Page 5 of Sunflower Persona
“I’ll send you a pin with my location. As for your kit, I think this might be more than you can handle.”
“That bad?”
“I haven’t even looked.”
“Fuck. Well, send me the link. I’ll be there in a few. The least I can do is give you a ride home.”
The sound of her bike roaring to life fills the line for a brief second before it goes dead. I guess I’m riding bitch.
Smoke seeps through the AC vents, driving me out into the humid night. Stars litter the sky, brighter and denser than I’ve seen them in a long time. Or maybe I never take the time to look.
That’s how Karis finds me—leaning against my car, staring at the sky, and ignoring the problem literally billowing over less than five feet away. To her credit, she doesn’t fire off a snarky quip or give me shit for not even opening the hood.
Silence envelops us as she kills her engine. For a moment, not even the cicadas dare resume their incessant screeching. Loose asphalt crunches under her heavy boots as she bypasses me and heads straight for Brandy, popping the hood open with a hiss of pain.
A plume of thick smoke engulfs my friend, and she lets out a stream of unintelligible curses, but other than that, she doesn’t say a word. She drops her helmet to the ground and matches my posture beside me.
“How fucked am I?” I ask after a few tense moments.
“Pretty damned fucked,” she replies. “What the hell even happened?”
“I don’t know. I was driving home, it made a loud noise, and then smoke.”
“With no warning?”
“No. I’ve had a couple warning lights on for a few weeks.” Months, if I’m being honest with myself.
My face twists with a grimace and my chest heaves with a sigh. Everything about this situation could have been avoided if I had swallowed my pride and asked for help weeks ago.
“I can’t do anything to fix it tonight. I say we leave it. We can call a tow truck out to get it in the morning.”
“Fuck.”
That’s going to run me at least a hundred dollars. Repairs might be minimal, or they could cost thousands—thousands I don’t have. Hell, even the hundred is going to be tough. If I shuffle around some money and only pay the minimum on a few bills, I should be able to pull it off and still be able to pay my rent on time. That’s assuming I’m still able to get to work. Even if I can, I’ll never be able to afford the repairs, and I sure as hell can’t finance a new car.
Nausea turns in my gut as real panic takes hold. I’m so goddamned screwed. One fucking misstep, and I’m going to be dragged back down to the bottom again. No, below the bottom. At least when I took that blow to my knee, I had no control over the outcome. This, though, is all on me.
“Hey. Earth to Gage.” Karis snaps in front of my face. “Eyes on me, asshole.”
Her sharp words are the lifeline I need to pull myself out of my spiral.
“You good?” she asks. Unusual gentleness softens her impish face.
“I’m fine.” I grunt out the lie.
“Sure you are. Come on, let’s get you home.”
She picks her helmet off the ground and heads back to her bike. I’ve always hated that thing. Partly because it’s a death trap and partly because she never lets me drive. Tonight, I don’t have it in me to give her shit about it as I follow her and straddle the seat behind her. She’s always tiny, but sitting between my legs, she feels dainty and fragile. If I told her that, she would kick my ass into next Sunday.
Wrapping my arms around her adds another layer to the awkwardness. As much as I love the woman, this isn’t a position I want to be in with her. It’s far too intimate. She is practicallymy sister—not that I have a real sister to compare it to—but I wouldn’t want to hold my brother like this either.
When people talk about riding a motorcycle, they often talk about the exhilaration and sense of freedom they feel. I think they are full of shit. A deep pool of dread churns in my chest the entire ride back to the apartment. Images of us splayed out on the street, bloody and broken, flash through my head until we finally come to a stop in my run-down complex.
A dog barks from a nearby window as I hop off my ride, and the telltale aroma of weed drifts from somewhere in the back.
Home sweet home.
To my surprise, Karis cuts the engine and follows me up the creaking wooden stairs to my unit. I should have seen this coming—it’s in her nature to meddle.
