Thieving Weasels - Billy Taylor Page 0,29
The girl’s a joke. She thinks she’s so high and mighty in her five-hundred-dollar heels and Michael Kors dresses, but she’s still a Shooters’ Girl and everyone knows it but her. I can’t wait until the guy dumps her so I can laugh in her face.”
I stared at Jackie and sighed. Talk about the night from hell. Not only was I exhausted and starving, but now I was getting chewed out by someone I’d known less than five minutes. I didn’t think things could get any worse when the door flew open and Vinny burst in.
“Yo, Skip, get out here quick. They’re tugging your ride.”
“What?”
“Your car! Some dudes are jacking it.”
I raced outside and saw two men hooking up my Mustang to a tow truck.
“Hey,” I shouted. “What the hell are you doing?”
A big guy with a shaved head and handlebar mustache looked up from the bumper. “You Stephen O’Rourke?” he asked.
I was so upset it took me a moment to remember that Stephen O’Rourke was the name I was using at that particular moment.
“Yeah,” I said. “What about it?”
The guy held out a greasy hand. “Keys.”
“I’m not giving you my keys.”
“Fine, then any damage we do to the vehicle is added to the lien.”
“What lien? What the hell are you talking about?”
He jammed a piece of pink paper in my face. “This is a sheriff’s order authorizing me to take possession of this car for delinquency of payments.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means pay your bills, Johnny Appleseed. Now hand over the keys, or I swear we’ll mess up this vehicle so bad your credit rating will be trashed for the rest of your life.”
I turned to Roy for help.
“Give the man your keys, Skip.”
Seeing no alternative, I did as I was told. I held out my keys, and as the guy reached for them, I pushed the panic button on the fob. The car alarm blared, and the second repo man fell backward and landed flat on his butt.
“Sorry about that,” I said with a shrug. “My bad.”
The repo men went back to work and, if nothing else, I now knew who my car belonged to: the finance company. Vinny fired up a sympathy joint, and he and Roy passed it back and forth as we watched them tow my car away. At least the repo guys kept their word and didn’t trash it in front of me.
“Hey, Roy!” Jackie called from the restaurant. “Our table is ready.”
“Excellent,” Roy and Vinny replied simultaneously.
With nothing better to do, I trudged back to the Olive Garden. Not only had I just kissed my ride to Claire’s good-bye, I’d also bid adieu to my only chance of escaping my family. I glanced over at Roy who was so high he was practically levitating and wondered if what Jackie said was true. Was I just like him? Sure, we talked alike, and sometimes we even dressed alike, but so what? That didn’t make us the same person. I had a 3.92 GPA at one of the most prestigious prep schools in the country. I had ambition to be something more than just a successful criminal. Those things had to count for something. Then again, how long would my gold-plated ambition last if returned to Long Island permanently?
Use your head, I told myself. There has to be some way to untangle yourself from this mess. Some kind of double cross . . .
And isn’t that exactly what an O’Rourke would think? a voice inside me replied.
It was, and I felt like screaming. No matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried, my inner weasel always reigned supreme. Who was I trying to kid? Didn’t I lie to get into Wheaton in the first place? And Princeton, too? Wasn’t I lying every time I failed to tell Claire who I really was?
Why even bother asking that question? I said to myself. Every cell in your body is tattooed with the DNA of a weasel. Face the facts, you were born a thief and you’ll die a thief. Why not just accept your fate and get on with your life?
I hated to admit it, but sometimes I wished that I had never heard of Wheaton Preparatory Academy. True, I never would have met Claire and got accepted to Princeton, but I wouldn’t have known any better. I’d be the prize crook in a family of crooks. The pick of the litter. And maybe, just maybe, I’d be happy instead of desperate and overwhelmed, which