’s mom was attempting to reconnect with her. If there was one thing I knew about Hazel, it was that she had no desire to speak to her mother. We shared a dislike of our parents. That was the thing that brought us together that one night in high school.
We drove by my plot of land, my headlights illuminating the shadows caused by the setting sun, and I had to pull my thoughts away from everything dealing with my father and potential gold. My focus right now was Hazel and her own parent predicament. I pulled into the Hill Hotel parking lot, the truck bouncing as I found a spot toward the back in the dirt for overflow traffic.
“What are we doing here?”
Hazel finally spoke, her voice more subdued than I’d ever heard it. Something swift and sharp hit my chest. I wanted to wrap my arm around her again and help her navigate this new development. I wanted that excited squeal back in her voice, dammit.
I turned off the engine and swiveled on the bench seat, hooking an arm over the steering wheel. The rapidly sinking sun pitched us into an intimate darkness. I tried not to remember another night just like this, in this exact truck, when she and I were watching the sunset together.
“There’s no way Amelia and Titus would let your mom stay at the B and B without talking to you first, so I’m assuming she’s staying at this fleabag hotel.”
The few streetlamps in the hotel parking lot were blinking out the last of their existence like they too wanted to leave this shitty hotel. I darted quick glances out the cab window, looking for any cars pulling in the lot that might contain Hazel’s mom.
Hazel grabbed my T-shirt and pulled me down, our faces only inches apart and her ridiculous costume digging into my chest. “I don’t want to talk to her!” she hissed.
Someone reeked of BO and I feared it was me. The sun had been hot while we ran that five kilometers and my pace had been faster than normal due to my worry about Hazel’s whereabouts. I pried her fingers off my shirt and sat back up.
“I know. I just want to make sure she gets here and checks in. Then we’ll know it’s safe to go back to Yedda’s. I’m assuming that’s the first place she’d go to look for you.”
Hazel stared at me wide-eyed, her hair a tangled mess around her face. Somehow she still looked as pretty as usual.
“Oh.”
I tried to sneak a whiff of my armpit without calling attention to myself. She had to be hot in that mascot getup. “Got anything on under that costume?”
She blinked and looked down, maybe just now realizing she wore a pair of balls.
“We should always grab life by the balls.”
I cocked my head at the lack of life in her voice. She seemed like she was in a daze. Maybe she had heatstroke in that thing.
“Sweat is definitely dripping down my balls.” Again with the deadpan voice.
“Hazel.”
“I wanna be a ball breaker, always going balls to the walls, but I think I just might be a goofball.”
“Hazel!” I grabbed in the vicinity of where her shoulders should be and gave her a shake. “Stop it. You’re making my balls shrink with your weirdo phrases. Just take the damn thing off and get out of character already.”
She cracked a smile and I got my first glimpse of the real Hazel for the first time today. The one who was a ray of sunshine and didn’t let anything dim her blinding light.
Another ray of light hit me, but this time, it was the headlights on a little sedan pulling into the parking lot. We both ducked down again to see if it was her. I could feel the tension radiating off of Hazel. Something inside of me awoke, wanting to play the hero and protect the damsel in distress.
