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

As he threw his shirt off within the steaming bathroom, his phone dinged.

"I love you too," Janice replied.

He scrolled through social media and saw that Vance had posted an odd selfie. Cracking his usual grin, he pointed his finger at the camera in the shape of a gun. The abandoned ballfield of the old rec center stood behind him. Is it because I accused him of the old rec fire? It definitely means something, coming from him. 

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David turned up the soft rock that resounded through his mind with the memories it replayed. It was now as refreshing as the wind that blew through his wavy hair until Janice's road came into view. No longer did his heart pound with fear when this stop sign emerged into existence. Now a warm strength surged from his chest, empowering his path.

Janice’s house came into view where he saw her relaxing on the front porch swing. Her bright yellow t-shirt clashed against her tiny red shorts in a way that could only look so beautiful on her tan, smooth legs. He parked behind her mom's minivan and stepped out as Janice pranced down the steps.

The heavy roar of an engine shook apart David's serenity. He turned to see a red pickup truck slow to a halt in the street, just in front of Janice's driveway. It was dusted with light, reddish brown dirt, undoubtedly from the old ballfield parking spot. Vance stepped out slowly and David turned see Janice standing solid in place, staring toward him.

"What do you want?" David asked. His heart raced as Vance pulled a black bag from the rear cab. David spread his arms below his waist. "Look. If you want me to apologize for the other night, I'm sorry."

Vance smiled as he glanced up. "Water under the bridge," he said as he continued closer up the driveway, brandishing the large crinkled plastic trash bag.

"Can you just leave already?" Janice said, spreading out her arms.

"Sure can." Vance stopped, dropping the bag with a twist that unraveled it open, its secretive contents still an unnerving mystery to David. "But first, maybe you'll want to ask David about your dad's boat."

David's chest pounded as his skin flushed with face numbing ice that chilled his throat closed. It silenced him as he watched Vance pull out a firm stack of burnt papers. With a flick of his wrist, Vance tossed partial photographs, mostly charred, into a hundred frisbees that scattered around Janice's driveway as she tiptoed closer. All David could do was breathe as he stood paralyzed in the sun that shined onto the secret world that he promised to never see the light.

"What the hell is this?" Janice asked with a voice David had never become familiar with. She held an old photo of him climbing on her dad's boat in the dark of night. Most of the others she flipped through looked indiscernible from where David stood. "These had to be before the accident that killed dad," her voice became shrill with a sharp pain that sliced through David's mind. Janice drew one of the burnt photos close to her eyes. "That towel," she said. "I hung it there the last time that-" Her words stopped dead.

"Sure went through a lot of trouble too." Vance's voice traveled through the air almost as quickly as the stink of beer that blew from his mouth. "Trying to get rid of it all. Followed him to the old rec center a while back and saw him burnin' the shit in the woods."

"They said someone tampered with his boat," Janice said before sniffling and wiping the side of her face with her wrist. "But mom thought the mechanic did it by mistake." Her angry eyes rose through the flood that trickled down her cheeks and she cast the fire in her face toward David. "Say something!"

Vance lifted his hand dismissively. "You know, it was shortly after we got together, he died. Come to find out, this creep was sneaking around on the boat at night." His hand swiped in David's direction.

"Were these taken with my camera?" Janice stepped closer, shaking the burnt photos erratically at David's face. "What the hell did you do?"

His mouth opened to emit his empty voice as his trembling fingers squeezed shut into cold weightless fists. "I didn't mean for..." The air became too thin for his gasps to draw in. "Janice, please." He barely managed the words from the top of his throat.

Vance covered his face as he shook it slowly at the gravel with a snicker. "No," he said loudly. "Of course you didn't, buddy." He strolled toward David with a laugh. "Got a little carried away tryin' to microwave daddy when you got rejected," he said through his drunken cackle. "Who could blame you," his voice slurred as his attempted shoulder pat was violently smacked back by David.

David's face lit fire under the pressure that crushed at him from both directions and he stepped back to point his finger at Vance. "All three of us know who really killed those firefighters at the rec last year, you stupid prick. So, you don't have any room to talk," he shouted. "You think I don't live with this shit every day?" The words took on a life of their own as they spewed forth.

Janice looked, eyes wide with surprise at David and then steered to Vance. Vance shrugged his shoulders at her. "Had to been you. I haven't said shit."

"Vance!" Janice shouted sternly. "Get the hell out of here before I call the cops," she said to the shrugging statue of arrogance that stood in defiance of everything David loved. "Now!" She screamed, throwing the blackened papers at Vance.

"Fine." He stepped back and turned to strut toward his truck. "By the way, David," he shouted over his shoulder with a smile. "You should be happy. I didn't say a word about her buttons in your backseat, back when she was