“You don’t want that,” Bear argued. “Shit looks boring as fuck.”

King agreed with a slight nod of his head.

“I didn’t say I wanted that,” I quipped, shrugging my shoulders. “I just didn’t know people actually did that. Thought it was made up or something you only see on TV.”

“It is,” Bear said. “What you just saw there was a lie. The dad is probably fucking his assistant, who’s a dude, mom’s knocked up by the principle of junior’s school and has a thousand dollar a day drug habit, plus junior is so high on ADD meds he doesn’t know his dick from a wet noodle.”

“I feel like you’ve given this way more thought than it deserved,” I observed as the family eating dinner grew further and further away. “Wait?” I faked a gasp. “Are YOU the one fucking the dad?”

Bear punched me in the shoulder and smiled. “Boring as fuck,” he said again, like it was a fact he wanted me to remember. He slid his cigarette to the side of his mouth so he could use both arms to row against the growing current.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Boring as fuck.”

As we approached the island everything was cast in shadows, making the long roots of the mangroves look like hundreds of skinny legs dipping into the water. The trees themselves appeared to be large spider-like creatures standing guard around the island.

I held the flashlight, trying to find the clearing we’d hacked out months before. The light caught the yellow glowing eyes of a dozen or so gators lingering at the surface of the water. Some darted under the second they found themselves in the way of the beam, other braver ones slinked toward our boat without creating any sort of wake to better inspect the intruders.

Us.

“It’s like a gator orgy out here,” I said.

“Yeah, so let's get over there quickly without tipping the goddamned boat before it becomes a gator buffet,” King said.

Once we found the clearing we paddled toward it with all of our strength to keep the tide from pushing us back. The second the boat made contact with land King jumped out first pulling the boat further onto the shore, scraping the metal bottom of the boat over the rock and shell.

Bear and I followed, each of us carrying backpacks with our stash. It only took us an hour or so to locate our hole, dig it up again, bury our stash and cover it back up.

As we made it back to the boat my flashlight again caught the yellow eyes of the gators surrounding the boat. One thrashed as it caught a fish in its mouth before diving back under the water with its meal between its teeth. “Great night for a swim,” I sang, looking back at King and Bear.

“You afraid?” Bear said, slinging his empty backpack into the boat.

“You’re the pussy out of the three of us,” I said. “Bet you wouldn’t dip your big toe in the water.”

Bear raised a brow. “Oh yeah? I’ll do you one better, I’ll run in, knee deep if you run in with me.”

“One lap around the boat?” I asked, already kicking off my shoes and rolling up my pants. Bear did the same. We both looked to King.

“Fuck,” he said, tugging off his boots. “The only reason I’m doing it this is so I don’t have to fucking hear about it for the rest of my goddamned life.” He stood at the edge. “Don’t tell Grace a word of this,” he muttered.

The three of us stood at the edge and Bear pushed the boat halfway into the water.

“Ready?” I asked, cracking my neck and rolling my shoulders. “First motherfucker to get eaten...well, dies.”

“I’m not scared,” Bear said.

“Me neither,” King chimed in.

“Okay then,” I said. “Ready. Set. Goooooo!” I shouted as the three of us splashed through the water like a herd of zebra running from a lion. It only took a few seconds for us to round the boat before we collapsed onto the shore, breathing hard from the adrenaline rush.

“All thirty fingers and toes accounted for?” King huffed.

“Yeah,” Bear and I both said at the same time. I held a finger in the air, “But Bear’s pinky toe on his right foot is weirdly smaller than the rest of his toes, so the ‘all finger and toe’ thing is subjective at best.”

“Shut the fuck up, Preppy,” Bear said, reaching for me to hit me but his fist fell short, smacking the ground instead.

“That wasn’t so bad,” I said, still gasping for air.

My life would never be like the perfect-looking family eating dinner in that window, but it didn’t have to be, because at that moment, with my friends by my side, I decided I’d much rather live the kind of life that had me splashing through gator infested waters, feeling very much ALIVE.

I glanced over to King and Bear who recognized the look on my face and cringed.

“Wanna go again?”

CHAPTER SIX

Dre

After Preppy left with Kevin I called my dad to reassure him I was okay. He sounded as if he’d been waiting by the phone so it took quite some time to calm him down and put his mind at ease that I was safe, which was hard when I wasn’t so sure myself. Apparently, I didn’t do that great of a job convincing him because he decided to stay in town for a while. At least until he was sure whatever threat was looming out there was gone.

After we hung up and I promised we’d get together in the next day or so, I realized that in all the confusion over what had happened the night before I’d forgotten a few things. Number one, I didn’t get a chance to give Preppy his surprise, but he’d seen it and thanked me for it with his tongue between my legs. The shiny black classic Chrysler was now sitting in the darkened back corner of the parking space under the house, covered with a tarp.

I’d also almost forgot that Mirna’s house was now mine again.

Not mine. OURS.

That thought made me smile from ear to ear.

I don’t know how Preppy and Ray pulled it off, especially without telling me for so long, but I was beyond grateful they had. That house meant so much to me and I couldn’t wait to get back in it. It was like the start of a new life and the rebirth of an old one.

Moving was the perfect distraction I needed to take my mind off the events of the night before. When the rental truck showed up at the house I immediately felt a sense of relief that I could focus on something other than who could be out to get me, although the stinging pain from the wound on my leg and other numerous scrapes and scratches, took the liberty of reminding me every other movement.