The Tattooed Devil Wears Chucks

Chapter 62: Mud

Jax.

What the fuck am I doing?

Getting us killed. That's what I'm doing. I don't like that we are split up as this is happening. Likely, most of these people that we are talking to do not know who I am. On the other hand, this is a small town. Everyone knows everything. So if this got back to the wrong person, that they saw Gabby Brooks and her dead boyfriend knocking on doors and asking people about their sex lives and Courtney Parker, it would be bad. I can only protect Gabby. Sydney is off on her own and who knows where Dan and Zooey are today.

Gabby is quiet beside me in the car, snapping her rubber bands, focused only on what's outside her window.  I attempt to turn on music but she turns it off. 

"You're pissed at me for something..."

She keeps her focus on the window and shrugs.  Helpful.  So is she pissed or not?  I have a pretty good guess as to what this is about.  I didn't kiss her.  Fuck I wanted to.  In that moment we were us again and it felt good.  I know us though, we wouldn't have stopped once we started.  Sydney interrupting us was for the best.  Gabby's getting married in the morning.

We have been to four of the six houses that Sydney has on her list. Two of them (both male) slammed the door in our faces when we asked if they had ever slept with the girl beside their name. One girl admitted that she had slept her sticker partner in 2013 when they were both sophomores, so they must have been in Felix's class. The other girl we talked to would not confirm or deny anything, but seemed a little too interested in Gabby being home so we left. She must have been in the same class as Gabby. I feel as though I've seen more of Iowa today than when I lived here, two of these houses took an hour each way to get to. We are running out of time.

"Are you going to talk to me at all? This is like the fifth house and it's awkward with you not speaking to me... what did I do to make you so mad?"

"I'm speaking to you." She mutters without even looking my way. "You didn't do anything."

Nailed it.

I don't exactly see her rushing over here to kiss me either. We fell into a moment. If she was serious about this, she would say it. Out loud. She would tell me she loved me more than Kane and that she wasn't going to marry him. I don't want her to marry him.

Small beads of water begin tapping on the windshield of the car as the skies turn dark. The windshield wipers automatically begin to swish back and forth across the glass. The sky begins to growl.

"Is your wedding outside?"

"Yep."

"Do you have a backup plan?"

"Nope."

"Are you worried?"

"Nope."

So much for small talk. Her phone begins to ring. Some song about pockets of sunshine (which this day and car ride are definitely lacking) begins to blare from the phone. She picks it up, silences it and tosses it back to the center console. It rings again and she repeats the same steps.

"Maybe it's important, don't you think you should answer it?"

She mutes the phone as it rings for a third time. "It's my mother. This rain is like her worst nightmare come true. She doesn't like when things are dirty and the wedding is now taking place in in a giant muddy park."

"A normal bride would be panicking right along with her..."

She finally turns and glares at me. "I'm anything but normal. Normal is overrated. I'm not a normal girl, or a normal daughter, or a normal sister, a normal friend, or a normal mom. I don't want to be their version of normal."