Daddy’s girl.
The waver of her voice as she called out her name yesterday stuck with me. How nervous she had been, yet the fight she put up. It was admirable. The strength she thought she possessed made me grin. I pulled my pack of cigarettes out from the inside pocket of my leather jacket and slipped one out of the sleeve. I heard someone already strike up a match to hold to my face when Benji’s vo
ice piped up.
And his complaining blew out the flame in front of me.
“The fuck? I knew you had cigs on you. Give me one.”
I glared at him. “No.”
“Dude.”
“Benj.”
“I’ll just go get my own, then.”
I nodded. “You do that.”
Another match struck up and I stuck the cigarette between my lips. I sucked on it until the damn thing lit, staring Benji down the entire time. No way I’d let this fucker pledge us. He had better things coming with his life. He was destined for more than we were. He deserved a nicer life than this one provided.
I mean, I could only clean up a motorcycle gang so much.
“Whatever,” Benji murmured.
Rupert nudged me. “Can I get one of those?”
I handed him the pack and my cousin scoffed.
“Yeah. Great. Rub it in my face, you little fucker.”
I blew smoke his way. “You wanna try that again?”
He waved his hand in his face and the guys chuckled at him.
“Can’t handle the smoke? Don’t ask for the cigarette.”
“College is where you’re needed, boy. Not here.”
“That rust bucket can’t keep up with us anyway.”
“You get laid with that rust bucket over there?”
Benji grumbled. “I hate you all.”
Rupert puffed on his cigarette. “So tell us more about these college girls you meet up with.”
Benji glared at him. “Why should I?”
“Because the man asked you a question,” I said.
All eyes were on me as my cousin shook his head.
“Girls like them, they don’t have sexual boundaries. They know how to have a good time. And there’s practically a party every damn night on campus somewhere. We had a party in our dorm last night. Multi-level. There’s been talk of another one striking up around nine. But I don’t know much about that.”
Rupert snickered. “Why not?”
Benji paused. “Because I’ve been walking around campus to familiarize myself with what my route is.”