Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (free ebook reader for pc txt) 📕

louder and getting closer. As he approached, it started to make sense. Brad was also here and he was walking up to Sarah to creep his arm around her.

David tilted his head to Tony. "So," David whispered with annoyance. "She's with that creep now?" He scowled at Tony's unfazed grin. "Does she not have any standards?"

"Hey," Tony said, raising his palms with a carefree smile. “As long as everyone’s happy.”

Brad slouched against a tree and looked over at David with his arms crossed. His studded, black leather jacket definitely wasn't for the weather, but it matched his bruised eye and the cavities that covered his nasty grin.

"Hey, Brad," David said. "Anyone ever tell you that the eighties went out before we were born?"

"Dude," Brad said with a smirk. "Y'know what your problem is? You just need to stop worryin’ all the time." He swayed one of his hands to the side. "Like that girl, for instance. Be a man and just take what's yours in life."

"Yeah," David said. "That's how you got that black eye last week, right? I heard about that."

Brad stepped back with his hands out. "Relax, man. Vance just overreacted like always."

Tony stepped forward to occupy the wide space between them. "Alright. Alright. Y'all shake hands and kiss or whatever and come on."

Sarah laughed as she turned to Brad with her arms crossed. "That old man at the Sunset did say you had it coming, didn't he?" Brad shook his head before pulling a cigarette from his pack.

"Who?" David asked.

Brad flicked his metal lighter shut and casually blew a stream of smoke. "Old blind fuck that hangs out at the diner."

"Hey, now," Tony said. "He says a lot of weird stuff, but he's a nice guy."

Brad tilted forward from where he leaned against the tree. "You'd call Vance a nice guy, so that don't really say much."

After a few seconds of silence, Tony spoke again. "What did he say to you?"

"That I'd be seeing my dad soon." Brad cracked a grin with a slight chuckle before taking another long drag from his cigarette.

David looked back and forth between them. "Didn't he..."

"Died," Sarah butted in, her eyebrows high with cheeks that tightened to press back the morbid humor in her grin. "Remember the fire at the old rec center last year?" David and Tony looked at one another as she turned to walk away up the trail with the others.

Brad swept his arms open. "Where you goin'?" he asked before turning to follow.

As they began to walk slowly behind, David turned to Tony. "What was it he said to you?"

Tony glanced over, bringing his eyes from another place and time. "Who?"

"The old guy," David said. "At the Sunset."

"Ah,” Tony brushed his hand aside as he continued strolling up the trail. “It’s nothin’.”

They strolled deeper into the forest until the terrain led to a steep, rocky outcrop that dropped into a moss-covered slope, revealing a trickling waterfall between about a dozen familiar faces from school gathered into a few clusters of banter.

The creek washed its trickling sound through the air, blending with the voices of friends. Summertime stories met the latest gossip as the sound of music drowned out the ambience of the nature that surrounded them. Everyone was having a great time. Almost everyone. David sat alone, slumped back against an old, mossy tree, shaded beneath its damp trunk that had probably never known the arid summer sun.

"What's the matter?" Sarah asked as she walked closer to him from the creek. “Cheer the hell up.”

"What's the deal?” David asked, fueled with frustration. “He harasses Jan and you just throw yourself at him? I mean, that is how he got that black eye."

"You always make such a big deal out of everything," Sarah said, waving her finger as if to scold him for being wrong. "Look, you were only with me for a few weeks," she said. "And it was just because you were hung up over Janice being with Vance."

"Sorry, Sarah,” he said as he turned his eyes toward the creek. “It just feels fucked up is all."

Sarah looked at him with a humorous smile. "It's not yours to feel anything about." She slowly walked away, back to the creek with everyone else.

She’s right. He couldn't figure out what he hated most about Sarah. Maybe it was because someone so rude could always be so right, or perhaps it was that the only girl who was ever so interested in how he felt had to be her. Even when it was time to leave, a heavy feeling of disgust filled David's thoughts and later flooded into his text messages to Janice. Messages that went without reply.

###

The sun continued to travel across the skies above Pine Bluff until the mountain horizon swallowed it into the darkness. Tall, swaying grass rustled in the midnight air as nature fell silent. Something crept its way across the surrounding fields and forests, just beyond the streets where the residents had all settled into the places they belonged. Some went to bed and others to work. It seemed as if the shadows cast by the brightly lit moon would pass uneventfully through town, but not everyone in Pine Bluff was safe.

Chapter 2

#Vance#

A loud, repeating ring forced Vance's tired eyes to open. As he rolled his heavy, muscular body to the right, his dead mattress squeaked and its hard springs pressed against his side. From the top of a paint-stained stool, his makeshift nightstand, the bright screen of his phone illuminated the walls of his dark room. Unpainted, plastered circles crusted to conceal holes along the pale green doorway wall much differently than the red wallpaper that covered the adjacent ones. They peeled to reveal strips of white from many walls ago. His old dresser, spray painted with a dull, matte black finish was missing two drawers where it sat below a gun rack mounted on the wall. It was the only piece in good condition in the entire room, holding his camouflage