“Do you think my car will be safe here? I mean…”

I laughed, “Yes Al, it’ll be fine. I mean, you don’t exactly drive a Lexus, and people in this area aren’t exactly looking for car stereos, If you know what I mean.”

She looked at me curiously, “And what exactly are they looking for in this area?”

I shrugged, “They’re looking to score… in more ways than one…”

Al looked at me, examining me in a way she hadn’t done since we first met. “And how would you know that?”

I shrugged again, and simply stated the truth, figuring these girls had learned enough about me that it wouldn’t be too big of a shock for Alice to hear. “Because I used to live here, and I was the one scoring… or doing the scoring at least…”

Alice looked at her steering wheel for a moment, taking in what I said. Then she opened up her door. “Well then, I guess I picked the right person to come with me to pick Tina up. Let’s go.”

I laughed at how easily Alice took my confession, and silently thanked her for being… her. We got out of the car and started walking towards the restaurant. As we stopped at a street corner to wait for the light to change so we could cross the street, I felt someone touch my shoulder. While I had been out of the area for a while, my street instincts were still very much in tact, and being back in this area instantly put them back on alert, so when I felt the touch, I quickly jumped back and turned, hands coming up in defence. Looking at me, slightly startled, was none other than Clive.

“Shit Shane, relax! It’s just me.”

“Fuck Clive, don’t do that to me.” I took a breath, then Clive and I hugged briefly. “What are you doing here? Last I heard you were in San Diego with your mom.”

Clive shrugged, “Yeah well, I came back here about a month ago. No one has seen you sin ages. Where did you end up?” He gave me a once over. “I’m guessing you scored something good, you looked cleaned up.”