Chapter 90

“I think that’s my cue to leave,” said Pad. He stood up. “Where’s Jack?”

Belinda pointed to the bar behind them. “He’s still over there. Flirting.”

“Okay. Thanks Belinda for coming out tonight. I’ll see you and Tristan later.” Pad hugged her again as he headed toward Jack.

Jack stood hunched over the bar, putting out the end of a lit cigarette in the ashtray. His elbow propped his body, which listed to the left as he spoke to the bartender. Pad still couldn’t get over Jack’s recent decision to dye his hair a bright red. Contrasted with Jack’s pale skin, this new appearance jarred Pad due to its novelty.

“Hey, Jack, can we leave?”

Jack turned his attention from the bartender to Pad. “What? We just got here!”

“It’s late.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed as he looked over Pad’s shoulder.

“It’s Wayne, isn’t it?” Jack rolled his eyes. “ I see him behind you. On the stage. I debated whether we should come here.”

“It’s not Wayne. It’s just late.”

Jack bit his lip and looked at the shirtless bartender he had talked to seconds before. “Man, I really don’t want to leave.”

Pad stiffened and crossed his arms. He wanted to yell at Jack but he held back his annoyance.

“I know that stance! Just give me a few more minutes. Please!”

Pad shook his head and was in the process of saying something when he heard Liam’s voice. “I’ll take him home.”

“Really?” asked Jack. “Thanks!”

Pad half-turned. “You can’t drive me home, you’ve had three, maybe four Jack Daniels and Cokes.”

“And you’ve had at least two Bud Lights.”

“Actually one. I didn’t even start the other bottle.”

Jack intervened. “I think the objective was to get you drunk tonight.”

“You failed miserably then,” said Pad.

Jack flipped him a bird and mouthed silently, “asshole.”

“You can drive my car. I’ll be okay by the time we get to your place,” said Liam. “Here have the keys.” Liam fished the keys out of his pants them held out to Pad. He rubbed his eyes, which were slightly bloodshot.

Pad hesitated then grabbed the keys from the open hand. “Okay.” Liam followed him to the parking lot. “Where’s your car?”

Liam waved him to follow him. “It’s a couple of blocks back. Glad the rain stopped while we were inside.”

Pad noticed Liam sway a millimeter or two while standing. “Are you sure you didn’t drink more than three? You can’t even stand straight.”

“I’m fine,” answered Liam. They walked behind the bar and more like four blocks until they reached any area where cars faced the same way on the one-way street. Pad lifted the silk shirt he wore off his back, as the humidity made it stick with their brisk walk in the evening air of ninety plus degrees in Orlando. They had to walk on one side of the road as the other paralleled a retention pond. “Here we are.” Liam stopped in front of the compact car.

“Is this it?” Pad pointed at the powder blue Honda Civic. “Did you get a new car?”

“Yes. It’s like three or four weeks old. If you were on Facebook you would have known this.”

“You could’ve texted me a photo.”

“RJ knew.”

“RJ and I have barely been in the same apartment because of work the last few days.” Pad unlocked the car using the remote key. Liam stepped in the passenger side and sat there as Pad took his place in the driver’s seat and buckled in. “Wait! Is this a stick?”

“Yeah. It’s not an automatic. Can you drive stick?”

“Yeah. Of course,” said Pad, his voice trailed off as he spoke. Pad turned on the ignition, his left foot on the clutch as he moved the Civic from neutral to first. The car lurched and then died. Pad faced front, his eyes averted from looking at Liam. “I may be a little rusty.” He tried again and this time Pad had no problems. They drove for a couple of miles as Liam fiddled with the air conditioning controls to cool the car down. Pad saw Colonial Avenue coming up, at least a hundred yards away, when he saw something small cross the road. “Shit!” Pad turned the wheel to the right then braked before he realized they were heading downhill in a ditch. The subcompact hit a large bump and Pad’s head hit the top of the car.

“What the fuck!” yelled Liam, his arms stretched out, pushed against the dash. “Brake dammit! Brake!”

“I’m braking!”

As quickly as they descended the Civic lurched to a stop. The nose of the car angled down into grass.