Page 3 of Side Hustle
I stood upright as she tried to wrangle my arms above my head when she couldn’t even reach above my shoulders if she jumped. She ended up poking me in the eye and getting my watch stuck in her hair.
“Wait!” She yanked at her hair, probably ripping the strands straight out of her scalp. “Are youlaughing?”
Of course, the indignation on her face sent me into another fit of laughter, the grin splitting my face and the wheeze joining the breeze that came through the trees.
“Oh, you little asshelmet. I thought you were some psycho killer here to skin me alive, and then when I knew it was you, I thought you might still kill me because you’re, you know,you. And now instead of having a medical emergency, you’re just laughing at me?”
She jammed her hands on her hips, looking exactly how I pictured her in my head: angry and a little scary. I held my hands out, seeing a couple long hairs hanging from my watch like they were waving the white flag of surrender.
“Easy, killer. I’m not here to skin you because, ew, Hazel. That’s disgusting and makes me worried about what goes on in your brain. I won’t even ask about the asshelmet reference. I don’t want to know. But I do want to know what you’re doing here in the first place.”
She lifted her pert little nose in the air and sniffed. “I won’t hear one word of negativity from you, Rip Bennett. I’m here because I felt thispull.” She held her hands out in the space between us, her fingers gnarled up like an old witch pulling an unsuspecting child toward her.
“A pull?”
“Yes. A pull. Something in this area just called out to me and I had to come find out what it was.” Her hands dropped and her face cleared into her typical bright-as-sunshine smile.
I scratched the back of my head. Here I was thinking I was weird, but Hazel was probably weirder. Certifiable, even.
“Oookaayy. And did you find what it was?”
Her grin dropped. “No. I was just getting a feel for it when you scared the daylights out of me.”
“Uh-huh.”
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and rolled her eyes. “Fine. Whatever. I knew you wouldn’t get it. I’m outta here.”
She spun and stalked off. I wouldn’t have been a card-carrying male if I hadn’t noticed the way her ass looked in those light leggings as she walked away. She was annoying, but even I could admit—at least in my head—the girl was crazy pretty. Which was exactly what got me in trouble back in high school, but tonight was not the night to rehash those memories.
Hazel let out a grunt and a curse as she tripped over something in the dark. I sighed, knowing I couldn’t let her walk back down without helping her, whether I hated her guts or not. I had a flashlight in my pocket, and no, I wasn’t happy to see her.
“Hazel, wait.” I jogged down after her, clicking on the light and trying to shine it in front of her feet.
Sticks, pine needles, dirt, and something shiny reflected back to me in the pool of light. Hazel stopped walking and turned in a circle.
“Did you trip over something?” I asked, catching up to her.
“It’s here,” she said in some kind of creepy whisper that made me think of Bigfoot hunters.
“What’s here?” I whispered back, turning in my own circle and only seeing a huge outcropping of rocks.
Hazel grunted and I turned around to see her trying to roll a boulder that probably weighed more than her.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Shut up and help me. There’s a party going on behind these rocks and I want in on it.”
I screwed up my face. Hazeldidalways seek out the loudest and most obnoxious parties, but why would there be a party behind a pile of rocks? And why was I even considering helping her? I had far bigger problems on my hands. Namely, my life and its utter lack of direction.
She got the one boulder moved a few inches, and she let out a little cheer for herself. Jesus. She’d be here all night if I didn’t help. I put the flashlight down on the ground, making sure it shined in our general direction, and got to work moving the rocks out of the way. Why and what for, I had no idea.
Ten minutes later I’d had enough of being a gentleman. I straightened up and brushed my hands off to tell Hazel I was out of here. And that’s when the beam from the flashlight hit whatever was behind this wall of rocks.
“Um, Hazel?” I called absentmindedly.
Was I dreaming? Maybe I’d hit my head and this was all a concussed fog? Or maybe my crisis of identity had caused a hallucination?
Hazel ran over to my side and followed my finger, which was pointing silently at the shiny stuff. She gasped and jumped in the air. “We did it! We found the party!”
