Boys With Tattoos

Donna.

I stayed in Brian's arms for what felt like hours. I just could not believe what just happened. I wasn't even sure what happened. I do know that it was an overwhelming mess. I never would of thought that they would be involved with a mess like this. I know they're like the "bad boys" of the city, but I didn't think it was stuff like this. Maybe Suzy was right.

"Matt, what the fuck? You said you ditched them two months ago." Brian finally broke the silence, while letting me go.

I felt the wind blow against me and I was feeling sad that Brian let go.

Matt let go of Courtney to look at Brian, "I did ditch them, but not when I said I did."

"So when, then?" Zack asked.

This made Matt sigh, it was like he didn't want to say. That made Brian more impatient, "Well?"

"I told them last week I was done." Matt said while looking down at the sand.

Jimmy kind of felt bad for Matt, "Matt..."

Brian just seemed to get more pissed, "Are you fucking kidding me, Matt? Now look where we are at?! The girls are involved in it-"

"Brian I fucking know that, okay? I messed up." Matt continued to keep his head down and I didn't blame him.

Johnny butt in, "We all make mistakes, dude." He was trying to make him feel better.

"Don't stick up for him, Johnny. He fucking traumatized the girls. This is all his fault-" I zoned out after that. I looked at Courtney who was still pretty shook up. I knew I just needed to get her home.

While everyone was arguing with each other, I snuck over to Courtney, "Let's get out of here. We don't need to hear this right now." She nodded and we headed for the truck.

We didn't bother to say good bye and I wasn't really in the mood to hear apologies from them or something like that. Courtney drove back to the house and it was completely silent. There wasn't much to say, but I was just hoping this wouldn't stay in her mind forever. She practically got harassed by someone and I couldn't stop it.

She pulled into the driveway and I noticed Suzy's car was home. She usually works till night, so I was kind of shocked to see her here now. I just hope she doesn't start anything with Courtney.

We walked into the house and right away Suzy says, "Girls come in the living room." She didn't sound too thrilled either.

Courtney sighed, "Great. Now what?"

When we got into the living room, we found Suzy in the recliner. She pointed to the couch, "Sit."

"I'm not really in the mood to talk, I just want to go to bed." Courtney stated.

Suzy shook her head, "I don't care. Sit down." We sat down, reluctantly and Suzy threw something on the coffee table

Fuck.

It was the pack of cigarettes Brian got ms. I glanced up at Suzy and she was not happy.

She crossed her arms on her chest, "Which one of you, smokes?"

I decided to play the honesty card, "They're mine."

Suzy shook her head, "I will not tolerate that in my house, Donna. I think it's time to send you home."

My jaw dropped and Courtney flipped out, "She isn't the only one! I smoke too, so you might as well send me back too!"

That angered her, "Do you know how dangerous smoking is? Wait till your Father finds out!"

Courtney laughed, "He already knows. Who the fuck do you think buys them for us?!"

Suzy shook her head, "Unbelievable. Of course he would condone this."

With so much stuff I dealt with today, I just snapped, "What do you mean 'of course he would'? We are not bad kids! We get straight A's and we never miss school! Who the fuck cares if we smoke? It's our decision! Would you rather us smoke behind your back and almost burn down the house? Because it can be arranged!"

Suzy stood up from her seat, "You do not speak to me like that, young lady. I don't know who you think you are, but I will not tolerate it! Go pack your stuff you're leaving!"

Courtney stood up, "Great, because I'm going too! C'mon Donna, let's just leave this hell hole!"

I stood up and followed Courtney out the door and we got in the truck. I looked at her as she pulling out of the driveway, "Where are we going? We didn't even grab our stuff."

"We can just drive till we run out of gas. Get me a cigarette."

For some reason that made me smile. I opened the center counsel and I saw an envelope in there. I frowned, "What's this?"

Courtney glanced at it and shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. Open it."

I handed her a cigarette and a lighter as I opened up the envelope. I gasped when I found a credit card in there that had Tom's name on it, "He gave you his credit card!"

Courtney's eyes widened, "What? No way!"

I nodded, "Yep, there's a note too!"

I pulled the note out and read it out loud, "This is for emergency use only! You can use it for gas too!"

Courtney was about to say something, but her phone started ringing. I picked it up for her to see that her Dad was calling. I hit answer and put it on speaker phone.

"Hey Dad."

We heard him sigh in the phone, "Where'd you guys go? Sue told me everything that happened. We should've just told her you guys smoked from the beginning."

Courtney rolled her eyes, "It's a little too late for that and we're just driving around. We weren't going to sit there and listen to it, plus she told Donna to go home and I'm staying here without her."

"I know, I talked to her. She was just upset. She didn't think her daughter would be smoking at seventeen. Look how I freaked out? I got used to it. Just give her time."

I decided to speak up, "We're not going back there, Tom. She made it pretty clear that I'm not welcome there anymore."

He sighed again, "No, just go back to the house!"

Courtney cleared her throat, "You gave us your credit card, just let us get a hotel room for the night."

"Oh, no! There's only five thousand dollars on it!"

"That's a lot of money!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, but it's gotta last you guys through the whole summer and you haven't even got through the first month."

Courtney found a Taco Bell, "Fine, but we're getting food before we go back."

"Fine, just get some dinner and go to sleep. Suzy will be over this by tomorrow. Don't worry. It will get better." He tried to make us feel better.

That just made Courtney snicker, "Really? It's only been getting worse."

Tom grumbled into the phone, "If she wants to be in her daughter's life then she has to accept things. If she can't, then you guys are coming home if I have to drive out there myself to pick you guys up. Alright?"

"Okay." We both chorused.

The phone call ended and we had a cigarette before we headed into Taco Bell. Once we got in the lobby, Courtney's phone made a text sound noise and so did mine. I pulled mine out to see a text from Brian.

I'm sorry for everything! Why didn't u tell me you were leaving?

Even though I didn't want to respond, I did anyways.

You guys seemed too busy arguing and we just needed to get out of there.

I'm sorry! I promise you nothing like that will ever happen again

Yeah it won't cause we need a break from you guys. It's obviously not safe for us to be around.

Courtney looked up from her phone, "I told Matt we need a break from them."

"I told Brian the same thing. It's just not safe right now. Especially with what happened. It could be worse next time."

She agreed with me, "I know, but Matt says that's a bad idea and now he won't leave me alone."

I looked down at my phone to see that Brian text messaged me five times basically saying that he's sorry and that he doesn't want us to do that. I sighed, "Yeah, Brian is saying the same thing too. Fuck them! I'm not going to be around them if that shit happens!" I shut my phone off and put it on the table while we waited for our food.

Courtney's phone started to ring again and I groaned, "If it's Matt, don't answer it!"

She looked at it and nodded, "Yep, it's him." She hit ignore and our food got done.

By time we left Brian had called me seven times and Matt called Courtney nine times. We ignored every single one, hoping they'd take a hint and finally they did, because on the way home it was silent in the truck.

Courtney pulled into the driveway, "I'm not going inside."

"Me either. Fuck it, let's just sleep in here." I suggested.

She agreed, "Anything is better than being in there."

We reclined our seats back and Courtney's phone started ringing, "Damn, he just won't give up!"

"Just answer it and tell him we need a break!"

Just as she was about to answer, it stopped ringing. She shook her head and tossed the phone the ground, "I can't talk now, I'm too stressed."

It started to ring again and sat straight up and yanked the phone of the ground to see that her Dad was calling, "Oh, it's your Dad. I'll answer it."

I put it to my ear, "Hello?"

"Where the hell are you guys? I'm not playing around now. Just go back home, now."

I rolled my eyes, "Tom, we are home."

He scoffed, "Then why did Sue call me freaking out, saying you guys weren't back yet?"

"You told us to go back. Not that we had to go inside. We're just going to sleep in the truck. It's better for all of us."

Tom grumbled into the phone, "Alright, smart ass, just lock the doors then."

I chuckled a bit, "We will."

He hung up and I turned my head to see that Courtney was already passed out. I laid back in my seat again and looked up at the ceiling. I just couldn't believe the shit that happened today. Maybe Tom is right. Maybe she will get over it. That or I'm going to get shipped back to Michigan tomorrow.