If I Die And Go To Hell Real Soon...

After only about five minutes Clara made her grand appearance with her gang of five other girls. Several of the boys shouted their hellos from the football field but it was Tony who walked over to greet them. She immediately responded to his welcome and found two seats off to the side of the main circle. The other girls were left to find places of their own but didn’t seem to mind. They had taken the offer of; two jingle jester hats, two florescent pink top hats, and a Viking helmet, and were sitting laughing with the other girls.

Clara and Tony sat and talked for a while, mostly about Clara. She talked about her day, picking out her out fit which showed quite a bit of skin, doing her hair, picking up her friends for the party. Tony could hardly care less about any of this stuff but he was such a good actor Clara didn’t suspect his disinterest. She yammered on and on about this and that and Tony sat obediently looking interested and alert. His mind however was off in other places.

Clara was right in the middle of explaining her plans to dye her hair when Brent yelled that it was time for food. A little grateful to escape the monotony of Clara’s day, Tony hurried over to the card table where the food had been set out. He stood in line behind Scott who had his phone out texting. Scott suddenly looked up from his phone to yell for Brent to walk over by him.

“Hey, I hope you don’t mind me inviting a friend? He’s gunna be over in a bit,”

“Yeah, no problem who is it?” Brent asked before taking a huge bite of a hot dog.

“Cody Grishim.” At Scott’s words Brent choked on his hot dog. His eyes streaming from the coughing fit that had ensued, Brent wheezed at Cadence who was now on the other side of the deck.

“Cadence, Cody is coming.” Cadence looked up at his words.

“Cody Grishim?” she asked thickly through her own hot dog, looking around at Brent.

“Yeah,” Brent said clearly, having completely removed the chunk of hot dog from his wind pipe. Tony noted that the buzz of conversation seemed to completely die out at Brent words. Tony wasn’t entirely sure what was going on; he didn’t know of a Cody that went to school in Harlan. It seem however the rest of the crowd knew what was going on and seemed to be waiting with baited breath for Cadence’s response. She didn’t say anything immediately, but continued to chew. Finally she swallowed and cleared her throat.

“Your dad is here, he’s got a gun right?” She asked

“Well, yeah but..” Brent started but Cadence cut across his words.

“It’s fine then, long as he behaves.” Cadence replied turning back around and continuing to eat her hot dog.

“Who is Cody Grishim?” Tony asked Penny the red head who was standing close by.

“Cadence’s psycho ex boyfriend,” Penny said simply.

“I heard he raped her and tried to kill her.” Said Jamie one of the girls Clara had come with. Tony’s eyes went wide in shock at these words.

“He did not, it was the other way around, and that’s why Cody has a limp now.” Scott said having over heard Jamie’s words. Tony’s eyes grew even wider. He couldn’t believe either story.

“How on earth did she give him a limp?” Penny asked defensively. She was counted as one of Cadence’s friends.

“She stole his truck and ran him over with it. Cody told me himself.” Scot stated.

“I don’t think he would tell the truth about what happened.” Brent said cutting in.

“Do you know then Brent? I bet your dad told you the story. I heard he was called out to the seen or whatever.” Jamie said. Excitement gleamed in her eyes, though her tone was one of indifference. Brent however didn’t take the bait. Weather he was sworn to secrecy, or he honestly didn’t know what had happened; Brent wasn’t giving out any clues to the town gossips.

Tony soon found himself seated yet again next to Clara, with a plate of barbeque. This time they were joined by Clara’s other friends. All the girls seemed interested in talking about was Cadence at the moment. Jamie didn’t spare a moment before she told all her frinends what Brent had said. After several minutes of quite debate all the girls came to the conclusion that Brent must know something about the drama between Cadence and Cody. They were soon whispering and giggling over plans to get the story out of him.

There whispering was soon brought to a head when a tall blond boy walked through the sliding glass back door and onto the deck. He looked probably in his early twenties, with bright blue eyes, and a farmer’s tan. He had a little stubble around his chin and neck and was wearing a trucker’s hat with a flannel shirt and blue jeans that were dirty and ripped in several places. It was clear this boy must spend the majority of his time working hard in a field. Clara quickly pointed him out a Cody Grishim, who had dropped out of high school two years previously.