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until some of the storm from his
brow dissipated. Another possible reason was car trouble, which
could set him off even worse than a little tiff with his father.
The third cause, the one Kimberly never really liked to think
about, was another girl. After which, he would mark his arrival
with a flourish. He’d be in a wonderfully good mood that could turn
into a Mount Saint Helen’s blowout if she so much as asked what
kept him from being on time. There’d been more than a few of each
over the course of the past few months. She really didn’t know what
to expect today…
    With a fatalistic smile,
she silently wondered what it would be this time, hoping the
impending argument wouldn’t be too severe. With growing dread, she
wished, whatever it was, they could get through it quickly and get
onto much nicer things. The last time was just a little too intense
for her liking. The bruises had only just begun to fade…
    She brought her head up a
little and gazed across the parking lot, seeing the steady stream
of cars, vans, and SUV’s driving in and around the cul-de-sac
beyond, parent after parent picking up student after
student.
    Walking on the far side of
the dead-end street was a figure she recognized. Immediately, the
ants-in-her-pants evolved into full-blown apprehension.
    It was Derek Benson, an
African American ninth-grader that, for some reason, Sonny
absolutely hated and would antagonize on sight.
    Don’t play dumb, girl, you
know exactly why Sonny hates him.
    Shut the hell up! She frowned at the thought, glancing around, into
the traffic, looking for Sonny’s beat-up, black and primer-ed-out
1999 Nissan Maxima. She didn’t see his vehicle through the throng
moving before her. She breathed a quick sigh of relief, craning her
neck as Derek walked behind a group of cars too tall for her to see
over. She wished he would hurry the hell up and get out of the
vicinity. It would be nice to be able avoid another incident.
Something she really didn’t want to deal with right now. The fact
Sonny was late was enough for her to deal for the time
being.
    “ Hey sexy,” came a husky
voice at her left elbow.
    She nearly jumped out of
her skin. Jesus Christ on a pony! she howled silently. She’d been so intent on
searching for his car, Kimberly hadn’t considered he’d walk through
the throng on foot. She was shocked to see Sonny at her
side.
    His face was aglow, a
faint sheen of aged sweat coating its’ skin. When his eyes looked
into her hers, she saw a glossy, sort of detached, glimmer to them.
That is when the fourth reason for his tardiness surfaced in her
brain and she felt a thickening swallow of lead bear down in her
stomach. No, it wasn’t his father or his jacked up car or another
girl swinging from his jock. He was back on the Meth, and that was
something she could not abide.
    “ Hey yourself,” she
managed after a time, though, in his impaired state, he didn’t seem
to notice her hesitation.
    He had sandy blonde hair,
mussed and dishelved. His face, covered in days’ old sweat, didn’t,
in any way, add a healthy glow to his visage. Rather, it looked
caked-on and made him look older than the twenty years he’d
accumulated since birth. He stood about four inches taller than her
five foot four with a slim build that, at one time, had been wiry,
ropey, but now, tended toward lassitude. He wore a tattered
avocado-colored t-shirt of some misbegotten band one of his old
buddies had put together a few years back. A pair of dirty looking
blue jeans sagged on his narrow hips, threatening to fall to the
ground. On his feet, he sported a pair of besmirched Chuck Taylors
that, at one time, might’ve been black, but where now more gray and
molted.
    “ Ha-had to walk the last
few blocks to get here, babe, too many… too many fucking cars and
shit,” he babbled, wiping at his nose, though it wasn’t running.
Then, he stopped mid-swipe to pick at something non- existent on
his cheek. His eyes fluttered back and