“Charming.”
I snorted laughter because I couldn’t help finding comments like that sort of funny. His raising the topic alarmed me, though. Zane Hirst was the enemy, even if that sounded like a ridiculously dramatic thing to say. I’d been caught in public with him even if I hadn’t initiated anything. The fly on the wall wouldn’t have known that, maybe. Sure, my having to explain anything was really stupid, and yet I couldn’t seem to wiggle out of that predicament.
“For the record, he approached me,” I said. “I didn’t even want to talk to him.”
“Oh, I know.”
“Then why the hell are you bugging me about it?”
“Is that what you think I’m doing? Bugging you?” Levi put on his very best indignant voice.
“I dunno. Sure sounds like it to me.”
When Levi pulled into the Burger King drive-thru, I realized I might’ve been a touch oversensitive with Levi. I just didn’t want to hear about Zane when he wasn’t around. I figured it was enough that he’d stopped me at both a candy store and the gym. Pretty soon, he would transfer from Remington to Larkin so we could play on the same team.
Don’t laugh. Until you’ve had that goon appear at every odd place in your life, you can’t appreciate how weird it really is.
Levi leaned out the window, bellowing his order into the microphone. Three cheeseburgers, a large chocolate shake, and fries. Then he ordered a Whopper with fries and Diet Pepsi for me. When he reached the drive-thru window, he appeared to tap his debit card and grab the bag of food at the same time, but stepped on the gas the moment he passed the machine back.
The start came fast enough to slam me back into the passenger seat. Levi always drives like a maniac, I shouldmention. He ripped through the Tops supermarket parking lot to the red light on Grant but didn’t stop before turning right.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
“Working my magic, bro.”
“What magic?”
“I don’t have enough dough on my card to cover this entire magnificent feast, but the fuckhead at the window probably didn’t notice the card was declined. And what can he do now? You put that together, and it means we’re eating for free today.”
I palm-slapped my forehead. Leave it to Levi to pull such a ridiculous stunt. On the other hand, if it detracted from the topic of Zane Hirst, I wouldn’t have cared if he’d robbed a bank.
“If it helps, I don’t know what the deal is either,” I said. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, unless…”
“Unless what?”
“This is going to sound crazy, but maybe he’s just trying to be nice… or mend fences after the Colter Bay Grill fight.”
“You know something, Jakob, I think you’re right.”
“What, that he’s trying to mend fences and be a decent human being?”
“No, that you’re crazy.”
I should’ve known better.
Instead of replying, I sank my teeth into my Whopper, savoring the juices rushing into my mouth. Levi had all but stuffed his remaining half-cheeseburger into his mouth. That would’ve been bad enough without his attempt to speak while his mouth had far exceeded its capacity.
“Ook, oo an us ummone like em,” he said.
“Would you eat with your mouth closed, for crying out loud? And don’t even try to talk like that.”
I saw his jaws move as he tried to completely destroy his burger like he was a T-Rex or something. He appeared to swallow it all in one gulp but nearly failed.
“Okay,” I said, “now you can tell me whatever it was you were trying to say.”
“You just can’t trust someone like him.”
“Of course I can’t. I never even considered trusting him. He’s a Remington Riptide, and that alone places him in the worst category of human scum. I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, you know.”
