Exotic

~ no stone unturned ~

He gave Dave a critical look up and down. "Don't you have a windscreen to replace somewhere?"

Dave gave him a smile that oozed contempt and swaggered off from the direction he'd come. I wondered why he'd felt the need to speak to me at all. Maybe Reece had spoken to him about that morning, twisted the incident into something spiteful on my end and Dave had come over to defend his mate's honour.

"G'day Miles," the older man turned to me, giving me a grandfatherly sort of grin. He had a name sewn into the pocket of his shirt, Dev - the name sparked recognition. "Don't mind David. He's procrastinating. Did you come to see the car? Eh? Come on. You too."

He directed this up to Aaron. He had to crane his head; he was only as tall as I was, hunched with age. Before either of us could respond, he was off across the garage, leaving us no option but to trail behind or be considered rude. Aaron bumped my bag with his own.

"We should go to his house next," he told me.

I swallowed and let my eyes flutter closed for a beat longer than was safe in the crowded garage. I hadn't forgotten why we were here, but I'd pushed it to the back of my mind. "He has no reason to go there."

"No, but maybe someone in his family will be home," his jaw was tight. "We could tell them what he's planning. They'd probably have a better chance of getting hold of him, talking sense into him. And even if they didn't... at least they'd know what he'd done."

I furrowed my brow. Aaron stared straight ahead, expression unreadable. "Are you suggesting I get even?"

He flushed, clearly embarrassed by the suggestion but his voice was firm. "I don't see the point in protecting his reputation when he cares so little for yours. That's all."

I pulled at the straps of my backpack, mulling it over. I'd threatened Caleb just the same after our first formal meeting, telling him that if anyone found out about Sephora, I would ruin him right back. I'd invoked his family. Maybe he was doing this all because he knew about my affections now; he believed that my crush would keep me from going nuclear in return.

Well, he's right, isn't he?

"They wouldn't want to believe it." It would be the lowest of blows, the most personal of attacks; destroy Caleb's integrity in the eyes of his family. They were all so faithful, loyal, so supportive... but they weren't blindly so. With a text to Lauren or a letter in their mailbox, I could singlehandedly change the way they looked at him. They might be able to move past this act of malice against me, but it would forever linger in the back of their minds that their golden boy Caleb could be cruel and vindictive. A bully, just like his best friend Aidan.

Aaron just shrugged and left the air open for me to mull over his suggestion. As sour as it tasted, I couldn't quite push the idea out of my head. We'd agreed to mutually assured destruction. My automatic instinct should have been to strike back, trading blows with Caleb until we were left with nothing. This should have been a race to salt the earth.

But the more I thought about Caleb and his family, Lauren's unwavering loyalty, Jake's protectiveness, Seth's wide-eyed admiration of his eldest brother, his parent's pride in him – of family dinners and pancakes at two am and name-calling and love, love that only came about when you happened to really liked the people you shared a house and blood with, love that had ended for me with my mother's death - the more I knew I wouldn't destroy it. Couldn't. Doing so wouldn't bring me a modicum of satisfaction. Nothing that involved hurting Caleb would.

Dev pulled the tarp off the car in one sweep and stood back to admire it as if it was a Ferrari, rather than a battered beige hatchback. I vaguely remembered Reece mentioning him when introducing me to the project. "This was your sons', wasn't it?"