"Right?" Forrest asked dryly. "They're rude."
"Have you ever thought about not doing this?" I asked.
"I have," Forrest said. "Then someone else crosses my path, and I find myself dealing with them."
"What he said," Leif agreed. "It's like an addiction. Just one more. Just one more, then I'll stop."
"How do we stop?" Woody asked, his voice low, barely audible over the crashing of the waves. "How do we look away when we see the shit that happens? How do we just go, 'Okay, enough, you get to get away with it, and then the one after that, and the next prick, and the next prick'?"
"It's like opening a can of Pringles and trying to stop," Leif said with a chuckle. He opened an invisible can and started to shovel chips into his mouth.
"An endless can of Pringles," Woody said. "It'd be easier if I thought we'd run out of them. Humanity has a way of churning out assholes like there's a production line. An asshole factory out there somewhere." He gestured vaguely toward the water.
"If there was an asshole factory, that'd make this easier. We could blow it up." He mimed an explosion with his hands, throwing his fingers out to the sides.
"That would stop the production," Leif said. He seemed to like this idea.
"How inconsiderate of them, not to have an asshole factory," I said with a sigh.
"Extremely inconsiderate," Leif agreed. "What would be easier is if we could lure them all into one place, then blow it up."
"What did you say?" Forrest asked.
"I said it'd be good if we could lure them all into one place…" Leif trailed off. "Oh crap, did I just give you an idea?"
"Fuck," Woody said, long and low, as he rubbed the heel of his hand across his forehead. "We're not going to like this, are we?"
"Probably not," Forrest agreed. "That doesn't mean it's not a good idea."
"It doesn't mean itisa good idea," Woody said. "This might be the time you get us killed."
Forrest didn't deny the suggestion. "We should go back inside; it'll be getting dark out here soon."
"Are you scared of the dark?” Woody teased.
Forrest gave him a dry look. "No, I'm aware of the kind of people that sneak around in the dark."
No one argued with him. Instead, we grabbed our trash and headed inside.
CHAPTER 10
SABLE
"You know what I like about beds like this?" Leif said, plopping down onto the mattress. He rolled one way, then the other, making the iron bed frame squeak.
"Let me think for a moment." I lay down beside him. "Is it because they look pretty?"
He chuckled. "No, it's because I can make them rattle all night long." He reached for me, lying beside me, one leg draped over mine.
"All night long, hmm?" I asked. That sounded good to me.
"All night long." He nodded confidently.
"Yeah, right, one round and you'll be snoring," Woody said, leaning against the doorframe.
"Are you casting aspersions on my stamina?" Leif asked without looking over at him.
"No, but I am." Forrest walked right past Woody and sat down on the other side of me.
