Chapter Twelve

“But what am I supposed to do with this?” Pete grabbed at a section of cloud that was tearing away from the mass he held in his arms. “You can’t…”

“Only rum bun gun,” the tree creature said. He started walking away. “Only rum bun…”

Three loud bangs interrupted the scene. Where was he? What was…

Three more loud bangs had Pete bolting upright in bed. What the fuck was happening? Was he on fire? Was the house on fire?

It wasn’t until the bangs repeated again that he gathered his wits to yell “Who is it?”

“It’s Jeff and Brian! Are you okay?”

Pete blinked and looked at his alarm clock. It was off. He picked up his phone, plugged it into the charger next to his bed. No dice.

“Hold on!” Pete got out of bed and grabbed a pair of jeans from the floor. He put them on and flipped the light switch. “I think my power’s off!”

“It’s two p.m., dude!” Brian’s head appeared outside his bedroom window. “We thought you’d gotten whacked by the Double Eagles!”

“I’m...hey, get off there! Those are my hollyhocks!” Pete flung the curtains open. The daylight registered in his entire brain at once. He groaned and held a hand up to shade his eyes. “It’s what?”

“It’s two in the afternoon,” Jeff said. “We’ve been trying to get a hold of you…”

“Yeah, my power’s off,” Pete said. “I must have overslept or something. I...I had a late night last night.” He’d fallen asleep in his car in Seth’s driveway, actually, and he didn’t get home until two in the morning. No wonder he hadn’t noticed the electricity situation.

“Where did you go?” Brian said.

“Umm?” Pete blinked. “I went on a date with this guy I met online.”

“A guy you met online or a guy you looked up online?”

“Can you come inside the house to talk to me like a normal person?” Pete closed the curtains on Brian and found a T-shirt to put on.

Once he was dressed, Pete unlocked the front door and let Jeff and Brian inside. “At least I know they’ll find my body if I die in here,” he said.

“That depends on the cause of death,” Brian said. “Double Eagles are great about hiding evidence.”

“What?” Pete said. “I haven’t even…”

“That drive-by shooting was all over the news, dumbass,” Jeff said. “So we know they had a wedding last night. We figured you had been invited because you were being all sketchy about where you were.”

“Look, I needed to return a paper to him,” Pete said. “He had a complication with his injury and he hasn’t been in class.”

“And one thing just led to another,” Jeff said, pulling out a chair and flopping down at the kitchen table. “Is his dick really as big as they say it is?”

“He’s my student!” Pete said. “I would never…”

“Oh my God, it’s not like you’re holding some eighteen-year old’s grade hostage over a hand job,” Brian said.

“Wow, that’s not a weirdly specific fantasy.” Jeff frowned at his phone. “There’s no signal.”

“Yeah, I have to have power to get cell signal,” Pete said. “Let’s go into town. It’s a perfect day for my mom to have a meltdown because she can’t reach me on my phone.”

“Nice deflection,” Brian said. “So you have hooked up with him.”

“Look, it’s complicated,” Pete said. “I really don’t want to get involved too deeply with this guy.”

“He is pretty cute, though,” Jeff said.

“And I mean...I don’t know.” Pete shook his head and chugged his glass of water. “He’s going through a super rough time right now. He doesn’t know if he’s ever going to be able to get out of the wheelchair, and I just…” He shrugged and put the glass down.

“Oh, my God,” Jeff said. “Are you trying to turn him away from a life of crime?”

“I’m not that stupid,” Pete said. “Just, you know. It feels like he could use some people in his life who aren’t criminals. And he’s a pretty cool guy.”

“Yep, it’s huge.” Brian nodded to Jeff, his face somber.

“Oh, fuck you,” Pete said. “Let’s go get lunch.”

***

They found a booth at Burgertopia that had an electrical outlet, and Pete let his phone charge for a few minutes before turning it on. Shockingly, he didn’t have a single meltdown in any of his inboxes.

“You should call my uncle,” Brian said.

“Yeah, just a second,” Pete said. He had a few texts from Seth: did he get home safe, and thanks for coming to the wedding, and also Pete never brought his quiz back, but Seth had a session at Hell’s Gate that would be over around four in the afternoon.

Pete looked up at his friends and dialed his landlord. It went to voicemail. “Hey, this is Pete Miller,” he said. “Um, power went out at some point yesterday or last night, so if you could send a maintenance guy over to fix it, that would be great. Call me back, five-five-five seven-four-six eight-one-three-one, thanks! Bye.”

“Did he text you?” Jeff said.

“And more importantly, what are you going to text him back?” Brian took a long drink of his soda. “Work has been boring since Rose quit. I need to know about these things.”

“Look, we’re not...it’s not serious at all,” Pete said. “We go to the same tattoo shop, and we’ve seen each other like, twice.”

“He invited you to their secret compound to go to a family wedding,” Brian said. “I mean, he has to at least like you.”

“I just don’t want to get into a thing that’s going to get me murdered,” Pete said. “Or arrested. Or fired.”

“It kind of seems like you’re already in a thing,” Jeff said. “Just roll with it! Nobody says you have to move in with him.”

“I don’t know how you casually date a gang member,” Pete said. “I feel like it’s, you know, in or out.”

“Well. You’re not wrong.” Brian was flipping through the menu. “But since you’ve already come this far, you might as well enjoy your boy toy. Just don’t be dumb about it.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m already being dumb about it,” Pete said. But under the table, he was already texting Seth back.

***

The tattoo shop was fairly dead for this time of the afternoon. One of Seth’s brothers—the one who’d just gotten married—was over in the far corner having something done on his arm.

Seth was on Danielle’s table, lying on his stomach with his eyes closed while she did some of the color work on the angel’s wings. As long as Pete refrained from talking, Danielle let him hover behind her and watch her work.

As intimate as he’d been with Seth, he felt like he wasn’t supposed to see the scars that cut across his muscular back. There was a big incision line over a good portion of his spine, and though the tattoo was covering it, Pete could see the raised surface like rope going across Seth’s skin.

There were scars on his hip, too. Not as massive as the surgical scar, but you could tell he’d been damn near ripped to shreds in his accident. He hadn’t yet started covering those up. One of them had deformed an existing tattoo of a skull surrounded by roses.

As the session neared its end, Danielle spent more time stepping back and squinting at her work. She would mutter to herself as she cleaned the tattoo gun and dipped it in ink pots.

“You busy tonight?” Seth said during one of these breaks.

“I’ve got lab reports to grade,” Pete said. “Other than that, not much.”

Seth nodded. He said nothing while Danielle worked on his ink for another few minutes.

When she took her next break, Seth said, “I oughta be back in class next week.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard,” Pete said.

“Nah, man,” Seth said. “I’m about to go nuts with all these motherfuckers still in town.”

“No drama like family drama, huh?” Pete said.

Seth grunted and shut his eyes again as Danielle kept working.

“You been to the Clubhouse?” Danielle didn’t look at Pete as she spoke.

“Um.” Pete blinked. “Yeah, I was there for the wedding reception…”

Danielle nodded and didn’t say anything for most of a minute. “You’ll get to know some of the family drama,” she said. “Okay, Seth, that’s all I’m doing today.”

“Thanks, sister,” Seth said.

“You doing okay caring for it?” she said, taking off her inky gloves and swapping them for a clean pair. “I got another order in of that frog juice.”

“Yeah, I’ll take a jar of that,” Seth said.

“I’ll get it to you at the counter.” She picked up a paper towel and squeezed some antiseptic on it from a plastic bottle. “How about you, Professor? You getting anything done today?”

“Nah,” Pete said. “I’m just giving him a ride home.”

Danielle gave him a knowing smirk that made Jeff and Brian seem humble and reserved. “All right,” she said. She wiped Seth’s back off with the towel and fanned it dry for a bit.

“Can you grab my walker?” Seth said, pointing over to the side of Danielle’s booth.

“Sure.” Pete stood up and grabbed it for him while Danielle helped him get sitting up again. “How are you doing with this?”

Seth shrugged. “They only let me back on it today,” he said. “So far, so good.”

“Sometimes you gotta hurt before you can heal,” Danielle said. “Still. Don’t be a dipshit.”

“Yeah, I know,” Seth said. He pulled a black T-shirt on over his bare chest and beckoned to Pete. “Give it here.”

Pete pushed the walker over to Danielle’s chair, and Seth grimaced as he hauled himself to his feet. It took him a few moments of standing there, breathing heavily, before he looked at Pete and smiled.

“See?” he said. “I’ll be fine in a few days.”

“Does your physical therapist know you’re doing this?” Pete said.

“More or less,” Seth said. “Look, we’re just going to your car.”

“Fine,” Pete said. “Not like anybody can stop you.”

“Seth, if you put yourself in the hospital again, I’ll make sure you leave through the fucking morgue!” Seth’s brother yelled from his tattoo chair. “Stop being a dumbass!”

Seth laughed and flipped him off as he hobbled over to the cash register.

Danielle handed Pete a jar of her special tattoo ointment. “Be careful with Junior,” she said. “He’s fragile these days.”

“Life is short,” Seth said, pulling out a wad of cash and setting it on the counter. “Two fifty good for today?”

“Yep,” Danielle said. “When’s the Professor coming in again?”

“I get paid in a week,” Pete said.

She shot a murderous glare at Seth. “Be a fucking gentleman, Junior,” she said.

It took both of them a couple of seconds to get the gist of what Danielle was saying. By then, his brother was already cracking up in the tattoo chair across the parlor.

“You’ve got every man in this family whipped, Danielle,” he said. “Isn’t that enough for you?”

“I’m looking to expand my harem,” Danielle said. She counted the wad of tens and twenties into her cash register and slammed it shut. “You boys take care now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Seth said. He followed Pete to the shop door, which Pete was holding for him.

“Your sister talks a lot, doesn’t she?” Pete said. He could feel himself blushing as Seth navigated the threshold out to the sidewalk.

“It’s not like you been following me around all the Club hangouts for weeks,” Seth said. He chuckled quietly as he made his way toward Pete’s car. “Cops are gonna start keeping tabs on you.”

“Ha ha,” Pete said. “Just what I need.”

“Oh, I’m kidding,” Seth said. “I think.” He was looking up and down the street.

“I hope you’ll tell me if...hold on.” Pete’s phone was ringing, and when he took it out of his pocket he saw his landlord’s name on the screen. “Yeah, I gotta take this.” He answered the call and put the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“Yo, Pete, my main man!” Brian’s uncle had a voice that sounded exactly like all of his tropical print shirts looked.

“Hey, how’s it going?” Pete said.

“I just got back into town, bro. I met up with the county to talk about your power situation!” Either his landlord was stoned, or Pete was about to learn that he was deeply, deeply screwed. Or both.

“Yeah?” Pete said. “Were you able to get…”

“So, looks like the problem is actually your breaker box,” his landlord said. “Uhh, gimme a day or two to find a good electrician, bro. Sorry to do this to you!”

“A day or two?” Pete said. “Uhh...do you have, you know, a generator…”

“I think I have one in my storage unit,” his landlord said. “I’ll give you a call back. I’m heading back up a canyon.”

“Umm, I have a refri...gerator,” Pete said to the dead line. “Full of uncooked meat.” He let his hand fall to his side, clutching his phone. “Oh, no, it’s okay.”

“What’s up?” Seth said. “Is your power still out?”

“Yeah,” Pete said. “For at least the next couple of days, which, with my landlord…” He sighed and pocketed his phone. “I have five pounds of hamburger sitting in that fridge.”

“Good Lord,” Seth said. “What are you going to do with five pounds of hamburger?”

“I was going to make chili and freeze it,” Pete said. “But I guess…”

“You make chili?” Seth’s whole body perked up at that.

Pete shrugged. “I am capable of cutting a single onion into tiny pieces, yes.” He opened the passenger side door of his car. “And I own a can opener.”

“That’s not how you make  chili,” Seth said.

“Is there a biker code about that, too?” Pete rolled his eyes.

Seth grunted as he got himself seated in Pete’s car. “No,” he said, “just, canned beans are disgusting.”

“That’s what the canned spicy tomatoes are for,” Pete said. “Anyway, my stove’s electric, so it’s not like I can cook it anyway.” He picked Seth’s walker up and slid it into the back seat.

“Then get some dry ice,” Seth said.

“Oh.” Pete stood up straight, staring at the blank space ahead of him. “I’m an idiot.”

Seth started laughing. “I used to have to live out on this grow op in the middle of nowhere out in the dunes,” he said. “Hell, I bet I can tell you how to fix that circuit breaker without even getting out of my chair.”

“I’m not sure how much my landlord would like that,” Pete said. He walked around his car and got in.

“Your landlord doesn’t have to have an opinion on it if your landlord never finds out what happened,” Seth said.

“Unlicensed electrical repair is a new low for you, isn’t it?” Pete said.

“Only if I do it in exchange for sex.” Seth leaned his seat back and adjusted himself so his fresh ink wasn’t against the upholstery.

“You’re obnoxious,” Pete said. “So, are we going to the hardware store?”

“Hardware store?” Seth said. “Hell no, we’re gonna go see what Alexei has down in his chop shop on 53rd.”