FUMES [2], jj maybank

30. THERE'S A BURNING IN MY BONES

  RIDING A BIKE IS HARDER THAN I REMEMBER. I drove all over the island—even went to the old abandoned house—no JJ in sight. Should I go home? I can't. JJ is bound is be doing something stupid.

  Goddamnit, Maybank.

   I push the pedals of my bike again and start to pedal to The Chateau in hopes to see at least one of my friends. God, I need a new bike. I haven't used this one since I was like 14. Then, I got my license and completely abandoned the yellow bike. It's so cute too. A little basket that JJ and I used to put our weed in.

   "You wanna smoke?" JJ asks as he lays across my in my bedroom. I push myself on to my elbows, "Like—a cigarette?"

"No, no. Weed!" He gets way too excited and launches himself off of me and my bed. I ponder the idea of it. I've never been high. To be fair, I'm 14. I haven't done a lot of things.

  We got blasted that day. JJ had been high before that and decided to never tell me so his tolerance was better than mine. I ate all the cookies in my house and knocked out in JJ's lap after giggling for ten minutes straight.

I'm so lost in my thoughts I don't realize the big ass pothole and drive my bike right into it. "Fuck!" My body launches forward and into the hard pavement. "Shit!" I land on my bad arm and roll over onto my back.

  Jesus Christ, that hurt. A pounding starts in my head and I sit up. Don't tell me I hit my head.

Nothing hurts except the headache so maybe I just have a headache from literally everything else going on. My arm isn't bleeding either but it sure as hell hurts.

   Wait, where the hell am I? I zoned out so hard, I don't even know where I am. Fuck. Fuck. I get up and onto my feet and look around in the darkness. I can see the bridge to The Cut in the distance. I'll just walk the rest. I turn towards my bike.

What the fuck? There's a dude right by it. I launched myself pretty far so I can't see who it is. Only the silhouette. "Yo! That's my bike. Leave it!" I yell at him and slowly walk towards him. I reach for my phone and thankfully that didn't fly out of my pocket. He picks up my bike and I speed up my walking to a jog, "I just said that's my bike!" I shine my flashlight from my phone on the man. "I know who's bike it is!" I stop in my tracks at the man. My flashlight lights up his face like a scary ghost.

   "Weston..." I whisper. Do I run? No, nope. I'm not scared of him. That would give him an ego boost if I ran. "Hey, kid," Weston leaves the bike and walks in front of me. "Don't call me kid! You took money from Ward to beat me up. You're sick in the head!" I point towards him. "Some of us didn't get taken in by Kooks, Sam," He laces his hands together and shrugs.

"I got taken in because you're a piece of shit," I push him knowing what the consequences could be. "You're exactly like me. Y'know, when you were a kid and I'd yell at you, you'd cry and ask me why I don't love you. I don't love you because you're exactly like me and I hated myself at your age," He says it so calmly. Like he's not saying this shit to his own daughter. I don't cry or get emotional. That's what he wants.