Chapter 30: My Drug Buddy

Sunday April 9
Paul’s injury, though serious, hadn’t been life-threatening in the end. They’d given him an IV on the way to the hospital, and he’d responded well, but he did need surgery to repair the damage. He’d been lucky that the bullet hadn’t struck bone, but it had taken a chunk out of his butt.

My injury was much less than it should have been, according to Sheriff Cochran. Still, I was hurting, and my chest and abdomen were black and blue. When the sheriff first saw that I was only bruised, he had thought I was probably shot with a .22 hollow-point round. When they found the 9mm Glock in the Corvette wreckage, he wanted to know more about my Liquid Armor gear.

A Glock’s 9mm round rivals the firepower of a .45. Sheriff Cochran was disappointed when I explained that my gear wasn’t available for sale yet. It was being designed as a ballistic shirt to be worn by military personnel in combat. They hadn’t gotten to the stage where they could mass-produce it.

The outer fabric was made to withstand an IED blast and not tear. The Liquid Armor had acted as advertised. It had transferred the force of the impact over the entirety of my chest and stomach.

If I’d worn the old style of ballistic shirt, Sheriff Cochran explained that the bullet should have broken bones at the very least and damaged my heart and lungs at the worst. I shared with him the story of how one of Devin’s assistants had wrapped his finger in the Liquid Armor, and they’d hit it with a hammer. He’d been fine, according to Devin. At the time, I doubted the veracity of his claim, but now, I was a believer.

I gave Devin’s office number to the sheriff. He said that wearing the bulky vests wasn’t ideal, but they provided the necessary protection. Wearing a ballistic shirt like mine would meet their protective needs while giving them much more freedom of movement. He admitted that there were times when he didn’t wear a bulletproof vest, but he would be a lot more likely to wear one of these shirts. It could be easily worn under the sheriff’s and his deputies’ uniforms.

We all wished Paul had been wearing similar gear. If he’d been wearing the pants, he would have a bruise, but his butt would be intact. Getting the equipment for my security team went to the top of my priority list.

Tracy was upset that she hadn’t been warned of Bill’s release. The first time he’d gotten out, we were all surprised. The state had a victim’s rights bill that required notification to the victim when the accused was released from prison. This was meant to prevent the exact scenario we’d had, where Bill just showed up and attacked her again.

The first time, he’d been sent away on drug charges. In that case, Tracy hadn’t been the ‘victim.’ When we took her home, she found they’d sent her a notification letter after all. But the state didn’t know that she’d moved to college, and her mom had just included it in the stack of mail waiting for her daughter to pick up.

Sheriff Cochran surmised that Bill had been able to determine where Tracy would be because she’d posted her plans for the day on social media. She’d been excited to see me and had referenced her parents’ lake house.

This was another lesson that I felt I’d just learned the hard way. Tracy’s post was like people bragging about going on vacation or sharing vacation photos while there and then learning their house was robbed when they got home.

The problem was, how did you know when sharing something could be dangerous or not? Did you abstain from posting on social media?

Frankly, for a lot of people, that would probably be best. No one cares that you think you’re an ‘influencer.’ Or that your dog is the bomb (even though Duke did rock, and the world needed to know of the funny stuff he got up to). In Duke’s case, since he was our mayor, I felt justified in sharing Duke-isms with his peeps. Maybe he needed his own social media account.

When I had thoughts like that, I knew Lily was right when she took my posting access away at times. That just proved that everyone needed a Lily in their lives to tell them ‘no’ to posting dumb stuff.

The problem was, Tracy had no idea that an innocent post would lead Bill to her doorstep. She’d just been lucky when she heard his Corvette pull up. It had a distinctive sound, and she’d been smart and escaped the house before he and his goons had caught her.

The two men who accompanied Bill had outstanding warrants. They were muscle for a crime family out of Chicago. Sheriff Cochran suspected that it was the same group that had supplied Tiny and Bill with drugs when I’d been in middle school. He surmised that Bill had been recruited when he was in juvie. Later, we found out that a lawyer who worked for the crime family had arranged for Bill’s early release, so the sheriff’s suspicions seemed justified.

During questioning, I mentioned that Paul and Cassidy had bodycams, the drones all had video, and the car was set up with cameras. When Sheriff Cochran heard that, he almost kissed me. I gave him Fritz’s number to get copies of everything.

On the way home, Fritz called me to check-in.

“I got a call from Sheriff Cochran. He’s requesting footage from today’s events. I told him I needed to review the video first to ensure nothing confidential is on it. He threatened to get a warrant for the raw footage.”

“I’m glad you didn’t send it to him yet. I just remembered that Paul mentioned me being dosed with ecstasy while I was in Greece. That’s the sort of thing I don’t want to have ‘leaked’ to the press. I’ve had enough drama with the paparazzi in the last few weeks to last me a lifetime. It gets old after a while,” I admitted.

“I’ll personally go through it and see what’s pertinent. It’s probably safe to send Sheriff Cochran the exterior car video and the drone material right away to keep him happy,” Fritz reasoned.

“You can also send him the video of Paul’s bodycam from the time he got out of the car up until we loaded him back in.”

“I’ll run through that quickly and then check out the conversation you had with Paul about the drugs. If it’s nothing the Sheriff needs, I don’t plan to send it to him. If he gets persistent, we may need to loop in Ms. Dixon,” Fritz suggested.

I hated to get lawyers involved if I didn’t need to. I crossed my fingers that what Fritz was sending would be enough.

What with all the excitement, I’d gotten home late, so I made the executive decision not to wake my parents up. When I came into the kitchen for breakfast, my mom and dad were waiting for me.

“Show me your chest,” Mom ordered.

“It looks worse than it is,” I tried.

“Show me!”

I winced when I pulled up my shirt. Mom gasped when she saw the ginormous bruise that ran from just below my neck to right above my navel and went out to my armpits. I admit I was a little tender.

“I’ll call one of the trainers and have them give me some treatment today,” I said in an attempt to deflect my mom’s coming tirade.

“I’m calling Devin and thanking him,” Dad said. “When I first heard of this stuff, I just thought in terms of baseball. I never imagined it would save your life when you were shot.”

Mom got a haunted look and went upstairs. That wasn’t good. I hoped we weren’t about to experience ‘Irrational Mom,’ the one who would ground me until I left to make my movies.

“I’ll go talk to her,” Dad said, leaving me alone.

I guess that meant I was making breakfast.

I was trying to figure out what to make when Tami waltzed in the back door. It reminded me of when we were kids and just walked into each other’s houses.

“You’re skipping church and coming with me,” she announced.

“Okay?”

“We’re picking up Tracy and going to the original Granny’s for breakfast.”

I sent my dad a text, and we left.

When we arrived at Granny’s, I soon discovered that the morning paper had run a story about what had happened yesterday. I really am a ‘stupid boy’ at times. I made the mistake of showing two middle-school-aged brothers my bruises because they wanted to see where I’d been shot.

Tami finally rescued me from our worried community. If I hadn’t realized it yet, this would have made clear that our small town looked out for their own.

“Way to make it all about you,” Tracy teased.

I was glad she was able to joke about yesterday.

“I admit that I’m not sorry that Bill didn’t survive the crash,” I said. “More than once, I’ve had fantasies of meeting up with him in a dark alley and making him pay for everything he ever did to you.”

Tami gave me a surprised look.

“I’m not always the nice guy,” I said to defend myself.

“It’s just ... I don’t know,” she admitted. “You get mad, and then you almost always let it go.”

“Some things, you just can’t let go,” I said without thinking.

Tami’s expression clouded over, and I knew she was thinking about me finding her with Alan.

“I’m not sure how I feel about it,” Tracy acknowledged. “On the one hand, I’m glad he’s gone forever. On the other ... I don’t know. I still feel vulnerable, for some reason.”

She looked up at me.

“It helps that I know you care that much about me. When I pushed the panic button, I thought for sure Bill was going to get me. But when I saw you in the woods, I knew everything was going to be okay. You have no idea how relieved I was that you’d come for me,” Tracy said as she teared up.

Tami looked around.

“We should go. We don’t want to have this conversation here,” she said to remind us we were in the middle of Granny’s.

“You still have to help me get the house ready,” Tracy reminded me. “And you have to get my phone.”

We had left it under a bush in the woods. That had been a ploy I’d stolen from Fritz and put my own twist on. If the thug Paul had shot hadn’t just been winged, and Tracy hadn’t had to shoot him, we would have gotten away clean. I would use the GoFindMe app to track it down for her.

On the way to the lake house, Tami had some disturbing news.

“Alan got expelled.”

“What did he do this time?” I asked.

“Cyberbullying. There’s a group of girls we call the ‘princesses’ who think they’re above it all.”

“Sort of like Tracy,” I said, nodding.

“I’m still a princess in my dad’s eyes,” Tracy said.

“Anyway,” Tami said while rolling her eyes, “Alan made the mistake of doing it from a school computer. He didn’t realize the school had software that tracked keystrokes. He said some hateful stuff.”

“I wonder if he’ll ever learn,” I mused.

“His parents worked out a deal with Wesleyan that if he got treatment, they wouldn’t show the expulsion on his record so he could still go to college,” Tami said.

“Will they let him graduate?” I asked.

“He was doing well enough grade-wise, so they’ll let him finish out remotely. I don’t know how well the treatment will work, though. I talked to him when his parents came to pick him up, and he wasn’t remorseful in the least.”

“So he’s still the same Alan. I think the only thing he’s ever regretted is getting caught,” I observed.

Tami thought about it for a moment and nodded her agreement.

No treatment Alan went to would work unless he wanted to change. I couldn’t see him letting go of his resentment or ever admitting a mistake. That wasn’t Alan’s style. He always blamed everyone else for whatever went wrong.

I’d learned the hard way that I am responsible for my own happiness and for how I choose to respond to the world around me. My uncle had shown me the way during the summer I’d stayed with him. Until he’d helped me see that I didn’t like who I’d become, did I try to do anything about it? Given what I’d just gone through, I wasn’t ready to judge Alan that harshly, but I also knew I had to keep protecting myself and my friends from him.

My prediction was that Alan was too pigheaded to realize that he was destroying everything around him. For most people, getting kicked out of Wesleyan would have been a wake-up call. It would have been the indication that they’d hit rock bottom. If I knew Alan, that day was a long way off.

While I went to look for Tracy’s phone, the girls went into the house to get it ready for our Senior Skip Day. Tami had horned in on our class outing by inviting her friends from Wesleyan. The deal I’d made with her was she had to help get it organized.

Part of my agenda was to spend time with her. She was one of the people I planned to keep in touch with after graduation. We’d been friends all our lives, but with her going to Wesleyan, my eyes had been opened. We could still be close, but I was my own man now, regardless of what my mom or Tami thought or wanted.

It didn’t take me long to find Tracy’s phone. When I got back to the house, I was put in charge of yard work. I was fortunate they’d given me some pain meds for once. If they hadn’t, this would’ve been entirely beyond me.

The downside of having woods surround your lake house was that the trees dropped a ton of leaves. It looked like no one had taken care of raking last fall. At least I didn’t have to bag them. In the country, you were allowed to burn yard waste. Soon the air became filled with the acrid aroma of burning leaves. I loved that smell.

I spent the morning outside. When the fire was safely out, I went inside to find the girls lounging around, talking.

“You stink,” Tami announced.

“Go take a shower to get the smoke smell off of you,” Tracy said.

If I had truly been a ‘stupid boy,’ I would have argued that most of the smell was in my clothes. But I had a feeling this was leading to something. Frankly, I was open to it. I hadn’t spent quality time with either of them in a long time, and I think after yesterday’s events, we’d all grown closer. Besides, and especially since I’d taken the pain meds, I was horny.

When I came out of the shower, I found the girls sitting on the bed with their backs to the headboard, checking me out.

“Holy shit,” said Tracy when she saw my massive bruising. “How can you even move with something like that?”

“Better living through medicine. Now, we all know where this is headed, so you need to get undressed,” I said as I dropped my towel.

They looked at each other and did what girls do: secretly communicate with one another via brainwaves or some such. Then they both turned, and I could see the lust in their eyes. Hell, yes!

We spent the afternoon playing a little game I liked to call ‘Which Girl Can I Make Cum the Hardest?’

Tracy was easy. She and I had spent a lot of quality time between the sheets, and I knew what combination of buttons to push to get her there ... repeatedly. I had to spend more time with Tami. We’d only been together a few times, but that was fine. It gave me a chance to use all my moves to discover what she liked.

Tami had gained a little freak in her; that was a pleasant surprise. Sometimes, the sexual beast just wanted to get a bit rowdy. Tami encouraged it.

Mr. Happy finally died. He’d put up a valiant effort if the two satisfied girls were any indication. I was a little disappointed in the big guy. Maybe I should talk to Joey about conditioning exercises she might show me. Then again, she might make him flip that giant tractor tire and snap him off.

“I’m going to have to talk to Cassidy if I ever plan to keep up with you. Whatever she’s doing to get you in shape has paid off,” Tami said as if reading my mind.

She’d just picked the wrong girl. Then I remembered that I hadn’t shared my Joey infatuation with Tami. But then again, she might be talking about cardio.

“I don’t know. I think he just did an okay job. We might have to have a rematch soon,” Tracy said.

“I’ve been learning all about hooking up. I’m thinking that might be my new go-to relationship mode in college,” I shared.

“Here I thought that was every guy’s dream,” Tracy said.

“That’s actually a departure for David. If you hadn’t noticed, he’s quite the romantic. He was never happier than when he dated Brook,” Tami said.

The mention of Brook woke Mr. Happy.

“Look at that. Maybe I could be Brook in your fantasy. What was her favorite thing to do?” Tracy asked.

“Anal,” I said with a straight face.

Tami grabbed her phone and called Brook. I secretly crossed my fingers that she would come through for me.

“Tracy and I lured David into bed. It seems he still has a thing for you, and Tracy offered to play you in his fantasy. He says that your favorite thing to do is anal,” Tami said to out me.

I could hear Brook laughing, and then she told Tami something that caused her eyes to get big.

“Really!?” she said and covered up the phone. “She says you like to receive it as well.”

I snatched the phone out of Tami’s hands.

“I thought that was our little secret,” I whined.

“Shut up,” Brook said. “Do me a favor and jump onto video chat. I’m horny and want to watch.”

“The things I do for you,” I huffed.

I handed the phone back to Tami and told her what Brook wanted. Both girls’ eyebrows went up into their bangs. I waggled mine back in response, and Tami quickly turned on the video so that Brook could be her little voyeur self.

I had a thought and voiced it.

“No recordings, Brook.”

Brook looked at me like I was indeed a ‘stupid boy.’ I realized that maybe I had been. Ah, well, to the task at hand.

Tracy was worthless. After multiple orgasms, I had the equivalent of whiskey dick. Tracy was still aroused from before, so she climaxed in short order. I grabbed the phone from Tami and pointed it at my junk.

“This is what you’re missing, Hotness.”

I heard Brook’s vibrator begin to buzz and her moan. I handed the phone to Tracy to play the camera operator as I had fun with Tami.

Once we were done, I took the phone to the bathroom so I could have a private talk with Brook.

“Damn, I miss you,” Brook admitted.

Hearing that should have sent my heart soaring. Instead, it made me sad for what I’d lost.

“Me too,” I agreed and hung up.

I didn’t want to let her see me tear up. I got into the shower to cover it up.

Monday April 10
When I woke up, my slightest movement made me realize that yesterday had been a mistake. Raking leaves had been a little painful, even with the meds. Having sex all afternoon had been, well, fun, but I was paying for it today. My chest felt like Cassidy had drop-kicked me a dozen times to prove a point.

As I rolled my shoulders back to stretch, I heard a crack like when you popped your knuckles. I prayed that it was a good crack and not a bad one.

I really should have followed through and gone for treatment yesterday instead of just taking pain meds. When I walked into the bathroom, I saw the bruises had become a darker purple. I’d received some doozies playing football and even had some severe contusions from my car accident. This was on a whole other level. Though it looked a lot worse, it was better than the car accident because it was just bruising. I didn’t have cracked ribs or a hip pointer.

I skipped my run and got ready for school. It was probably for the best because only dim daylight filtered through the clouds; the sun was hidden behind massive storm-laden cloud banks. I was almost to the back door when it began to sprinkle for a moment.

The light was failing as the dark, angry clouds rolled in. The rain might have stopped for the moment, but the wind picked up. A gust hit, and I could hear the leaves shake violently. It sounded like someone was shaking a tambourine in the yard.

Duke and Precious darted for the back door, and I wasn’t quick enough to stop the cat. There was a crack of lightning that sounded like it had struck close, and I immediately forgot about Precious and quickly went inside. The next gust of wind sounded vast and ponderous, like a freight train rumbling through.

As I walked into the kitchen, I saw Precious sitting in Cassidy’s lap. She slowly petted the cat from hell while staring off into space. Cassidy was being a total slacker and hadn’t even started breakfast.

“They’re letting Paul come home today.”

“That seems fast,” I worried.

“They put a drain in his wound and told him to take it easy. He should get the drain removed in a few days,” Cassidy said and then looked at me. “How’s your chest?”

I just pulled up my shirt and showed her.

“That’s not good,” was her understatement of the century. “Does it hurt?”

“What do you think? Of course it hurts.”

“Good. Next time, don’t get shot.”

“It wasn’t like I was trying to.”

“You should have put them all down, not just given them love taps. If you’d done that, you wouldn’t have been shot, and we wouldn’t have had to run for our lives,” she said with more heat than I’d seen in a long time.

I was about to snap back when I realized that Cassidy was blaming herself for what had transpired.

“Cassidy, we are all upset with what happened, but none of us was seriously hurt.”

“I should have figured a way to get the drones through the trees, and when they came out of the woods, I should have zapped them then. It’s all my fault you got shot because I didn’t do my job. I think you would be better off without me as your security,” all came out in a rush.

“If you’re going to act like that, you shouldn’t be,” Dad said as he walked into the kitchen.

“Rob!” Mom chastised as she came in, too.

“Cassidy, from everything I know about you, you’re not a whiner,” Dad said. “You’re a strong young woman who can handle anything. If you plan to someday lead Marines, you can’t be second-guessing yourself like this. I’m a firm believer in dissecting a situation after it’s happened and figuring out what went right and what went wrong. That’s how you get better. Wallowing in self-doubt never solved anything,” he lectured.

“Dad’s always told me that you’re going to make mistakes. If you don’t, you’re not trying. The measure of a person is how they handle it afterward,” I shared.

“We are all going to get together tonight to go through all the video,” Dad said. “I’ll bet you see things that will make you cringe and others that will show that you really did do a good job. We will use this review to figure out what we should do to get a better result the next time something like this happens.”

“If you all are just going to lecture each other, I’m making breakfast,” Mom announced.

I blinked a few times as I tried to remember the last time Mom had cooked.

“Does she even know how?” I asked in a stage whisper to my dad.

He closed his eyes and shook his head. I decided I’d better go help Peggy get the boys before my mom took a chunk out of my ass bigger than what Paul had lost.

When we got to school, Cassidy hugged Dare to say thanks for how the drones had performed. He was all smiles when they went off to watch the drone footage from Saturday.

“Did she just steal my boyfriend?” Chrissy asked as we were left standing there.

“It’s just drone stuff. You know how Dare is when he gets talking about that.”

“Yes, he becomes obsessed,” she said, and then turned to me. “Are you okay?”

“Bruised, but fine. Dare’s drones really did come through for us. We couldn’t have done it without him.”

“You should tell him that.”

“He already thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. I don’t need him getting a hero complex on top of that,” I sagely advised.

“Then I’ll tell him,” Chrissy said with a little irritation in her voice.

“I think he would rather hear it from you,” I said as I gave her a little eyebrow waggle. “Maybe he deserves another hickey.”

“I thought you were a nice boy.”

I gave her an evil grin and headed into the school.

When I went to PE, I showed Becky and Jill my chest. They immediately invoked their trainers’ authority over me and declared I wasn’t allowed to practice or play baseball until they said so. Becky then dunked me into an ice bath, followed by Jill committing evil acts on my bruises. If it wasn’t for her applying the analgesic cream, I might have complained.

Becky said I was to report to her after school, and we would repeat the process. Knowing that was coming took all the fun out of the rest of the day.

When I turned my phone back on at lunch, I found it had blown up. I scrolled through the missed calls and text messages with urgent requests to call and picked Lexi to call first. Most of the others were from Frank and my mom. The one that concerned me was from Sheriff Cochran. I knew Lexi wouldn’t chew me out and would tell me what was going on.

“You called?”

“One of your local news stations has video of your ‘heroic rescue,’ and the news has been picked up nationally. Be on the lookout for at least a few paparazzi making the trek to Lincoln to get some pictures,” Lexi shared.

Great! This was all I needed.

“Any negative press?”

Lexi responded that one broadcaster was playing up that Bill’s jail time was drug-related and had speculated that I might have been involved somehow.

“Don’t worry about it, overmuch,” she said. “Frank and Ms. Dixon are on it, and that outlet is well known for being a gossip rag, anyway. Just be aware that some enterprising reporters might show up on your doorstep.”

I asked her to call my parents and Fritz with the news. Then, shaking my head, I went about the rest of my day. There but for the grace of God, and Fritz’s paranoia, went I.

I hurried to the lunchroom, grabbed one of the sack lunches, and then went to find Moose. He was eating lunch with Coach Hope in the teacher’s lounge.

“I need to talk to you both.”

“The trainers said you’re sidelined for the foreseeable future. I’m not even allowed to let you practice,” Moose complained.

“I was afraid of that. Did the trainers say how long they think I’ll be out?” I asked.

“At the least, you will miss both Tuesday’s and Thursday’s games. I know you planned to leave for LA this weekend, so you’ll miss that one too,” Moose said.

“Why are you going to LA?” Coach Hope asked.

“I’m up for the MTV Award for Best Kisser. Believe it or not, I have talents in areas other than sports,” I shared.

I’d intentionally changed it to ‘Kisser’ from ‘Kiss’ to tweak Coach Hope.

“And you let your daughter be alone with him,” Moose poked at Coach Hope.

“My daughter can take care of herself. I worry about all the other daughters out there.”

I could see that this wasn’t going to end well, so I skipped out on their bonding session.

My next task was to call the Oklahoma coaching staff. They’d seen the news that I’d been shot. I wasn’t surprised when they requested that I send copies of my medical records and asked for permission to talk to our training staff. One of the requirements for an offer was that you were physically able to perform. This prevented players from taking scholarships after they’d had a career-ending injury. I promised to get them what they wanted.

Manaia picked Cassidy and me up, and we went home. Cassidy had wanted to go to the dojo, but I reminded her I was still hurting from being shot. She called me a wimp, but I wasn’t about to fall for that.

“It feels weird being home so early,” I admitted when I found the house empty.

I had just entered the kitchen when I felt a blinding pain in my shoulder, and I was on my knees. Cassidy put her lips near my ear.

“What were you thinking, not taking security with you Sunday?”

Manaia walked to the refrigerator and grabbed himself a soda.

“Do you have anything that isn’t diet?” he asked like it was no big deal for me to be on the floor like this.

Mom had removed all the ‘real’ soda from the house when Dad had his heart problems.

“Check the pantry. David hides a twelve pack of Mountain Dew next to the door,” Cassidy said.

“Do you want one?”

“Sure,” Cassidy answered and then turned her attention back to me. “What were you thinking?”

“That I was going to help Tracy and Tami get the lake house ready for Senior Skip Day.”

“The same place where gunmen were just the day before?” Cassidy pressed.

Frick! She had a point, but I’d be damned if I would admit it.

“Let him up. He’s not going to make that mistake again ... are you, David?” Manaia asked.

“No,” I grudgingly promised.

Cassidy let me go. I had just made it to my feet when the back door opened, and Duke came bounding in, followed by Peggy with both Little David and Coby.

“Coby got into another fight at daycare,” Peggy announced.

“Did he win?” Cassidy asked.

“It sounded like it. He hit that girl who has been picking on Carol.”

“That’s my boy. If only his daddy was as big and tough,” Cassidy said as she took my son from Peggy.

The little giggle-box loved the praise he was receiving. Little David reached for me, so I took him.

“Since you’re here, I’m going to go study,” Peggy announced.

Melanie came in the back door, loaded down with groceries. Manaia jumped up to help her.