Wreckless

by Bria Quinlan

  Then I wrapped my hand around the key. Oh, it all came around. “She doesn’t carry it with her because twice she got locked out when she left without her purse. Plus, her mother has a bad habit of going through her things.”

  I gave the key another dusting off, smiling at the dulled metal.

  “If she comes in through the kitchen door, she wakes up her parents.”

  “But if she comes in the back door?”

  “Straight into her room, no squeaky floorboard.”

  “And the lawn chairs?”

  “Mark one of the few places the motion sensors don't turn on the porch light.”

  Jake looked at me, a newfound respect in his eyes.

  “You're thinking she's going to be a little late tonight?”

  “Why not? She's got my boyfriend to keep her company.”

  “Ex.”

  “What?”

  “Your ex-boyfriend.”

  “Right. That rat.”

  Jake laughed. “Don't you have anything stronger you'd like to call him?”

  I thought about it. There were plenty of words I'd never said before that probably fit him. I just wasn't sure saying any of them would have made me feel better.

  As the silence stretched out, Jake gave my shoulder a little shove. “Don't worry about it. It's not on the list.”

  Chapter Nine

  Jake let me add or something to Steal a Sign and then cross it off. It felt like a huge accomplishment. Much better than stealing something real. I probably would have gone back and put the sign on the ground so they could re-hang it later anyway.

  But this key... This key had literally been the key to someone's freedom. It was nice to know I was able to take something away from her after she'd taken such a big thing from me.

  “It looks like we have to get you to a party.”

  I didn't know how to admit this, but I'd never been to a party. Not even with Tanner.

  Which, now that I was thinking about it, was completely weird.

  Before I'd just been happy not have to stand around in a room full of people I had nothing to say to. But now? Now I was wondering why I’d never gone to a party with him. Had he been going to them to meet up with Leah after he dropped me at home?

  None of this made sense to me.

  Maybe, if I were lucky, Jake wouldn't know where a party was tonight.

  “You're already trying to get out of this in your head again, aren't you?”

  I hated him a little.

  “No.”

  “Have you even been to a party before?”

  “Do sleepovers count?”

  Jake turned that grin my way again. I was smart enough to realize the shiver that went down my back wasn’t a good sign. “Not your type of sleepovers.”

  It had been a long evening already, but I was finally able to tell the difference between Jake disgusted and Jake amused. Amazing how close those two things sat on the continuum.

  He pulled the truck to the side of the road and put it in park. I knew he was waiting for me to try to talk him out of it.

  “I can’t imagine I’d fit in anywhere at a party.” Which wasn’t, No, I won’t go. It was more a, This is why I haven’t gone to one before. That and the whole Tanner and Leah both ditching me bit.

  “And?”

  “And, I’m just…” Scared to death. I sucked in a deep, soul-filling breath and tried to steady myself.

  “Well.” Jake shifted back around and started the truck. “I guess we found the breaking point, then.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He pulled onto the road and headed toward Greenville.

  “I mean, as long as you don't have to deal with people, you could be a little daring. But the second someone—someone real, not some random guy—is there to witness it, you back down.”

  “I am not backing down.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  I thought about where there could be a party tonight. My knowledge was vague at best. Even on the outside looking in, I typically knew they usually happened out in the woods every weekend, but I couldn't have gotten us to one.

  Also, I wasn't sure I was ready to face Leah and Tanner yet. Especially on their own turf.

  Jake pulled out his phone and paged through his texts. It looked like he'd gotten several while we were out almost-stealing and stealing stuff.

  I watched the road ready to lunge for the wheel at any moment. He obviously wasn't concerned about reading and driving.

  I was really going to have to look up some stats about texting and driving for him. Did he not know this was the most dangerous thing he’d done all night?

  He laid the phone down and stared out the windshield, his gaze hard for a moment before he looked at me.

  “If you’re not caving, if you want a party, then I know where we can hit a good one.”

  It seemed like a much better idea to go somewhere I didn't know anyone.

  But there also seemed to be something else. Something wrong. Something he wasn't telling me. Not that it mattered what it was, because who knew what he was planning. Every time I thought I was catching up with him, I ended up standing still.

  Maybe that was one of the reasons Tanner never took me to these parties. Maybe the way I always seemed to be socially lost all the time was just one more way he was embarrassed by me. Lost and boring. Great combo.

  “Are you…?”

  “Am I what?” Jake tucked the phone away and took the next right toward his district.

  “Are you sure you want to bring me to a party with your friends?”

  He jolted, like I'd hit him.

  “Why are you asking that?”

  “I don't know. You seem weird about it. And I thought maybe you were embarrassed by me, too.” I realized that sounded too much like I thought this was a date. I might have been lost and boring, but I wasn't stupid. “I don't mean that like I’d be with you, but you know. Hanging out with me. That might be...”

  “Might be…?”

  “Embarrassing?”

  “Are you comparing me to that jackass?”

  “No.” Not out loud at least. I just…I got it. “I know I'm not pretty and I know my clothes aren't great. I'm just not good at that stuff.”

  “And the rules.”

  “What?”

  “The rules. Whatever it is you've set up in that head of yours to drive people away. Like the braid. It's all part of the rules. They must be really hard to hang on to if you’re trying to work a party. You like having excuses to not let people near.”

  As if I were the reason people steered clear.

  “That's not true.”

  “Really?”

  “No. I'm not afraid of people.”

  “I didn't say afraid.” He was looking at me now, studying me.

  I wasn't getting into any of this with him. I didn't owe him anything but a thank you for the ride home—which I still hadn't gotten. The driving around the back roads and pulling all this stuff? That was totally his doing.

  “What's it going to take? Huh? What would it take to get you to walk into a room full of strangers and finish that list? Because as much as you've pulled off all this little crap, I don't think you have the big stuff in you.”

  “You don't know what you're talking about. And I wouldn't call skinny-dipping a ‘little thing.’”

  “Maybe not if the people actually see each other.”

  I blushed, feeling the heat rush over the length of me again, thinking about watching him and his gorgeous body climb out of the water piece by piece.

  He threw that slick grin my way. “Or if both people get to see one another.”

  I chose to ignore that. There was no way I was giving him an opening to ask any uncomfortable questions about my momentarily voyeuristic adventure.

  “You trusted me—God knows why. But you trusted me, and that let you do all these ridiculous things on the list so far. But I don't think you can do it. I don't think you could ditch the kindergarten o
utfit or cut your hair or go to a party that had more than three people. Especially if half of them were guys.”

  He sounded mad now. Like I'd ticked him off by not playing by his rules.

  It was a good reminder. A much-needed reminder.

  “I don't trust you!” As soon as the words echoed in the small cab of the truck, I wanted to take them back. The problem was, I didn’t trust him. I may have trusted him more and more—even more than most people—but he was still almost a stranger.

  “You shouldn't.” Both hands were on the wheel now, wrapped around it tightly. He was pushing—pushing me and somehow pushing himself. “If you were the least bit smart, you wouldn't trust me from here to the county line.”

  “I trust you even less than that. But you know what? I'm finishing that darn list—with or without you.”

  I reached over and snagged the corner of the napkin sticking out of his front pocket. I gave it a sharp tug and hoped it didn't tear.

  “Go to a party, kiss a boy who isn't my boyfriend, miss curfew, stay out all night, lie to my parents, TP a house...” I glanced at him, his hands white-knuckling the steering wheel. “Where do you live? You just got bumped up on my TP list.”

  “You can't even drive.”

  “Oh yeah? Well maybe I'll steal a car.”

  “You’re not the car-stealing type. Trust me.”

  The words were barely out of his mouth when the truck slowed. Not a lot, just enough that I could tell he’d gone a bit slack. Which was fine, since somehow we'd sped up way past the speed limit with all the yelling.

  And what did that mean? Did he know people who stole cars? Had he stolen a car?

  Either way, nothing in the cab of that truck was feeling as right in that crazy way as it had since we’d rushed back from Leah’s yard. I just wanted to make it right again.

  “I’m sorry. I wasn’t accusing you of stealing a car.”

  Although, with the sudden quiet we were soaking in, I was beginning to wonder.

  “I didn't.” His hands wrapped around the wheel. Tight. Eyes truly focused on the road for the first time that night. “But that doesn't mean I wouldn't have.”

  I slid across the bench and laid my hand on his arm. “I really am sorry.”

  “Bridget, I think it's time I take you home.”

  He sounded…not relieved. I don't know. I guess I’d been wrong—again—when I’d thought I could read him.

  “But I've only done half the list. I have to do the whole thing.”

  “Why?”

  “Why? So I can.”

  “For what?” The anger was back and it was pushing at me in his tone. In his words. “What is doing that whole list going to prove? That you're not a coward? That I can goad you into it? That you're easily manipulated by a random guy? What's it going to prove?”

  There were so many things I'd never known I had to prove already forming in my mind. I couldn't even put words to most of them.

  Mostly, I wanted to prove I wasn’t living in the shadow of someone who couldn't even see me anymore.

  But if he wasn’t in, he wasn’t in.

  “Whatever.” I slid back to my side of the cab and crossed my arms, trying not to look like I was pouting. Trying not to actually pout.

  It was my turn to be angry. My turn to not care as we cruised down Route Two ignoring each other.

  “What?” He sounded as surprised by his own question as I was.

  “As if you care.” Obviously he didn’t.

  I could feel the fight coming on again. If I hadn’t, I still would have known by the fact that fence posts were flying by us like he was aiming for warp speed that his anger level was rising.

  “That's fine, we'll skip the party.” He put his hand out, eyeing the napkin as he actually pulled to a stop at a stop sign. Finally, one rule of the road he was following. “Let me see the list.”

  I handed it to him, a little afraid of what was coming.

  “So no party.” He shook his head going over the list. “Probably no TPing, then. That's a little risky.”

  “It’s not that risky.”

  At least, I didn't think it was.

  “I don't know. Whose house would we even be TPing?”

  Oh, that wasn't even a question. I'd already hit Leah with the key. Tanner's parents were sick of the disasters our football team kept visiting upon them like waves of revolving plagues. I knew TPing his house would make me feel better and probably force him to do some fast explaining.

  Not to mention an entire Sunday of picking that stuff off of their trees and the lawn.

  “We could do Tanner's house.”

  I tried to sound innocent. As if that wasn't the only place I could come up with. Anywhere else wouldn't really matter. It would just be checking something off the list.

  This? This had a higher purpose.

  “Unless...” I watched him watch me. “Unless you have someone's house you'd want to do?”

  Jake shook his head. “Darlin', your list is already too long to add my people to it. And it's your list.”

  “But...”

  “But what?” He thought I was coming up with an excuse to bail. I knew he was.

  But this was the only thing on the list that actually seemed like a good idea—you know, in a bad-idea kind of way.

  “Isn't it a little early?” As good of an idea as it seemed, I still didn't want any witnesses.

  The clock on the dash read ten-fifty-three.

  “For hitting a house, yeah. It's early.” Jake grinned. “But for you…it’s getting close to your curfew.”

  I nodded, thinking about adding a couple more checkmarks off the list. Ignoring the fact that Jake had just painted me into a corner. Not to mention that I’d purposefully let him. Who was maneuvering whom was a question I’d most likely avoid if asked.

  But I could admit, if only to myself, that it felt good to be at least quasi-in-control of our adventure at this point.

  Plus, even if we headed home now, I would probably still miss my curfew by fifteen minutes, so it wasn’t much of a corner. The TPing and the party…

  “There's still time for me to get you back to your house. We might even make it almost on time if I drive the way you hate. You can clutch at the door and shout for me to slow down a couple more times before I get you there.” He glanced my way, waiting for my reaction probably. “I'm assuming you're usually all tucked in by eleven on the weekends, right?”

  “Eleven thirty. So Tanner has time to get home by midnight.”

  “Oh. For Tanner.”

  It was another dare. One dare after another. I don't know what had gotten into me that I couldn't seem to turn them down now.

  I glanced at the clock again. “I’m skipping it.”

  He reached for me, wrapping my long, long braid around his fist as he pulled me across the bench toward him until I was just hanging on to my side of the gearshift.

  “I have some very specific ideas about how we could spend that time.”

  I was trying not to die. I was trying very, very hard not to die of anxiety and embarrassment and nerves.

  Very hard.

  “I…uh…”

  I used to speak English. I vaguely remembered the time…oh, about a minute ago.

  “What?” I could barely breathe to get the word out.

  “You're going to have to trust me even more for this.”

  “More than getting naked?” I really needed to stop talking now that I refound the ability.

  “I have a feeling this is the equivalent of getting naked for you.”

  I highly doubted that. Unless...

  “Do you? Do you trust me, Bridget?”

  I could feel his warm breath coming across my cheek and I said the absolute truth.

  “No.”

  Jake just laughed and pulled back. “Smart girl. But you're going to have to for this next thing.”

  He let my braid go, dropping it loop by loop until his hand was free to put the truck back in gear. He turned u
s off the main road, heading us down a smaller street until we came to a cluster of houses.

  The lights were on in the one we parked in front of, and Jake pulled the keys from the ignition and hopped out.

  “Come on.” He shut the door, his arm resting on the open window. “Scrounge up a little more of that trust.”

  He came around the front, rubbing the head of a mutt who jumped on him in a way that said he was a regular here.

  I still wasn't sure where this was going. Eyeing the house, I wondered if another hot older brother lived there.

  Visual bonus, right?

  At my door, Jake stuck his head in the window. “Well, charging forward or turning back?”

  “From what?” I didn't like being kept in the dark about what was going on in my own story. But we’d had that warn-me-when-we’re-breaking-a-law rule, so at least I felt sure no cops would be in this equation.

  “Jake? What are you doing dragging up to my house on a Saturday night?” A woman pushed the screen open as she flipped on the porch light.

  He jerked the passenger’s door open and took my hand, pulling me out and down the front path behind him.

  “Missy, I brought you a present.”

  The girl in the porch light tipped her head to the side. She couldn't have been more than twenty-two, but I had no idea what we were doing there, so her age seemed even odder.

  Jake kept my hand tucked in his as we climbed the front stairs. He focused that laidback, easy smile on the woman glaring at him from the doorway.

  “This is Bridget. Bridget wants to donate her hair to Locks of Love, and we're going to a party.”

  Well, that cleared up at least the next stop in our adventure for me. Jake apparently knew where a party was.

  He finally dropped my hand to wrap this Missy person in a big hug, lifting her off the porch. The heat he left behind burned a warm tingliness running over my fingers and across my palm. I was smarter than that.

  On the Sliding Scale of Boys, Jake Moore was in a group all his own. I'd thought Tanner had been out of my league. Jake made him look like a rookie.

  Being attracted to a guy like Jake Moore was like signing your own death warrant. Start considering your last meal now, because you didn’t have long to go.