A Drone Named Jeffrey

Chapter Twenty Three

Toy

"Riley!"

Riley stopped everything, and I growled. No—this was wash time. No one stopped wash time when I still had suds trailing down my windshield. There was definitely no dropping a sponge on my hood and then just leaving it there.

Apparently, I needed to have a little chat with my human about that because she did exactly what she wasn't supposed to do to go greet the neighbor kid and his mutt of stupidity. I only felt a little better when the mutt in question, which had started growling the moment the kid had walked up with it, quickly tucked its tail between its legs and hid behind the smaller kid when it spotted Furball curled up on the steps behind me.

"What's up, Logan?"

The little kid instantly straightened, and his smile stretched from ear to ear. Now that I knew what a crush was (which just made it all the better anytime I brought it up with Riley), I could totally tell this kid was doing some major crushing on Riley. It totally explained why he would randomly pop in from time to time, mostly when Riley was washing me.

Which is why this "Logan" did not appeal to me, just like spots from dried soap suds don't appeal to me.

"I was just taking Spot for a walk!" That's another thing: the kid's stupid. Who names their mutt "Spot" when it doesn't have one spot on it? "Mom says I need to learn more about taking care of him."

"That's awesome! I was just giving Jeffrey here his bath for the week." Yes—now stop talking to the kid and get over here and finish what you started. These soap suds aren't gonna rinse themselves. "He turns into a diva when he doesn't get his fresh wax."

The kid laughed loudly. "You make it sound like he's a person."

"As much of a person as Spot."

…oh, no she did not. She did not just compare me to a slobbering mass of yellow fur. Furball will be talking to her curtains later, and then paying a personal visit to those shoes she loved so much.

After another round of laughter from the kid, he wrapped the mutt's leash around his wrist and pulled out the toy he had tucked under his other arm. "Look at what I made! Well, dad helped a little, but I picked it out and painted it all by myself."

Riley stepped into my field of vision before I got a good look at the thing, and I wanted to vent at the exaggerated praise she gave him. Way to inflate the kid's crush, Riley; now we'll never get rid of him. "This is so cool, Logan! It looks just like Jeffrey."

Excuse me?

Riley bent down and took the controller from kid's eager hand. A little motor buzzed, and a toy car whipped around her foot and headed towards me. I just stared at it when it crashed into my front tire. Was this some kind of joke?

"Jeffrey just looks so cool, and I thought it would be even cooler to have a mini-Jeffrey. You can have it if you want it."

"Mini-Jeffrey" continued to drive into my tire while Riley turned around to give the kid a side hug. "That's sweet, but I can't take your toy. And I have a big Jeffrey."

And big Jeffrey trumped a tiny toy. It wasn't even the right shade of my glorious green. Now get back over here and wash off these suds.