I open the hood and look down at the old, dirty engine. Dad has had this pick up since he was seventeen and was passed down by his dad, and I have to be honest, it sure looks like it’s taken a beating or two in its life.
As I look over the engine trying to figure out if maybe something has come loose, a noise to my right steals my attention. I look across at the neighbor’s place to see Rocko watching me with an amused grin on his face.
The guy is a serious creeper. He was a senior at Haven Falls last year and is nothing but trouble. I can’t stand the guy. All the girls were relieved when he left school, but not me. I wasn’t lucky enough to get rid of him. I still see the loser every damn day.
“Can I help you?” I question as he continues to stare. Getting no response from him, I shake my head. “Either come over here and be helpful or fuck off.”
Rocko scoffs before walking forward and dropping down into his shitbox car and screeching out of his parents’ driveway. What a loser. I roll my eyes as I get back to my task. I swear, that guy is seriously going nowhere, the only thing he has going for himself is his sheer size. He’s probably working for the Russian mob as a muscle man…either that, or he’s a janitor.
I pull my phone out of my back pocket, cursing the rain as I do, shaking the thoughts of Rocko from my mind.
I find dad’s name at the top of my recently called list, as let’s face it, he’s literally the only person I’ve called over the past eight months. Things used to be different. Very different. I used to have a friend, a best friend. We were so close to the point I’d considered her my sister, but then things changed; and now, I’m stuck here alone, handling everything she left behind.
I press down on dad’s name and he answers almost immediately. “Squish,” he bellows down the line. “What’s going on? Everything alright?”
“Yeah,” I grumble. “I didn’t realize you were heading out.”
“Sorry. The job came in late last night and I wanted to get an early start on it. You were already asleep. Didn’t want to wake ya.”
“K,” I sigh, jamming the phone between my shoulder and ear as I fiddle around with the engine. After spending so much time in the truck, I like to think I know what I’m looking at, but truth be told, I’m drawing a blank.
“What’s going on?” Dad questions again. “Shouldn’t you be at school already?”
“Yeah,” I tell him. “The truck won’t start.”
“Shit,” he groans. “What do you mean? Is she out of gas?”
“No,” I tell him. “I filled her up yesterday. It’s just not…turning over,” I say, scrunching up my face and hoping that’s the right phrase to use for this situation.
“Fuck,” he grumbles, lowly to himself. “What about the oil? I haven’t changed that in a while.”
I roll my eyes and let out a huff before placing the phone down on the side of the hood. I check over the oil, and just my luck, it more than needs changing. Not to mention, it smells like a rat crawled up in there and is peacefully rotting away.
I groan realizing that there’s no chance in hell of me fixing this on my own. I wouldn’t know the first thing about changing the oil in an old pick up. Not to mention, if I even attempted, the truck would probably go up in flames. “Yeah, it’s the oil,” I tell dad, picking the phone back up.
“Crap,” he says. “I won’t be home for days. You’ll have to walk. Maybe call a mechanic this afternoon to come have a look at it.”
“Shit,” I grumble. I guess there goes my shot at making it to school before the bell. I think it over, calling a mechanic means handing out cash that we simply don’t have. I can handle walking for a few days. Dad will come home, fix her up, and she will be good as new next week.
Like I said, I can handle it.
“I’ll manage,” I tell dad before saying a quick goodbye and hanging up.
I put the hood down and walk around the side of the pick up before grabbing my jacket and bag off the passenger’s side seat. I pull the jacket around my body, letting it hang open as I do my best to shield my face from the drizzle. I mean, I could run back inside and search out an umbrella, but that’s taking more time which I don’t have.
It’s only a ten minute walk. I’ll be fine, despite the fact that the bell will be ringing in about two minutes.
I start making a walk for it, doing my best to avoid the puddles which have appeared on the sidewalk overnight.