“Why did he hide the gun in the flower bed?” I asked.
Josephine shrugged. “Guess he was kind of a paranoid guy. But hell, his paranoia sure worked in our favor.”
“Josephine. You killed that man. I don’t know that anything worked in our favor today.”
Josephine shook her head. “You could be dead right now, Logan. And those men could be...they could be...they...” Josephine closed her eyes and took a shaky breath.
“I know, Josephine. I understand. But it doesn’t change the fact that we saw a man die today.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know you are,” I replied.
“No. That’s not what I meant. I’m sorry I can’t tell you what you need to hear to make yourself feel better about what happened today.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“You need me to get all weepy and cry on your shoulder. Pretend I regret what happened. Act like I wouldn’t do it again if I had to. But I don’t regret it. I’m glad that man is dead. I’m even more glad that I was the one to kill him.”
“You can’t mean that,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry, Logan. But I do mean it. He deserved to die, and I’ll kill anyone who tries to hurt me.”
“But I saw you crying.”
“I wasn’t crying because I killed that man,” she replied.
“Then why were you crying?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“Look, me and you, we’re different. We’ll always be different. You don’t have to try to understand how I work just because for some reason we were thrown together.” Her voice had gone dark, cold.
Who was this girl?
Why did I care?
Before I had time to respond, I heard the front door open. I glanced at the clock. It was only six. What was my uncle doing home? Josephine jumped up from her chair. Despite her, Insert Any Angelina Jolie Movie Role Reference Here attitude, the girl was a bit skittish.
“It’s just my uncle.”
“I should go.”
I nodded. “I’ll drive you back to get your car.”
As we trudged down the stairs, I heard my uncle opening a can of beer. Imported beer, soda, and leftovers were the only things that you could count on finding in our fridge. I hoped my uncle wouldn’t make a scene when he saw me coming down the stairs with Josephine whose hair was still dripping wet. He never hid the fact that he wasn’t a fan of Jenna. He told me I was too young to be in a committed relationship. He was probably the only legal guardian who wanted their charge to whore it up.
We almost reached the front door when the sound of my uncle’s voice stopped us. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your new friend?”
With a heavy sigh, I turned around and faced my uncle. Josephine took a slight step behind me. If I wasn’t mistaken she had somehow found a way to almost sink inside of the sweatshirt. She kept her eyes on the ground.
“Uncle Rick, this here is Carrie. She’s a friend of mine from school. We were just working on an English project.”
Carrie? Great. Just great. I was making an even bigger mess of things. And that was saying something.
“Is that so?” he asked, leaning against the wall.
I nodded.
“Well, don’t be shy Carrie. Lift your head up, so I can see if it’s true that my nephew is so shallow that he only hangs out with pretty people. That’s what my secretary was saying. Her daughter attends Shepherd High, and supposedly Logan here is kind of a jerk.”
Josephine reluctantly lifted her head and attempted a smile. “He is kind of a jerk. But only kind of.”
When my uncle caught sight of Josephine, something unfamiliar gleamed in his eyes. Excitement. He rarely got excited about anything besides his court cases. Not even when talking about football, which he only was interested in because he thought I would bring the Middleton family more fame and fortune when I went pro.
He took a step towards Josephine, and I felt her stiffen beside me.
“Beautiful,” he whispered.
“I really have to go, Logan,” Josephine muttered.
“Why don’t you stay for dinner? I was going to order a pizza,” my uncle said, ignoring how obviously uncomfortable he was making Josephine feel.
“No thank you,” she replied. I looked back at her to see her furiously pulling at the sleeves of the sweatshirt.
“Oh. I won’t be staying if that’s what you’re worried about. I have a client I really need to see tonight. I’ll leave the money for you and Logan to enjoy,” he replied, pulling out his wallet.
As seemingly nice as the offer was, I knew it didn’t sound appealing to either of us. Josephine looked like she wanted to bolt out of the house as soon as she could, and I just needed one hour of this forsaken day to be commitment free: no school work, no practice, no trying to talk down possibly psychotic girls.