“I saw you Saturday. Today is Monday. There was only one day I didn’t see your ugly ass.”
Moss’s hand flies to his chest, “Deputy Gardiner, you wound me.”
“He using his mean words again?” Fox asks, smile on his face as usual as he saunters in.
“Yeah, but it’s fine. Payback is a bitch. I’m just sorry you’re gonna get caught up in it,” Moss says to Fox, looking at least a little bit guilty.
“What’s going on?” I ask, leaning forward, elbows resting on my desk. Hopefully we’re closer to shutting down what’s brewing and getting outta here.
“Let’s just say I was coerced into doing civic duty this morning, and you two are gonna give me a hand.” Moss jingles his keys in his hand, tipping his chin to the door. “We’ll take the department SUV. Be shitty of me to make you get into a patrol car backseat.” He grins as Fox calls shotgun.
I slide into the backseat, kicking Fox’s as he moves it back to accommodate his long legs. Everything about him is opposite to me. We’re around the same height, but where he is lean, I’m stocky. He’s blonde, my hair is almost black. His cock is long, mine is thick.
“I’m sure you know Jazz is the art teacher at Rose Grove Special Ed Center. She’s organized some important people from the community and different emergency services to swing by. We’re repping RGPD.”
“Are we doing art with them or something?” Fox asks, brow raised.
“Nah, the kids will do the art project, but meeting us and being able to ask questions and things
help them learn who they can trust in the community, and who to go to for help. Kids in her class have a variety of needs - Down Syndrome, autism, nonverbal or hearing impaired, that sort of thing.”
He pulls into the drive at a cute school that I have ridden past a few times. It suits Jazz. The school is surrounded by safety fences and they have a large colorful playground, with swings that look like you could lie down on them. Everything is brightly colored and textured looking. Moss parks and we follow him through the cheerful entrance, into the school office where we wait for our visitor’s badges to be made up.
“Is that Lego?” I watch as the receptionist places colorful Lego blocks on a thin, flat piece
“Yeah, Lego came out with a braille range, so I’m just making up your names in braille so the kids can feel them.”
I thank her as I take my cool Lego name badge attached to a lanyard, which makes much more sense than a badge because I’m sure people don’t really want blind kids pawing their chests or anything. Fox takes a peek at mine before holding up his witha grin. He’s loving this. I know he has some plan to get Jasmine to notice us, but I’m dubious as fuck.
“This way,” I follow Moss since he looks like he knows exactly where we’re going. “I help out with her classroom set up every summer,” he says, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.
We come to a stop in front of a door that’s decorated with large colorful paint splotches cut out of textured paper with the words “Be art-rageous!” on the front, with Lego blocks underneath spelling out the same thing I’m assuming. Moss knocks twice then leads the way. I take in the amount of art on the walls, the hustle and bustle, the excited children’s voices swirling chaotically around me and in the middle of it all, standing stock still with a beaming smile stretched across her face is Jasmine.
“Fuck me,” Fox murmurs under his breath, before we lock gazes. I’m not giving in just yet, they deserve better, but still. I can feel something settle in my chest. A warmth. A knowing.
I’m just not sure if I deserve it.
Fox
My gaze wanders from Nitro’s, to where Jazz is standing in the center of a group of her students, a smile on her face. She’s like the fucking sun, a bronze goddess and we’re just the chumps in her orbit. I take her in, from head to toe but I’m interrupted by something ramming into the soft part just above my ankle, taking my breath away. I curse like a motherfucker inside my head before plastering a smile on my face.
“Oops, sorry Mr.” A little boy with huge glasses and cornrowslooks up at me from his motorized wheelchair before fiddling with his joystick and looking set to take off in the other direction
“Jackson! What do we do when we accidentally run into someone?”
Jackson looks at Jasmine, then at me, then back at her again whilst I see her widen her eyes at him.
He sighs the loudest sigh I’ve ever heard come out of a small body “Sorry Officer.” He goes to move away, hesitates a moment then turns, his eyes large behind his glasses “Please don’t send me to the Cancel Chamber, I’ll never last in there, I’m not pretty enough!” I stare down at him whilst Nitro snorts.
“The Cancel Chamber?”
“Yeah. Prison. The pokey. The big house. The cancel chamber, cos you’re canceled. Get it?” I know that voice. That is the voice nightmares are made of.
“Rodney, what a surprise,” Nitro says, grinning directly at me as Rodney turns from the paramedic he was talking to.
He makes a beeline for us, leaving Elio to show the paramedic his favorite book on medieval torture. I’ve seen him with it at the clubhouse.
“Rodney! Stop right there. What do you say before you move on to speaking with another guest?” He looks at the paramedic behind before giving him the peace sign, then the love heart sign.
