See, it really wasn’t my fault that she took offense to me telling her the guy she’d been talking to was a piece of shit.
Nor was it my fault of the timing of that comment.
I never was able to hold my tongue—not when I was a kid, and definitely not now.
I probably shouldn’t be a police officer. I was a bundle of energy, and more times than not, I was the instigator in the fight.
Kind of like last night.
I hadn’t necessarily told those guys to eat shit, but I had told them they were pieces of shit.
See the difference there?
“I saw you last night,” he said. “Good job on the save. I was impressed.”
My brows lowered. “You were there?”
The man, who looked to be in his mid-twenties like us, nodded. “Yeah. I was breaking down boxes near the dumpsters. Saw the whole thing.”
“You saw the whole thing, from start to finish?” I asked for clarification.
He nodded. “Yeah. I did.”
“And you didn’t think to come over and try to help?” I casually asked.
He shrugged. “I didn’t want to be in the middle of a police brutality case. Plus, you looked like you were handling it okay.”
“So, me getting my head beat in with a two-by-four was your idea of me ‘handling it okay?’” I questioned.
He shrugged. “Like I said, I didn’t want to get in the middle of it.”
I gritted my teeth. “You’re a real piece of shit, you know that?”
He straightened his spine and looked at me like I’d just insulted his mother—which in a way I guess I had. What mother out there wants to admit that she’s got a piece of shit for a son?
“Johnny,” June started. “I think we should—”
“I think this fucker should be the one to move…don’t you?” I asked.
June snapped her mouth shut and then looked at the tables around us.
Everybody was listening.
Not that I cared.
Apparently, June did, though.
“Johnny,” she started again. “Please?”
I gritted my teeth. “Fine.”
Nobody said anything for a long while, but it really wouldn’t have mattered if we had.
My raised voice, paired with June’s customary unpopularity, had everyone in the Taco Shop focusing on us.
Which made her retreat into herself…and me think that nothing was wrong until we left the shop thirty minutes later.
She waited until we were in the truck before she murmured a few soft words.
“Take me home, please.”
“What?” I questioned, unsure whether I’d heard her correctly.
“I said, take me home please.”
I frowned. “Why?”
She clenched and unclenched her jaw. “That was embarrassing, okay?”
“What was?” I pushed.
“You telling him off in the middle of the restaurant, and then everyone’s attention being on us. Seriously, you have no fucking clue how hard it is here for me. I just want to go home.” She shook her head.
“I never meant for you to be embarrassed by what I said,” I noted. “But I was pissed off that the little fucker had literally been watching the entire thing go down. Then thought it was a great idea to congratulate you for taking those assholes down. I’m sorry, but if he’d have helped—done his job as a man—then you wouldn’t have had to do that, and I wouldn’t have had to call him a pussy.”
June shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?” I asked. “Of course, it matters. If it hadn’t, then I wouldn’t have listened to those catty bitches say you hit those men on purpose. Or that you deserved to go to prison.”
Her spine stiffened to the point I thought it might be causing her pain, and she said five words. Five words with such finality that I knew I wasn’t going to get through to her, no matter what I said.
“I want to go home.”
Then, under her breath, to where I could barely hear her, she said, “Knew this wasn’t ever going to work. I was stupid to think otherwise.”
I tried to think of something to say, but right around the time that I turned the corner out of the parking lot, an alert went off on her phone. I momentarily had to breathe through clenched teeth as my head reminded me it still wasn’t one hundred percent, and probably wouldn’t be for a while.
It took everything I had to get her home, and then I had to watch helplessly as she got out and slammed the door, causing a vacuum seal on my head as the pressure inside the cab returned to normal.
Gritting my teeth, I decided that I would deal with her when I was better.
For now, I needed to get home before I did something stupid and embarrassed myself by throwing up all over her and myself.
Chapter 11
Do not take it as a challenge. If a sign says ‘shoes and shirts must be worn to receive service,’ pants are understood. If you walk in and get your penis smacked by Miss Martha’s broom because you want to test that theory, you deserve it.
-Hostel PD FB page
June
“You think I should what?” I asked in surprise.
“I think you should contest the ticket,” Amanda said. “Then he’ll have to defend himself on why he gave you the ticket. The worst that can happen is that you have to pay the fine anyway. The best that can happen is that you get the ticket dismissed.”
“What do you think the chances are that they might drop it?” I asked.
I was doing better financially.
I had the money to pay my half of the rent this month…but two hundred and nineteen dollars was two hundred and nineteen dollars. I could use that to get fifteen outfits if I wanted to—not that I would.
Now, fifteen burgers? Thirty pizzas? A new pair of tennis shoes? That I would do.
“I think that I have no fuckin’ clue how the law works. I just know what Dad said. He said he had a ticket that was bogus like yours, and he went to court and contested it instead of just paying it. They dropped it because the police officer didn’t show for the court date,” Amanda continued, licking her banana.
Licking. Her. Banana.
Don’t ask me why she liked to lick her bananas.
I had no fuckin’ clue.
It’d been something she’d done since we were kids, and she hadn’t stopped doing it as a grown ass adult woman even though everyone thought it was freakin’ weird.
She’d take a bite, chew, lick the end that she’d just bitten off to make it smooth—her words not mine—and then take another bite.
It was the weirdest thing ever.
“Johnny will show,” I murmured almost to myself.
“I’m sure he will. But two hundred bucks is two hundred bucks. Plus, you have to think of the cost of your insurance. It’s going to go up,” she explained.
And that was another expense I’d been conveniently ignoring as I thought about the benefits of paying this ticket.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t do defensive driving since I’d gotten a ticket from a highway patrol officer last year outside of town. Now I wish I’d contested that ticket, too. Then I wouldn’t have had to think about contesting this ticket, and possibly seeing Johnny’s smug face again.
“Did they release your truck to you yet?” Amanda asked all of a sudden, taking another bite of her banana.
“Yeah,” I answered. “And they already have it at the body shop. Luckily since it’s an older model, the frame and body are made of sturdier stuff. It’s just going to need a new front quarter panel, a new grill, and a new windshield. They said that it’d be ready by next week. Speaking of, I’ll need you to come pick me up and take me over there.”
She gave me a thumb up and waved at me without saying a word.
I rolled my eyes.
I had no clue why Amanda had such an obsession with bananas, but she really di
d love them. It was almost as if she wanted to eat them, and enjoy them, in silence.
At this point, I annoyed her because I knew it bothered her. Though, that could be due to her waking up early to help inventory with her dad—a whole four hours earlier than she normally got up.
I was lucky she was talking and coherent today at all.
“All right, all right,” I said as I got up and gathered my Pop-Tart trash. “I’m going to go. Do you need anything?”
She handed me her keys.
“Take mine. Dad’s coming to get me today. Make it up to me by bringing it by the bar…and helping me work tonight. You don’t even have to wear the skirt. You can wear those if you want.” She gestured to my simple black t-shirt, tight blue jeans and work boots.
“If you promise me that I get to work and you’ll keep all those men off of me, I will,” I countered.
She gave me a raised pinky. “Pinky promise.”
I laughed. “Be good, Amanda Bear. I’ll see you tonight.”
Then I walked out of the apartment, down to the stairs, and right past the same truck that was sitting there every morning for the last week. Johnny’s truck.
He’d left it there for me the day after he’d dropped me off and still I refused to use it.
At this point, I knew that it was pissing him off that I wasn’t using it.
Well, too fucking bad. So goddamn sad.
I didn’t care if it was pissing him off.
I also didn’t care that I knew he was biding his time.
I knew that this was going to get bad and I wouldn’t encourage him to talk to me by using his stupid truck.
I’d walk to work before I drove that pretty piece of machinery, thank you very much.
At the Taco Shop, I’d had an epiphany, and that epiphany hadn’t been good. In fact, it’d been quite bad.
Being with Johnny—in any way—would mean that the spotlight would shine even brighter on me. It would also mean that I’d be expected to deal with the townspeople nicely, instead of giving them the verbal backlash that they deserved.
A cop’s girlfriend had to be respectable, and I’d never been respectable.
I wasn’t a bad woman. Hell, I wasn’t sure I ever qualified as ‘bad.’
But, people saw me that way because of who my family was, and it was unlikely that their opinions of me would ever change.
I knew that. They knew that. Everybody knew that.
And it sucked, me having to walk away from Johnny—the one man that I could truly see myself being with—but I wouldn’t back down.
One day, I’d be out of this town. One day, I wouldn’t be that ‘piece of trash’ or ‘filthy whore.’ One day, I’d just be another anonymous citizen somewhere. I’d be able to walk out of my apartment and not be overwhelmed with the feeling that I didn’t belong.
I couldn’t wait for that day to get here—kind of. Because for that day to get here, my grandfather would have to pass, and I definitely didn’t want that to happen.
Not when he was the one and only person in my family who was, and always would be, solidly in my corner.
Tiny and Amanda had been there for a while now, but they weren’t my family. They also didn’t know what it was like to be me. Amanda, despite her friendship with me, had still managed to be popular.
Me? Not so much.
When I arrived at work, I clocked in, waved to Coke in the yard, and then made a few calls. One of those to the police department secretary explaining that I wanted to contest my ticket.
At least this way, Johnny would know where I stood.
Chapter 12
A yellow light is intended to advise you to slow down, not speed up. You will receive a ticket if you exceed the speed limit.
- Things cops can’t believe they have to tell adult drivers
Johnny
I could tell you now, the least favorite part of my job was going to court and appearing in front of the judge to explain the reasons why I gave a certain citizen a ticket.
But today, I found myself smiling as I walked into the courtroom.
It’d been two weeks since I’d had my unfortunate run-in with a two-by-four. Two weeks since I’d seen her face—despite my attempts to make that not be our reality.
But, each time I’d stopped by to talk to her, she was conveniently either ‘not there’ or ‘out to lunch.’
I wasn’t stupid.
I knew when someone was avoiding me, and June was absolutely avoiding me.
But I wasn’t going to be put off much longer.
I would find her, and when I did, we’d talk this shit out and have a discussion like normal adults.
At least that was what I told myself.
As I walked down the skinny aisle to a seat, I did my best not to look over and stare at June—who was dressed in her usual outfit—tight ass jeans that made my dick harder than stone, a fitted purple t-shirt, and her work boots.
She must be planning on going to work after this.
Yippee.
That meant that I wouldn’t be able to force her to talk to me.
Shit.
Although, I guessed, technically, I had to go back to work, too.
“All rise.”
I did as was requested of me, and then sat back down once the judge took his chair.
The next hour went about as expected. Other people came in and contested this, that, and the other thing. The majority of them were denied.
Then came June’s turn.
I grinned when she had to squeeze past me to get out of the row we were in and didn’t do a goddamn thing to get out of her way.
Meaning her ass was in my face, and the backs of her knees scraped across the tops of mine.
She glared at me over her shoulder and walked up to the podium where the defendants had been standing all morning.
“Do you promise to speak the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”
June’s soft ‘I do’ had my dick stiffening even further.
Shifting in my seat, my uniform creaked right along with me. My belt felt too tight today—making me realize that I’d probably slacked off too much over the last two weeks and should probably pick up running again soon. My uniform pants were stiff and unyielding, still not broken-in enough yet to be considered comfortable.
Then there was the fucking vest.
It was necessary, yes. But it also wasn’t broken-in like my old one—the one I wore while serving—had been.
That one had been sent back with me in pieces after it was cut off my body while I had been fighting to breathe.
“Can you tell us why you’re contesting your ticket?” the judge asked, sounding bored. As if he would rather be anywhere but where he was at that moment in time, listening to people complain.
Though, I had a feeling June would surprise him, just like she continually surprised me.
Every fucking day.
I was surprised to find that my truck still sat in the exact same spot, despite handing her roommate my keys. Honestly, I thought for sure that she would use it. Her truck had been in the pound because of me, and now it was getting bodywork done because of me.
The least I could do was give up my truck, which I wasn’t even using, but she hadn’t yet driven it.
It was likely that she thought it came with stipulations.
It didn’t.
But she wouldn’t see it that way.
As my mind wandered, I realized that June was a strong woman.
She was also stubborn as hell, and it’d be a goddamn miracle if she ever used the truck.
My guess, she’d rather walk to work than drive it and be seen as taking anything from me.
She was still mad.
That I could tell.
But she shouldn’t really be surprised. She knew how her town was.
Hell, I knew how the town was, and I hadn’t even lived here that long.
But she was pissed that I’d brought even more attention to her, and I could see how that would be upsetting.
But, what the woman didn’t understand was that she didn’t need me to bring attention to her. She got attention all on her freakin’ own. She was captivating.
And, sitting there in the courtroom, watching as she stood proudly up there, telling the judge why she shouldn’t get a ticket? Yeah, I was so proud of her I could cry.
Especially when I could tell when the goddamn judge was going to give her nothing.
The judge, from what I’d heard, had a soft spot for women. Rarely ever did he allow a pretty lady to pay for their tickets in full.
This time, I could tell that wasn’t going to happen.
And honestly, I was pissed.
Why did everyone treat her as such a pariah? She was a good woman. She couldn’t help who her parents were. She also couldn’t change the decisions she made in her youth. Everybody made bad decisions then, it was just that most people didn’t get caught doing them.
June hadn’t been that lucky then, and she definitely wasn’t all that lucky now.
***
I could tell she was pissed as I waited for her to pay her fine at the privacy window that separated the general public from the receptionists.
“Two hundred dollars and…”
“Is a check okay?” June interrupted her.
“Yes,” the woman said curtly. “But if it bounces, it’s a fifty-dollar returned check fee.”
The woman, Alberta, sneered at June. It was almost as if she was expecting there to be a returned check fee.
“It won’t bounce. I have money in there,” June explained stiffly.
“That’s what your parents always said, too.” She paused, looking at June with a scrutinizing eye. “In fact, your old man got a ticket the same week as you did. By the same officer. How funny is that?”
I’d given her father a ticket? Really?
Shit.
I didn’t remember that.
As I scanned back through my memories of who I’d written a ticket to in the short time here, I finally settled on two individuals that it could possibly be when June passed right by me without saying a word.
Get You Some- To format Page 8
