Page 73 of Angels Fall

“What? Trespassing, underage drinking, and hooking up with skanks?”

“Hey!” I point my finger at her. “They were not skanks! They were delicate flowers just starting to blossom into womanhood!”

She drops her chin and gives me a bored expression.

“And Maybe... Like... Five. Skanks. Tops,” I say.

She pats me on the knee and opens the door, letting in the chilly night air.

I hop out of the cab and open the rear door to grab the drone from the back seat. She opens the rear door on her side and snatches up her backpack.

“Careful with it,” she says.

“What am I gonna do? Drop it? Oh, shit!” I shout, as I pretend to drop it. I’m a practical joker. Everybody loves it. Except Maddie, I guess.

“Dude, don’t be…you. With my drone, please.”

I nod and proceed to be overly precious about handling the fancy flying machine. She rolls her eyes and pushes the door shut. I’m killing this date so far. Fucking killing it!

A guy in a security guard outfit comes strolling up to us. As he approaches, Maddie asks, “This your friend?”

“Uh… Yeah,” I offer back, probably too tentatively.

“What?” she asks, sharply.

“Nothing. Just he’s not exxxxaaaactly my friend… Exactly,” I draw out.

“Fuck does that mean?”

“Nothing, just—Hey, man!” I say convivially, putting up one hand. “You Terry?”

“Yup,” he says back.

“Hey, man, I’m Tyler,” I say, offering him a shake.

He’s a young guy. Early twenties. Kinda skinny. Dressed in the poorly-fitted, not-quite-brown, not-quite-grey garb of privately contracted security personnel. He doesn’t take my hand. That’s fine. I don’t need him to be my BFF.

I set the drone down on the hood of my car, open the driver’s side door, reach over into the glove box, and pull out a manila envelope. One of the ones with the clasp closure. Not the self-adhesive kind. Those suck. I mean this one has adhesive too, but it also has the clasp. Because that’s how you can be sure it stays closed. This isn’t my mind rambling. This is the process I went through briefly when deciding which envelope I should stuff ten thousand dollars in cash into.

“Here you go.” I hand it to him. He sticks his finger in the flap and just rips it open. (Jesus. Don’t even know why I try sometimes.) He looks inside. Then casts a glance at me while still looking inside. Then twists his neck like somehow he’ll be able to see it better from a different angle. Weirdo.

“We good?” I ask.

He makes a sucking sound with his teeth and nods, then wanders back to the security station and closes the door. Sweet. That was easy. Now we’ll just—

“What the hell was that?” Maddie asks, rounding the Defender.

“What? That’s Terry. Me and him go way back.”

“Uh-huh. And what was in the envelope that you handed your old buddy Terry?”

“We gonna fly this drone or what?” I ask with excitement. Because, y’know, fun-loving Tyler. That’s what they call me.

“Did you just pay that guy so that we can be here?”

“Um, NO.” She looks at me with… not skepticism. What do you call it when…? Oh! Yeah. Like I’m full of shit. That’s it.

“No,” I almost plead. “Honestly, NO. I did not pay him so that we can be here.”