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“Dude, chill out. I just wanna buy some of your weed, don’t make this a big deal,” Parker said, losing the nice act and sounding a little exasperated.
“I said piss off! Get outta here!” the kid said, practically yelling now.
“Calm down, little man,” Paige stepped in, “or you’ll have security coming over here and we’ll have to explain how we caught two little boys pretending to be grown ups, and then you’ll get to deal with them. Now sell him some of your weed, or we can just take it, choice is yours.”
Smaller boy nodded his head vigorously and reached for the bag, but she'd known bigger kid wouldn’t be as easy to intimidate. He looked like the kind of kid who wasn’t really bad, but was determined to try to be – he would never get up the balls to steal a car stereo or break into a home, but he would probably get addicted to weed and impregnate the first girl he ever slept with; not to so much a bad guy, just a bad decision maker.
Bigger kid held the baggie away from smaller kid.
“I don’t gotta do shit for either of you! So you, mister, can get the hell out of here and take this bitch with -”
Play time is over.
Paige reached out and slapped the kid upside the head. Not hard; like how a person would playfully smack a younger sibling. It was enough to shock him. At the same time, she yanked the entire bag of weed out of his hand. He stared at her, mouth gaping open. She noticed smaller boy had a small smile on his face.
“This ‘bitch’ now owns your weed, so get the fuck out of here before I go find your parents and tell them what a rude little shit their son is,” she snapped, leaning towards his face as she passed the baggie back to Parker.
She could tell he wanted to say something, or do something. A red stain crept over the skin on his neck and onto his cheeks, and his hands balled into fists. He leaned back towards her and she almost thought he might try to swing at her, but he flicked a glance behind her, at where Parker was standing. Parker was a big guy. The kid glared back at Paige before kicking the dirt in front of her.
“Youarea bitch!” he yelled before scrambling out of her reach, running off away from them.
“No shit!” she yelled back.
Smaller kid burst out laughing and turned and ran after his friend. Paige sighed and turned back towards Parker, who was grinning from ear to ear. She tried to glare at him but had trouble holding it.
“'No shit'?” he echoed her statements. She shrugged.
“Well, it was the truth. I wasn’t going to deny him that,” she replied, and Parker threw back his head, laughing.
“Man, I’m gonna have you handle everything from now on. I’ll call you my little enforcer,” he joked as he shoved the baggie into his pants pocket. They headed out of container van area and towards the car.
“I like it. So are you a burn out, or what? You followed that scent like a hound,” she pointed out. He shook his head, unlocking his door. He climbed in and leaned over to unlock hers.
“No, I only smoke occasionally. I just picked up on the smell and thought hey, adventure! You know? I mean, middle of the day in a Walmart parking lot? Who is that stupid except for a couple of kids. I figured I could flash some twenties and they’d be all excited to hand over half of whatever they had, but this eighth has hardly been touched. I bet that joint they were smoking was the only bit they took out. Clearly, your way is better,” he explained as she fell into her seat.
“That is always true, remember that. And technically half of that bag is mine. I did the heavy work,” she informed him. He raised his eyebrows at her and started up the car.
“What, are you like a burn out?” he mocked her, his voice high. She swatted him in the arm.
“Hey, don’t mess with The Enforcer. Besides, it chills me out. You’ll probably appreciate having me smoke weed,” she laughed. He gunned the engine and peeled out of the spot.
“But I like you all tense and pissy,” he responded.
Paige punched him in the arm.
*
“ITOLD YOU.Chilled. Out.”
Parker nodded, not saying anything in response as he continued to hold his breath. He leaned back against the side of his car and crossed his arms. Paige was next to him, sitting cross-legged on top of the hood. She sighed and stretched her arms above her head, leaning from side to side. Parker finally exhaled, the smoke almost not visible.
They had driven for a long time, stopping to eat and sort through their Walmart junk occasionally. Parker had neatly put all his food stuff into his new styrofoam cooler and put his new clothes into the duffel bag he had in the trunk. Paige’s new clothing lay sprawled all across the back seat. Most of it was black; Parker wasn’t surprised.
Then, just before sunset, they'd spotted a “modern campground!” advertisement on a billboard, “just twelve miles ahead!”. They'd looked at each other, smiled, and both said they hadn’t gone camping in forever. Parker pulled off into a turn-around spot to call the campground and Paige had pulled the baggie of weed from his pocket. While he made reservations for a cabin, Paige had expertly rolled them a joint. Then they got out and watched the sun set over Mississippi, passing the roll back and forth.
Now the sky was a burnt orange at the top, brighter at the horizon. Paige hadn’t spoken much but he noticed she smiled a lot more at everything. She had a nice smile. He liked her the way she was normally, but he had to admit, it was nice being able to talk without a snarky comment being made after everything he said.
“I don’t make a snarky comment after everything,” she suddenly said, still looking out at the sunset. Parker snapped his head towards her.
