“Oooh, you have a Tesla,” Lex says gleefully, eyeing my car and flipping his keys around his finger. “Can I drive this beautiful machine?”
“No.”
“Well, can I at least sit in it?”
I mull it over for exactly two seconds and then mutter, “Fine.”
I open the driver’s side door, and Lex slips into the passenger side, touching everything.
“Do you mind?” I ask as he moves his hands onto my seat and his fingers brush my leg. I don’t like him all up in my personal space. No, that’s reserved for Luke and Luke only.
“Sorry, just having a tactile experience here. Never been in one of these before.” He starts pressing the large touch screen. “This is very cool. Very, very cool. Now show me how it drives.”
And that is exactly how I ended up driving Lex across town in my car. Apparently, my hobby is collecting strays. Will I sleep with him next?
I eye him and shudder.
No.
He does nothing for me.
It’s Luke that I want.
“Take a left right here. No, not that left. This left. Your other left. Right. Yes, right here.”
I roll my eyes as I finally maneuver onto a dimly lit, crowded street. There happens to be one open space between two cars, and I narrowly manage to squeeze into it.
“What is this place?” I ask. “Are you kidnapping me?” At this point, I really don’t care if he is, I’m just curious.
Lex pulls his finger away from the touch screen that he’s been messing with the last ten minutes and rolls his eyes.
“If I were to kidnap you, you’d know. I can guarantee you that there’d be chloroform and rope involved.”
Well, that’s reassuring.
Lex nods to his left. “Anywho, Diablo is down there. He knows we’re coming.”
“Diablo?”
“Yeah, he’s a freaky fucker, so watch what you say. You don’t want to offend him.”
“How dreadfully exciting,” I drawl and step out of the car, following Lex down some dirty concrete stairs. What the hell am I doing? I could have gone to a corner store and had my phone fixed and yet here I am. Have I lost all self-preservation? Perhaps I hope this Diablo will squish me like a bug, and just put me right out of my misery.
These thoughts are only slightly concerning.
Lex eyes me as I pinch the bridge of my nose and then knocks on the dirty door in some kind of secret code.
A second later, a small skinny kid wrenches it open.
“Lexington,” the boy squeaks. His curly hair sticks up at all angles, and his wide brown eyes narrow as he takes me in.
“’Sup, Diablo,” Lex replies.
“This is Diablo?” I ask, raising my eyebrow. Where is the scary gangster with a gun? I’m slightly disappointed in this new development.
Apparently, this is my life now. Interacting with tweens in dark basements.
“You bringing strangers to my house now, huh? You know the rules, asswipe,” Diablo says, his gaze sliding over me once more.