We're not scaremongering
This is really happening
-Radiohead
We made it to the next exit as night was falling. Annie had
skipped ahead to walk with me while Jack and Clu lagged behind,
entangled in yet another intimate conversation of which I really
wanted to avoid the details. "Okay," I said as we
seemed to come upon a town of sorts. "We should find a
police station now, so we can tell them about the dead body and
the mini-mart and that crazy lady on the road."
"No," Annie replied firmly. "We should get a drink." She started to head off decisively toward a nearby bar with a large blinking neon sign. I had to run to catch up with her.
"You're 15," I objected. "Or 13! It doesn't matter. You can't go in there."
She rolled her eyes. "Do whatever the fuck you want. You have no idea how much I don't care."
"Fine," I said, a little hurt, and began to walk in the opposite direction. The boys followed her, of course. I walked that way for a minute or two before I began to notice the proliferation of motorcycles parked on the street and the number of bikers roaming around the street. I turned and ran after them again. "Wait up," I called.
We entered in a kind of pack with her as our leader. She strode confidently toward the bar. I pulled on her arm and hissed in her ear: "It's not like they're going to serve you."
She ignored me and flashed an ID at the bartender before ordering a drink. "Want something?" she asked me with a slow grin.
"No!" I said righteously.
"Suit yourself." She seemed genuinely amused.
The boys ordered drinks too, and then Clu decided he wanted to play pool, so he and Jack set up a table. Annie lounged nearby, nursing her drink, just watching. And I stood in the shadows, a nervous observer. The boys had barely begun their game when it was interrupted. A small group of bikers led by one very familiar-looking blonde young man in leather pants approached the table. Clu and Jack abandoned the game and backed away slowly.
"We don't want trouble," the leader assured them.
"Carey?" I whispered from my spot, and his eyes flicked toward me before returning to Annie.
"We just want Cherry."
Annie slammed her drink down on the table. "All right, I'm starting to get pissed off." She stepped toward Carey menacingly and poked him in the chest for emphasis when she insisted very slowly, as she had on the road, "I. Am. Not. HER!"
He just laughed and began to sing. "She got the way to move me, Cherry. She got the way to groove me. Cherry baby!" She glared. "Oh, come on, we had some times back in the day, didn't we?" More glaring. He dropped the casual tone. "You really can't win now. I don't think I'll ever figure out why you came back here. Me? I wouldn't have looked back, ever. But then," the grin was back, "I wouldn't have betrayed everyone who loves me, either, now, would I?"
She growled.
"Look, she knows you're back, and you know that's why we're here, so why don't you do everyone a favor and just give yourself up?"
Never one to follow the wisest course of action, Annie instead swung at him with a fist and missed. He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the ground. She kicked and flailed and grunted, but it was no use. With his free hand, he gestured at the bikers, who took care of Clu and Jack when they made a feeble attempt to protect their woman.
I knew it was no use, but I tried anyway. "Don't you recognize me? Come on, Carey, you're his brother."
"What is that, some kind of hippie thing?" he asked. "The family of humankind, love one another, all that?"
I just sighed.
"Whatever," he said dismissively to me, and then to the bikers: "Bring her too." I put my hands up in a surrendering gesture and followed them outside as they dragged Clu and Jack along.
