Chapter 3: Bob
She lead me to the green SUV and I felt nervousness. It was past curfew and I was getting into the car with a stranger in the dead of night without so much as leaving a note for my host parents. If I get into touble, Miko was toast.
"Miko, maybe this isn't such a good i-"
"Oh hush! You're always scared to do something a little bad." She rolls her eyes, opening the passenger door. I get in the seat behind her and I see a shadowy figure in the front seat.
"Um, hi," I say meekly.
"Hello." The man says with a deep voice, awkwardly I might add.
"Ren, this is... Bob. Bob that's Ren. Now, lets get this show on the road!" She says, propping her feet up on the dashboard.
"And crank up the tunes! Track seven Bulk." She says happily. The radio turns on and load music blasts out of the speakers. Metal. I wince and try not to be rude by covering me ears.
"Would you mind lowering the volume please?" I say above the music. Bob turned it down and I sigh. Miko groans in frustration.
"So, uh, how'd my sister force you out of you bed in the middle of the night?" I ask, trying to make converstaion.
"Well, I was already up." He shrugged.
Bob was a tall African American man. His bald head almost touched the ceiling and you could see some faint facial hair in the dim light from the dash. From the back seat I felt intimidated my his muscles. I wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of a punch from this guy. On his biciep, I could faintly see a tattoo poking out from under his t-shirt.
"So, are you one of Miko's host parents?" I ask.
"No, no. I'm a friend. Us and a couple others hang out after school." Bob says. Honestly, what would an adult want to do with a teenager. Something was off about him.
"What do you guys do?" I ask.
"We're about to show ya." Miko says happily from the front seat.
By now, we were in the desert. The moon shown down on the vehicle and I was worried that he was gonna pull out an axe and hack us both into tiny pieces. It was isolated out here.
Then, we went off road. I held tightly to the seat and the roof handle. Miko was cheering in the front seat and I closed my eyes, feeling slightly sick. Then, we puled to a sudden stop. I peak and eye open and I see the desert and the moon. It was quiet beautiful outside
"Go for it Bulk!" She cheer. Bob rolled the car forward and then I felt my heart leap in my throat. Are they crazy? I whimper, holding a hand over my mouth as we started rolling down the hill fast, leaving my stomach at the top.
Miko was whooping and cheering, Bob remained silent through it, and I let out a sigh of relief when we reached the bottom. I release the roof handle and I run my hands over my face.
"Fun right?!" Miko looked back at me, eyes practically glowing with excitement.
"Yeah." I lie. If this is what made her happy, then awesome. I'm glad she's been leaving me out of it. "This is what you guys do all day?" I ask skeptically.
"Pretty much." Miko answers with a shrug. Wow. It did seem like her. But why couldn't she tell me? This couldn't be it. She would have told me.
"Why did you say you couldn't tell me?" I pry. She and Bob, or Bulk, look at each other.
"I needed to get permission from the club." Miko says, meeting my eyes.
"Since when do you get permission to do anything?" I smirk, although I was completely serious. Something about this whole situation was off.
"It's a big deal." She shrugged. "Let's get you home to your host parents. You're gonna be pissed at me tomorrow for your lack of sleep." She smiles, patting my leg once before spinning back around in her seat.
The next morning, I needed and extra cup of tea in order to function. I met Miko outside the school, waving 'hi' to Bob, or Bulk. Miko waved a quick goodbye with a wide smile and I felt my need to protect her, as an older sister.
"Miko," I start. "Are you doing something you shouldn't? You're my sister and I love you, but I don't think you should be messing around with that man. He's so much older than you and you could catch something if you're not careful. Are you at least using protection?" I say. After lots of thinking last night, I came to the conclusion that Miko must be sleeping with that Bob guy. What other reason would someone as old as him want to hang around a young teenage girl?
"Whoa! That's not what's going on. We're just friends. I mean it." She says.
"Well, men are pigs. You need to be careful around him. One day you could go off and I'll never see you again. That man'll have you doing God knows what." I say. "I just want you to be careful Miko. Call me when you get to where you're going and check in with me every two hours. I need to know that your okay." I say. At this point we were stopped outside her locker we were getting odd glaces from the people around us.
"Fine, fine. Now go to class." She ordered with a roll of her eyes. Was Miko sleeping with him? That was the only thing that made sense to me. I hope she wasn't. But, then again, if that's what made her happy... I just wanted her to be safe.