Alone at Six

The shinning red car reflected in Sandra's glasses showed busted headlight and adds of burgers and shakes. We'd chose to stop at a 80's themed restaurant called the Double TT Diner and Sandra was ether kicking my ass or cheating at a staring contest.

"I wish they let you in the car." Jake said "It would at least give you something to do while waiting."

The light bounced off of every possible surface and aimed for my eyes, frying them. A problem Sandra didn't have with her glasses on. "Is there a sign?" I asked narrowing my eyes to try and filter it all out.

"A sign for what?" He looked around Jinxx, who had asked for a kids menu and was coloring in the record green, in search of a sign of some sort. "I don't see a sign."

"A sign saying 'do not touch.' No sign. No rule."

He thought about this and shrugged. "I don't know, just because there's no sign doesn't mean it's okay...." He slid out of the booth, his reflection clear in Sandra's glasses. Jake swung a leg over the side as Jinxx hopped in the passengers seat, sausering something flat out of the car.

"Blink!" A hand slammed onto the table making a sound equivalent to a textbook landing on a hardwood floor from a ways up.

I didn't blink, I barely even moved, only smiled smugly and said "Hey Trina."

"Damn!" Her flaming red hair flew across the table into Ashley's face as they say down. "You so saw me coming," She bounced around the booth, fire flaring everywhere. "you had to."

"Sure I did." I bent over the table to peek over Sandra's glasses, but she pulled away and pushed me back. "I heard you before I saw you. Ashley must have been good."

Sandra rolled her eyes while Trina laugh. "Hey Purdy." She said, not turning her head from me but possibly looking away. "Where did you go?" Ashley had called Trina to ask her if she'd heard anything about the buss and left in a cab immediately afterward.

Before he could say anything, Trina started talking, leaving him with his mouth half open. "He came to pick me up. I wanted to talk to you guys about the concert you're planning on doing."

"Yeah," Sandra said with a bit of annoyance in her voice. She never really liked other straight girls and defiantly never liked Trina. Everyone but Trina seemed to know it. "but why?"

"Why did I want to talk to you about the concert? I was wondering if you guys plan on selling, we have some boxed of back up stuff, but the incident the other night is making me think on how to-"

"No Trina!" Sandra snapped, yanking off her glasses and rubbing her closed eyes.

I threw my hands up in a quiet victory moment and twisted around making sure everyone saw. Sandra eventually yanked my hands down and turned back to Trina. "Why did you need Ashely to get you? You're twenty-one, you're perfectly capable of getting here by yourself."

"Oh!" Trina smiled, ether ignoring or not catching Sandra's hostility. "My uncle was reading a paper and I saw the headline 'local man's murder repeat?'-"

"No shit?" Jinxx slid in next to Ashley, pushing Sandra into the wall before she climbed over the table to sit next to me. "Who died?"

"Just shut the fuck up!" Sandra yelled loud enough that the few people in the open kitchen looked out at us. "Let her talk, goddamn it!"

"Okay then." Trina, still smiling over the forced silence and sudden spotlight, continued. "So I read the article and it was talking about how some man named Arthur Telilo was grabbed and beaten to death about two months ago. I-"

"Wait." I cut her off, hoping I heard wrong. "What was his last name?"

"Telilo. Like tell and lilo."

Relaxing, I let my shoulders lower. I had heard wrong, it was just a close last name, a coincidence. It wasn't anyone related to Cole, no reason to worry. Though, I don't know why I did.

"So, anyway," Trina continued, giving me a skeptical look. "it said that there's been three more attempts since then, all failed, but the guys got away." Looking around the table, the guys didn't really look like they knew how to feel. Yeah, it was scary, but it wasn't likely to happen to us. But just because it wasn't going to happen to us doesn't mean it's not going to happen to someone else. And who knows how many could turn out like Arther.

"Now tell them what else." Ashley said, folding his arms and causing himself to look like someone you might see bouncing.

Trina rolled her eyes and kept on talking. "My uncle said each one there was a guy and a girl trying to get away. But all but one got away, the unlucky Arther Telilo. A-"

Jinxx's head came crashing to the table, nearly tipping it.

"You threw the sign out, jackass." Jake said as he ground Jinxx's face into the paper place mat "You're not suppose to mess with the car."

Ashely pulled Jinxx's head up against Jake's hand by his hair. His face was red but he was smiling. "It's not my fault you can't read."

His head was slammed down again making Sandra's hands fly to her eyes "Christ Pitts! just sit down! It's not like it was a warning label on a bottle of fucking acid."

Jake sat down next to Trina and did something that made Jinxx suck in a sharp breath through his teeth.

"So." Jake said nonchalantly "What were we talking about?"

"The murder of Arther Telilo." Ashley answered like it was a normal subject to be on.

"Tello?" Jake looked over at me with a worried confused look, making my chest squeeze a little as I looked down.

"No, Telilo. Like Tell and Lilo. But anyway, Trina didn't seem to think that she might be more of a target with me than by herself."

"Oh, come on!" Trina shouted. "Look at him! Would you mess with a rock like that?"

Ashley only shrugged and stuck a thumb nail in his mouth. He looked like a body guard sucking his thumb. Aw, a baby Ashley. I bet he gave his parents hell.

"Rock? I'm a rock." Jake pouted. "I'm a fucking diamond."

"Can I hit you?"

"Go ahead, I won't feel it." Before saying it, Jake hesitated just enough for Jinxx to catch and smirk at.

Trina pulled back and hit Jake so hard in the shoulder her knuckles cracked and she pulled back a bright red hand. "Fuuuuuuuck!" She yelled, smiling over the pain and taking her ring off. "That hurts like a bitch."

"Na." Jake pulled his fingers out of the punctured booth, flicking me in the leg in the process. "Didn't hurt."

Sandra rolled her eyes and climbed over the back of the booth to get out as some of the food arrived.

"Not sitting near that." Trina crawled under the table next to Ashely and Jinxx after asking for a glass of ice, leaving Jake with a mouth open, wanting to say something but deciding not to. "Anyway, are you guys planing on selling or what?"

"I think so." I said "How much stuff do you think we should get down here?"

"Not too much. Maybe enough for half a normal sized concert, if that."

"Can we get that?" Jake asked, the redness on his arm had gone down, but was being replaces by a painful looking purple spot. "We have 'till Friday morning."

"Yeah." Trina sucking in a short breath as she shoved her bright red pointer finger into the cup of ice. "They left a few boxes of stuff at the Civic Center Saturday so I took it since I was staying in town for a while. It's all in my uncles garage, there should be enough for a small concert.

"Shit." Sandra steeped on my hand and ground my fingers into the seat as she climbed back in. "Jesus, Sandra."

"Be a man," She said. "no one likes boys."

I ignored her and put my fingers in the cup of ice with Trina's. "Anyways, where are we going to sell? The quad will be full and I don't think the breezeways are big enough."

The rest of the food came then and Ashley made sure to get a mouthful of it before saying "How about A building?"

"Ew, Purdy." Sandra complained. "Swallow that shit."

"That's what he said." Trina and Ashley jinxed and Trina won another Purdy Porn shirt.

Jake looked at them in spite and envy, but only said "That sounds cool. Now all we need is a time."

"Me and Cole are figuring it out later." I mumbled through a mouth full of food.

"Ooo, Cole." Batting her eyelashes like a lovestruck pre-teen, Trina gave me a look.

"What?" I had stopped chewing and stared at her eyes going wild. "What about her?"

"Ashley told me about your mad crush. It's cute."

I covered my face with my hands and let out a long groan. I went from a hot twenty-year-old to a cute ten-year-old in not even three days. This, this is what girls will do to you.

Trina reached over and patted my back. "It's okay Andy. I'm sure she likes you too. What's not to like?"

Ignoring Jake's daggers, I sighed. I hoped she was right. 'Cause so far it seems like she's far from it.