Bud Smith - F 250

I pantomimed shooting June in the head at close range. She pantomimed falling over dead. Seth took out a smoke and lit up. June asked if we wanted anything to drink.

“I have a nice bottle of gin.”

Seth said, “Bring the bottle, please.”

“Your wish is not only my command, but also my pleasure,” said June.

“Vous es le meilleur.”

Alone now with him, everything around us got quiet, except for Denise, who was still singing her songs and splashing around. The noise of the party was still raging on, but all that seemed to fade. It was just me and Seth, leaning on the balcony, when he looked at me and said, “We’ve got to go to L.A.”

“Yeah, I said, we do.” I didn’t really believe it though. I just said it because he needed to hear it.

“We’ll get a little ratty house out there, and we’ll play shows all up and down the Sunset Strip.”

I didn’t even know what that entailed. I just nodded my head. Seth was obliterated. I didn’t have the heart to get into it now. Ethan was gone. If we’d had a chance at all of going to California, it would have been riding on his coattails. His coin.

“There’s just so many things I wanna do with my life, and I can’t do any of them here,” he said.

“And you think you’ll be able to do them there?”

“I hope so. I feel like I’m dying here. You don’t?”

“Maybe, but is that real?”

He hugged me. “Come on, bro. I need you to help me get outta here.”

“Alright, alright,” I said.

He let go, slouched on the column, and looked at me sideways. “Feral’s already got the van,” he said. “You teach him how to play bass, and we’ll drive cross country in the A-Team van. Party in every city on the way. It’ll be good.”

“Sure,” I said, although I’d already tried to show Feral how to play bass many times and it just never stuck.

“I’ve got to get outta here,” he repeated. “Denise is coming too though.”

“We’ll go. I just have to finish this job,” I said, pointing down at the boulder wall. “Almost done here. Then I got one more quick one. We’ll take that money. We’ll go try California.”

I’d been there. I knew there weren’t any answers in California that you couldn’t find in New Jersey. I didn’t have the heart to confess that to Seth. Not then. So I just left it at, “For sure. We’ll go.”

He smiled, relieved. His jaw quivered. I’d never seen him so trashed.

June came back out holding three gin gimlets with little wedges of lime in them. She passed them to us. Seth threw his back in one gulp. June looked away uncomfortably.

I said, “Hey Seth, have you ever told June Doom how KISS is the best band ever in the history…”

“Fuck you, man,” Seth said, “I’m going in the hot tub.”

He pulled down his pants and climbed in the hot tub bare-assed.

“Jesus! How drunk are you?” I laughed.

“Oh! Worse than you’d ever wanna know.”

Denise howled with shrill laughter. Then, abruptly, she said, “Ethan’s a pussy. He can’t sing, and he can’t get it up.”

“I wanted to go to L.A.,” Seth said.

“So go to L.A.,” Denise said, kissing his neck. “I’ll come with you. We’ll steal one of my dad’s garbage trucks.”

She really was a riot, that girl.

“You’d do that for me, girl? You’d boost me a trash truck?”

“I love you, fucker.”

“Well, I love you too, even though—”

“What?”

“You’re Italian.”

“Oh,” she laughed. “You…” She kissed him. “Shit. I gotta pee,” Denise said.

June pointed into the house. “There’s a bathroom at the end of the hall.”

Denise thanked her and got out of the tub. Walked into the house dripping wet.

June sighed, “Shit, she shoulda dried off.”

It wasn’t two minutes before K Neon came back out onto the balcony. “Who was in the house all wet?! It’s soaked!”

She looked at Seth in the hot tub with his arms stretched out behind him.

“Wasn’t me,” he said.

“K, be cool,” June pleaded.

K wasn’t gonna hear that. She started mouthing off about Denise. “That little slut… That little ho.”

Right away, Denise was in the doorway.

“Shut up, you blonde bitch,” Denise said, shoving K hard.

I got out of my chair. Seth sank down into the water. June flinched. K turned around to face Denise, and — wham — got an open hand slap to the face. K fell over, shocked.

“You want some more?”

I pulled Denise back into the house. She kept squirming away. Seth jumped out of the jacuzzi, scooping up his corduroy shorts. He followed behind me and Denise in the house, tracking more water. I took them out to the front porch and said, “Denise, sorry, but you gotta leave.”

Seth was cool about it. Denise was still yelling and mouthing off about K.

“We’re outta here in a week!”

I walked them all the way out to the road, where Seth’s Nissan was parked, but when we got to his car, I said, “I’m good to drive. Let me take you home in my truck.”

“No way, man,” Seth said, “I’m fine. I mean, I’m not, but you’ll crash anyway. I’ve never crashed into anything — no matter how fucked up I’ve been.”

“Just get in,” I said as I opened the door to my truck and shoved him onto the bench seat. Denise was screaming with laughter as she helped me shove Seth in the cab. After that, we cruised across town without anyone putting up a fight. They’d get the car in the morning. But Denise had more to say.

“Those girls are assholes.”

“They’re not assholes,” I said.

“No, they totally are.”

“Okay, maybe one of them is an asshole. But June is fine.”

“You’re a little biased, because they’re sucking your pole,” Seth said.

“Trish said they’re cunts too,” Denise said.

“Well how the hell would she know that? She’s barely even talked to either K or June.”

“I can spot a bitch a mile away. I’ve got an eagle eye for cunty bitches, boy. They’re everywhere on my campus. I could climb the bell tower and look down and identify them all if I wanted.”

“You’re too funny.”

“These chicks are no good.”

“Dead wrong,” I said.

“I’ll punch them both in the mouth if they say one more thing to me,” Denise said.

“You’re not punching anybody,” Seth said.

“Oh? Just fucking watch me!”

“How you gonna do that if I got both your hands…”

He grabbed Denise and pinned her against the door, leaning in, kissing her. She tried to dodge him but couldn’t.

“Lee! Get this freak off me!”

But she was laughing. Seth was bumping into me, making the truck go all over the road, bumping into the goddamned steering wheel. I crossed over the bridge and cut through the development to Lagoon House.

“So, are they like, both your girlfriend, or what?”

“Who knows? I certainly don’t. They don’t know.”

“I just think it’s messed up, and I don’t want to see you get hurt,” she said, leaning over Seth. “You’re a good guy. And when people screw around, it always ends up in some kind of big confrontation, ya know? Just be careful.”

I dropped them off. Seth said he’d just have Denise drive him to get his car in the morning. All was well. They stumbled into the house, and I drove off.

Most of the cars were still there at the party. On my way walking back up the seashell driveway, I found Feral covering something up with a drop cloth in the back of his van. He seemed real surprised to see me.

“Where you been?”

“Drove fucking Seth and Denise back.”

“What the hell happened with them?” he asked.

“Ahhh, a fight.”