“Come on, slow poke! For someone with mile long legs you’re losing to the snails!”
I watch Leonor spin around the street light like it’s a stripper pole, my smile returning over the way she keeps talking shit, and the second I’m in range, I grab her.
“You’ve got such a mouth on you,” I say as I throw Leo over my shoulder and start jogging across the street. “Maybe Ash can run a barbell through your lips to shut you up.”
“Never!” Leo shouts as she goes upright so her tits are basically resting on my head. “You can’t stop me, Lucky. Not when you’ve always praised my pipes. There’s nothing you or anyone else can do to get me to shut up.”
But she’s wrong about that because as soon as the front door of Inked in Sin comes into view, I nearly drop her at what I see. And when Leonor wiggles out of my arms, she keeps talking shit until she sees it too.
I step closer to the door, trying to make sure my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me and when a light breeze kicks up enough to rustle what’s hanging there, Leo gags as she turns away.
It’s a cat.
A black cat.
Adeadcat, cut into six pieces and nailed to the wooden sign hanging in front of the window. And through the right ear, safety-pinned in place, is a crumpled note written in charcoal.
You will see me…
My eyes linger on the front of the shop, half expecting to see what I saw years ago but instead, the heavy wood swings open to let out some real huge motherfucker and a little girl.
“Is she wearing a Bleak December t-shirt?”
I nod slowly before I glance around the street. “She is.”
“Huh. That’s pretty cool.”
It is, I mean the girl has to be three or four so it’s neat to see her sporting the gear from a band we toured with a long fucking time ago, it’d just be way cooler if I could focus on that instead of the weird acid flashback I had.
Minus the drugs of course, haven’t touched anything other than weed since thedark years.
“Lucky?”
I squint down the road, the weird feeling of being watched creeping up the back of my neck. “What’s up, baby cakes?”
Leo gently tugs my hand but I keep staring and don’t move. “Is everything ok?”
“Everything is fine, cakes.”
“What are you looking at?”
“Nothing.” Even though I can’t pry my eyes off the end of the street I’m not actually looking at anything. “I thought…”
Then I see it.
A pop of light followed quickly by two more and before I realize what’s happening, I’m running down the middle of the road trying to chase that same fucking Lambo that was sitting outside Leo’s place the first night we were back together.
Goddamn son of a bitch.
I bet it’s her stalker.
Fucker taking pictures and creeping around everywhere she goes.
The tires spin and squeal in place before the sports car tears out of its parallel parking spot in front of the hardware store.
“Fuck,” I grunt as I slow down, my heart beating wildly, my chest pumping hard after running like a lunatic through the Main Quarter. “Goddamnit.”
“Lucky,” Leonor pants as she finally catches up. “Was that?—“
