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

After tensing every muscle in his face with a loud grunt, Vance reached to lift his phone. He squinted as he glared into the screen. "6:45 AM Leg Day," it read. "Fuck it.” He slung his phone back onto the stool before strolling to the bathroom for a hot shower.

The scalding liquid caressed his scars as it flowed down his broad back and shoulders. He watched it stream over the veins that bulged from his biceps and forearms where the remnants of small, circular burns cratered their way down. As he turned off the steaming spray to reach for a towel, the reason for every mark was recalled to his mind. Vance used his towel to wipe the misty mirror and flexed his arm, looking at the hazy reflection. "Not as big as you, Tony," he said to himself. "But I still look better." He took a moment to admire his lean, finely chiseled abs while combing his short, sandy blonde hair to the front and straightening the slight curl in his bangs before he threw on a pair of black gym shorts and a green and black Pine Bluff High t-shirt.

"Dad, I'm goin’ to grab a bite at the Sunset," Vance said, grabbing the keys to his pickup truck.

"You still ain't changed out the brake pads on that damn thing have you?" a hoarse voice sounded from the other end of the trailer. "Better mean you'll have it done by sunset. I can still kick your fuckin' ass."

"Be back in a while," Vance said, continuing out the door while his father was still talking. Anything to get out of there before the stench of stale cigarettes and cheap beer accompanied the sound of that voice, he thought as he slammed the heavy, dented door of his dark red pickup.

Without a glance in the rearview, Vance pulled out of the rundown trailer park where rusty, metal roofs covered torn panels of siding. Vehicles jacked up on cinder blocks awaited the day they would be repaired. A ten-foot-high metal fence lined the front entrance of the park as if to guard the world from the garbage within. As he passed the overflowing dumpster before turning onto the road, the sharp stench of the nearby chicken houses masked whatever odor the trash might have contained. "Chicken shit," he said before taking a right onto the cracked pavement. "Just like everyone here."

His six liter engine rumbled down the narrow country roads as he made his escape from home. Eventually, the broken-down mobile homes that stood between miles of forest were replaced by farmhouses, beautiful two-story homes and country getaways owned by the wealthy. As the streets became wider to brightly painted lanes, apartments clustered around shops along Central Avenue until the bright yellow sign of the Sunset Diner rose above the surrounding buildings.

After arriving, Vance stepped through the large, glass double-door entrance of the restaurant. The scent of bacon and eggs filled the lobby among the elderly regulars that congregated every morning. They discussed politics and weather as if they ever really changed. The remodeled, light brown walls combined with rough, stone floor tiles to give a relaxing, earthy feel to the place. It was the kind of establishment that settled you in with comfort before swallowing you whole. The next thing you know, you're there all the time while the hours outside pass you by, turning into days, weeks, years and then you're old. Not unlike Pine Bluff itself, Vance thought to himself. Fuckin’ death trap.

He walked through the now quiet lobby with his chest out, shoulders and head tilted back as if he owned the place and as far as anyone was concerned he might as well. Tony was the exception, sitting calmly at the bar while he studied the schedule sheet.

"Hey Tony, your boy David still trying to get in on my girl?" Vance asked with a half grin. "Hey. I'm talkin’ to you," he said with a shoulder bump to Tony who was still flipping through the pages of his schedule as if Vance didn't exist.

"Oh. Hi, Vance," Tony said with a bright smile that stretched across his chubby cheeks. "Can you believe they got me pulling two doubles this weekend?"

Vance's hatred for the way Tony shrugged him off so casually burned in his face. "Sure, man." He smirked as he leaned his elbow onto the bar to look Tony in the eyes. "You seen Jan anywhere?"

"Oh yeah,” Tony said. “She posted pics of her out swimming with her new friends earlier. Didn't you see?"

Vance pulled out his phone as he tried connecting. "Oh yeah. She told me, man,” he said, cursing the tediously slow wifi of the diner under his breath. “I just forgot."

Tony choked up laughing and grabbed Vance's shoulder with a tugging shake. "I'm kidding,” he said, cuffing his fist over his fat lips that still curled with a grin. “Sarah was gonna pick her up after we left the cliffs last night. I think they had a sleepover."

"Funny," Vance said, staring past the bar. "Hey. Can I get some service around here?" he asked loudly beyond the vacant counter, addressing the kitchen itself.

"Don't sweat it, bro. It's not time to go in yet, but I got it," Tony said while tying on his black grill apron. "You getting the usual?"

"That's what's up," Vance said. "But chicken instead of ham."

"Shouldn't you wait 'til after football season to go lean?" Tony asked with a smile.

"Shut up. I know what the hell I'm doing." Vance shook his head as he turned from the counter to look over the lobby. It was now filled with hushed whispers and glances in his direction that he quickly shut down with a stare, one at a time, as he methodically scanned the seated faces.

The only banter that still carried on through the room came from the southern slurs in the far corner booths, a world apart from the senior citizen section that wrapped tables of withering townsfolk