Shattered Ties(13)

Ms. Mason walked in just then and instructed us to open our history books. Thank God. I could focus on school instead of stupid shit, like where Emma was going after school. I ignored everyone around me for the rest of class, and I was the first one out of the room when the bell rang.

I walked to the cafeteria and grabbed my lunch before sitting at the same table as yesterday. Charles and Sean were sitting at the table already. I mumbled hello as I sat down, but other than that, I ignored them both. I wasn’t in the mood to be sociable, and they could just deal with it. I shoveled food in my mouth quickly. I was in a hurry to escape the noise of the people around me. I just wanted to be alone. First, my car, and then Emma and Todd—today was not my day. The sooner I could get out of this place, the better. I finished my food and said good-bye. I stood and dumped my tray.

I spent the rest of the day just like the morning as I ignored everyone. I just want out of here. As soon as the final bell rang, I was out the door and walking to the parking lot to look at my Jeep again. Maybe there was something small I could do to keep it going until I could afford a new starter. Yeah, right. I knew my luck, and I knew that I would need a new starter regardless. Too bad money didn’t grow on trees for me like it did for the rest of these *s.

I didn’t even bother to lock up my car this morning. I mean, come on, who would steal my Jeep with all these other fancy cars around? As soon as I reached my car, I opened the glove compartment and pulled out my keys. I stuck them in the ignition and turned, expecting nothing. To my surprise, my car started instantly.

“What the f*ck?” I said as I stared at the steering wheel.

I shut my car off and got out. I ignored the strange looks I received as I got down underneath my car. Andy had shown me where the starter was this morning, so I knew where to look. My eyes widened in disbelief as I stared at a brand-new starter. What the hell is going on?

I knew that there was no way Andy had found one already. He was still in school, so that left only one other culprit since I hadn’t even told my mother about my car breaking down. I knew she would try to help pay for it, and I didn’t want to put any extra financial strain on her. Only Emma and Andy had known what was wrong with my car. She had to have been the one who had it repaired for me.

But the big question was...why? Why would she do this for me when she barely knows me? I wasn’t used to people helping me, and I wasn’t sure what to do. Normally, I would assume that whoever had helped me had done it with ulterior motives, but I doubted that was the case with Emma. There was nothing I could give her that she didn’t already have. I was stumped, but I was determined to figure out why she had helped me.

I had to be at work soon, but I would corner her tomorrow before school and ask her why she’d helped me. I stood back up and grabbed a notebook from my bag. After scribbling a quick note on a piece of paper, I ripped it out and walked to Emma’s car. I stuck it under the windshield wiper and returned to my car, satisfied that she would know she had been busted. I pulled away from the school and floored it to make it to work on time.

I sighed as I stared out the window at the ocean beside me as I drove. It had been too long since I’d been out there on a board. Next to tattooing, surfing was my life. There was nothing like being out there—just you against the ocean. I had crashed and burned a lot when I first decided to try it, but now, I conquered it most of the time. I made a mental note to get Andy after school tomorrow and go surfing since I wasn’t scheduled at the shop.

I pulled into the shop’s parking lot and shut off my car. I’d been wound tight all day, but at the familiar sight of the shop, I felt myself relax. This was where I belonged. This was home. I’d made no attempts to fit in at Hamrick High, and I didn’t plan to. I had nothing in common with those people, and I was okay with that. I didn’t need a bunch of stuck-up snobs to tell me how I wasn’t good enough to be at their school.

The bell above the door dinged as I opened it and slipped inside. As soon as I was walked in, I could hear The Amity Affliction’s “Open Letter” playing. They were one of my favorite bands, and I instantly perked up.

Rick was sitting behind the counter with a pencil in his hand. He glanced up at the sound of the bell. “Afternoon, Jesse.”

“Rick.” I nodded as I walked past him to go into the room we used as our employee room.

It was small to begin with, but with the table, two chairs, and lockers that

Rick had shoved in, there was barely enough room to walk around. I threw

my bag in the locker that I used, and then I slipped off my school shirt to change into one of the shirts with Rick’s Tattoo written across the front of it.

I walked back into the shop and stepped behind the counter with Rick to see what he was working on. As usual, his artistic ability blew my mind. The piece he was messing around with now was so real that it practically jumped off the page. It was of a young girl, no older than ten, sitting on a beautiful white horse.

“That’s amazing,” I said as I watched his hand move across the paper, shading around her face.

“Thanks. It’s going to be a back piece. My client’s daughter was big into horse riding competitions, and she was killed while performing. Something spooked the horse, it threw her, and she was trampled while her mother watched,” Rick said as he stared down at his work.

“Shit,” I said. I couldn’t even imagine watching that happen to someone I loved, especially a kid.