The Will(178)

“Oh dear,” I murmured as the box spit out my second DVD.

I kept jabbing the screen as boy Taylor kept speaking.

“Today it was worse.”

“Oh dear,” I repeated.

“Yeah. She tripped when she took off. Took a header right in the cafeteria. Splat!”

I winced.

Poor Sofie.

Boy Taylor went on.

“Then, swear to God, it was like a teenaged Nicolas Sparks movie. Con moved in, picked her up, asked her if she was okay and she burst into tears right on the spot and took off. The whole school is yammering about it.”

This might not be good news.

“Good talk or bad talk?” I queried.

“Uh…Josie, Con’s hot, he got screwed over by Mia and Ellie so everyone’s thinkin’ he’s the misunderstood hero with a wounded heart. And Sofie’s pretty, sweet and far’s I know, never been kissed. Every girl who keeps a diary is going to be chronicling this story in pink ink with loads of hearts drawn around it.”

“I’ll take that as good,” I stated as the last DVD regurgitated itself from the tall red box.

“Yeah,” he replied and I could hear his laughter. Then he went on, “Oh, and Amber’s waving and yapping at me. She wants you to tell Mr. Spear she’s gonna be late tonight. She and Alexi are going to a movie after school then he’s taking her out to dinner.”

This was a smooth maneuver a la Amber, giving me this information to give her father who was resigned to his daughter dating but that didn’t mean he liked it.

“Tell her I’ll handle that,” I said.

“Cool,” he replied.

“Now, you have a good afternoon, young Taylor. Stay alert in class.”

“Will do. You have a good afternoon too, Josie,” he replied.

“I will. Take care and say hello to Amber and girl Taylor for me.”

“Consider it done. Later,” he bid his farewell.

“Good-bye, Taylor,” I bid mine, added the last DVD to my pile, turned and stopped dead.

Then I took a step back and ran into the Redbox.

“Stupid little bitch,” Uncle Davis hissed, leaning into me threateningly.

I stared at him, my body frozen, but my heart was slamming in my chest.

I’d taken him in that night he’d made his surprise and unwelcome visit but that night was dark.

Now, it was a shock to see what the years had done to him.

When I was young, he seemed so powerful, so threatening, so fearsome. He terrified me, even more than my father. I knew my father had violence in him, I’d witnessed it and experienced it from the moment I had memories.

But Uncle Davis somehow was worse.

Now he was a shell of his former self. A fragile, chipped one that appeared easily crushed should you trod on it.

I had these thoughts in a blink of an eye.

And in that same blink, Uncle Davis got close.

“Asshole who found me and told me about the wad Ma laid on you had that attorney’s firm on retainer. Now, seein’ as he has to pay for that shit outta pocket, he don’t feel like ponying up. Especially when that stupid bitch who told him she had it all covered and…f*ckin’…didn’t then told him it wasn’t gonna go easy. She also laid that shit on my door when the first judge she was tryin’ to get to fast track me to my rightful inheritance refused the case since he said me and Chess played some f*ckin’ prank on him a half a f*ckin’ century ago and he’s not over it so he can’t be impartial.”

I blinked as all this information, and there was a good deal of it, processed through me.

Uncle Davis seemed not to know, or possibly care, how much he was giving because he kept giving it.

“Now, that * Stone says it’s up to me. I got me a lawyer who’d take the case for a percentage of what he gets me and then your”—he jabbed a finger at me so close to my face, I made a futile attempt to press further into the Redbox—“lawyer buried him under so much shit, now he’s sayin’ he needs a retainer from me to stay on the case.”

I swallowed.

Uncle Davis’s eyes narrowed and he got closer, his mouth opening to say more but he didn’t get it out.

This was because someone close ordered, “Step away from Ms. Malone.”

I looked to my left to see Magdalene’s tall, handsome sheriff there, wearing a sheriff-style shirt but with jeans and although tall and handsome (something I noticed when I met him several days ago, seeing as he was that tall and that handsome, it was hard to miss—something I noticed even more now for that sheriff shirt was quite something on a man like him). However, tall and handsome he was, he was not happy.

“What’s goin’ on here?” I heard at that point and looked to my right to see Mickey bearing down on us.

But, alas, Uncle Davis was focused.

On me.

Thus I had no choice but to focus on him.

“I’m not payin’ for this shit, shit I shoulda got straight from Ma,” he announced.

“Sir, I asked…step away from Ms. Malone,” the sheriff repeated.

Uncle Davis again ignored him.

“That house and that money are mine, bitch, and the half I was willin’ to give you outta the goodness of my heart is really Chess’s and since I didn’t f*ck Chess over like you did, I figure that’s mine too.”