Tagger

Chapter 12 -- A shortie and book trailer

19

Wednesday night, 10 p.m.

As the last of the tagging crew vacated her home, Liz picked her way up the rickety stairs to her apartment. Inside, Rob swept up potato chip crumbs and trash while Kimo dumped saucers filled with cigarettes and ashes into a trash bag.

"I told you I don't want anyone SMOKING here, Rob. It gets into our furniture and drapes!" Liz shouted as she pushed open a nearby window.

Rob reached for his girlfriend, but Liz would have none of it, slapping his hand away. "I been working my ass off all night. I told you to have your important meetings somewhere else. And, what do you two do? You have another effing meeting here tonight!" The madder Liz got, the clearer she articulated the –ing in effing. "What about us, Rob? Huh? What happened to the two of us?"

Kimo tried to intercede. "Hey, Liz. There's bad stuff going on right now, and we had to have a safe place to talk it out with the crew."

"Talking about 'out,' brother. Why don't you get on outta here right now? You're doing a crap job of cleaning this mess, anyhow!" Liz glared daggers at her brother.

"Have it your way. I'm gone." Kimo put the dustpan and brush into the hall closet and headed for the door.

"Don't talk to Kimo like that. He's only trying to help."

Liz zeroed in on Rob, "I haven't even started on you, homeboy. How much consideration you been giving me?"

Liz glanced at the bag of burgers she'd brought home from the restaurant. She stormed to the refrigerator and shoved the bag inside.

A loud knock sounded at the front door. Kimo, about to leave, opened the door to two police officers.

"We got a complaint of a loud party here with lots of teens drinking and disturbing the peace. Do you live here?" asked the older officer, trying to see into the room behind Kimo.

"No. I'm visiting my sister and her boyfriend," pointing back at Liz and Rob who'd stopped fighting.

A blond officer about Kimo's height and a decade older, stared at him. "Hey, weren't you with Chago the other night?"

"Yep. I'm Jaime. Chago trained under our Dad," he said, awkwardly pointing at his sister.

"I'm Officer Ganaday. This is Officer Lewis. Fill us in on what's been going on here, Jaime."

"Some friends stopped by while I was visiting, and they turned up the music. And to be honest, they were drinking, too. They acted like assholes and kept turning the music up, so we told them to go somewhere else. Liz just got off work and was upset because some of them smoke cigarettes. She doesn't allow that because it stinks up the curtains and furniture. It's a good house rule here, but it was broken, so they had to go."

Officer Lewis smiled. "Heard that spiel before. Women care about that more than most guys do." He nodded at Liz, "It takes a few times to get those messages through our thick skulls. Know what I mean?" For the first time that evening Liz smiled and nodded her head.

Kimo nodded his head in agreement, "Sorry about the disturbance."

"It's okay, Jaime. We're done here. Have a nice evening."

"Thanks, officers. You do the same."

Kimo waited until they reached the patrol car before turning out the porch light. Liz reached in her purse and found her pill box. She popped two pills, chasing them down with a glass of water.

"I'm not done yet," she said quietly. "Rob, sometimes you treat me like I'm an accessory, a talking piece of furniture. It hurts, and it makes me mad!"

Her face reddened and her gestures grew animated again. Rob had been there before with Liz. "I can't talk you down from this ledge, chica. I'll stay at Kimo's and give you some space tonight. I'd prefer to talk things out tomorrow when we're clearer. Is that okay?"

"Don't count on it cowboy, but thanks for the welcome home. I'll need the car tomorrow. Leave me keys before you go." Liz shouted.

Paxel, their pet cat, had wandered into the living room. Hearing Liz's tone of voice, he did an abrupt about-face. When in doubt, take a nap under the bed.

Rob dropped his car keys on the living room table as Liz pushed the guys out the door, slamming it so hard the boys heard glass crashing on the floor inside.

The best friends walked in the dark towards Kimo's apartment. "Kimo, you think she'll get over this? You've lived with her all your life. I love her, and I love her passion. But man, she's got a temper when she's wound up. Has she always been this way? Level with me, amigo."

"Rob, it ain't easy leaving home your senior year, you know. Working lots of hours to help pay bills or save money, plus graduating and starting college in the fall – that's a lot on the plate for anyone. Liz is tough and strong-willed, but underneath it all, she's real sensitive. Give her space. It'll come together. You'll see."

Kimo shifted the conversation. "Shouldn't we be checking out the opposition now?"

https://youtu.be/m6e-ze7mmN4