When I finish my sketch of Dex, I tape it to my bedroom wall. That's not as weird as it seems though because my bedroom wall is covered in drawings that I've done and little blurbs of words that I've written, just to get my thoughts out of my head and onto paper which I then put on my wall. I put it in a small corner hidden mostly by my desk so that if Sage comes over, she won't notice it.

She's rarely ever in my room anyway though because I don't like bringing her here. My dad is just hard to deal with and I don't like her seeing him so we mostly hang out at her house.

Just as I'm finishing that, I hear Zero start barking out in the living room which he doesn't do often. I also don't want him to wake my dad up so I hurry out to the front room to see what he's barking about. With his nose pressed against the front window to push past the curtain, he continues barking out toward the front yard.

"Zee, be quiet," I tell the dog but he doesn't listen to me because he never really does listen to me. Especially when he's riled up. My dad is passed out on the couch but there's a bottle of whiskey beside him so I don't think he's going to be waking up anytime soon.

When I get closer to the window, I peek through the curtain and see a bunch of guys standing in my yard with cans of spray paint.

"Oh my god," I say in shock as I hurry to the living room closet and grab the baseball bat that we have stored there from when Robby used to play baseball. It was a long time ago but we never clean that closet out.

By the time that I've fished out the baseball bat, I get to the door and open it and they all start sprinting away from the yard. I step outside with the baseball bat, prepared to scare any stragglers away but all of them have fled and I'm not going to chase them down.

Out in the yard, I turn toward the house to see that the teenage assholes had used the spray paint to write 'RobbyTheRobber' in big red letters on the front of our white garage door. That's just great.

I go back inside and put the baseball bat near the door just in case somebody tries that again but for now, I'll have to get it off of the garage. My dad would have a fit if he saw it, maybe call the police or something but they wouldn't be able to do anything and it would just cause more trouble than it's worth.

Based on the amount of whiskey still left in the bottle, I have a few hours before he wakes up so I have some time. I grab a few rags, a bucket of water, and some acetone nail polish remover to mix with the water to get the paint off of the garage.

Zero is still worked up but I just pet him a few times and leave him inside because I don't want him getting into the chemicals that I'm using to clean the garage. I start on the first R and I start scrubbing. Luckily, it hasn't had a lot of time to dry so it's coming off easier than I thought that it would but not very easy at all.

I had already gone to work today so I'm pretty tired and I really don't want to deal with this but I know that I don't really have a choice. My father has been through a lot too and I can't ask him to deal with this too.

I've got the R and the O of Robby's name basically gone when Zero starts barking again from inside of the house. Fearing that those teenagers are coming back, I start to head for the house to grab the baseball bat but then I hear footsteps behind me.

"Need a hand?" And when I turn around to see who it is, I nearly choke on my own tongue when I see that it's Dex. What the fuck.

"Um. Sure," I don't know what else to say so he puts his hand in the bucket and grabs another one of the rags and just starts scrubbing off the last R in 'robber'. I'm suddenly aware of the fact that I'm only wearing jeans and a tank top and my arms are all out and about. I had taken off my work shirt when I got home, not thinking much of it but now I'm very much aware. My arms feel flabbier all of the sudden.

Zero is of course still barking inside but I think that he'll stop soon, when he realizes that Dex isn't trying to murder me.

"Does this happen a lot?" Dex asks me curiously. "It's shitty that people are getting away with doing this."

"This is just the second time," I say with a small shrug. The first time was just some eggs splattered against the house but that was easier to clean up than this one. I don't really want to talk about Robby though and I feel like that might be something that'll come up next. "So what brings you over here?"

"Yasmin," He says my name for the first time and I feel like I'm going to melt right onto my driveway and I'm just dead. Absolutely dead. My name sounds like the tenth symphony that Beethoven never got to write when it's coming off of his lips. "That's your name, right?"

"Yeah," I mutter, working now on the first B in Robby's name to get it off of the garage.

"I just think that you got the wrong idea," Dex begins to tell me. "About what you saw in the park."

"Oh, that's none of my business," I say quickly when I realize that that's why he's here, to talk to me about that day in the park. I really just wish that I could forget that that ever happened and I'm sure that he does too. I don't know why he keeps bringing it up, I think that if we just pretended that it didn't happen, that it'd go away faster.

"I don't want you giving Amber the wrong idea either," He adds.

"Amber's a nice girl but we're not friends or anything," I remind him slowly.

"Did you tell Sage?" Dex asks me. "She talks to Amber a lot."

"I didn't tell anybody," I promise him. "Like I said, I know that it's none of my business."

"Alright, good. Thanks," He sighs and even though he's gotten what he wants, he continues scrubbing at the vandalism.

"Although," I add. "The dog is such a gossip. Might be hard keeping a lid on that mouth."

"He is loud," Dex agrees with me. "And he obviously hates me."

"He thinks that you're a murderer," I explain to Dex. "But I'll have a talk with him."

"He thinks that I'm a murderer?"

"Zero was a police dog in training," I add.

"You named your dog Zero?" He raises his eyebrows at me. "Like the number?"

"My brother named him after the dog from the Nightmare before Christmas," I say to Dex. I find it kind of bizarre that we're just standing here, cleaning my garage door and having a solid conversation. I was definitely prepared to admire from afar but this is kind of uncomfortable. I don't really know what to say to him because I'm so intimidated just by his presence. "You don't have to help me with this."

"Trying to get rid of me?" He questions me with that side smile spreading on his lips as he looks over at me.

"No," I mumble meekly. "I'm just saying."

I guess that Zero's barking had woken my dad from his alcohol-soaked nap because I hear him walking around in the house and then the front door opens but only the heavy door, not the screen door.

"Yasmin, what are you doing out there? Why is the dog barking?"

"Nothing, Dad," I call back to him. "Just hanging out. Give him a bone."

"Did Robby call when I was asleep?"

"Nope, no calls."

"The little shit is still asking for money. If he goes to trial, he's going to rot in prison but he doesn't give a shit. You should try talking some sense into him, maybe he'll listen to you," He tells me but he's still inside so he's unaware of the fact that I'm not alone out here.

"Yeah, I've tried," I assure my dad as I continue scrubbing away the spray paint. I hope he doesn't come out here right now to see it but between Dex and I, we've only scrubbed away about half of the letters so there's still a while to go. "I'll call again tonight and see if I can talk to him."

"The little shit," He mumbles again and then goes farther into the house, probably go get a bone for Zero so that he'll stop barking.

"He's going to trial?" Dex asks me curiously. "I heard that they got him on tape."

"They do. He's saying that his friends made him do it. He's pleading peer pressure."

"I don't think that'll hold up in court," He says slowly.

"Well, if you want to give him a call, maybe he'll listen to you," I sigh as I continue scrubbing. "But unless you have a law degree from Harvard, I don't think it'll do anything."

"No law degree but we knew each other in high school so maybe I have some influence," He jokes.

"Really, you knew Robby?" I ask him, trying to guess his age by that information. Robby is 23 so I wonder if Dex is that old too. If he is, he seems kind of old to be hanging around the guys that he hangs out with. Ty and all of his friends all went to high school with Sage and I so they're around eighteen like me.

"Vaguely. He was a senior when I was a freshman but he was in a few of my classes," Dex explains to me. "That makes me twenty, if you were counting."

"I wasn't."

He lets out a short laugh. A beautiful laugh. "You're a lot easier to read than you realize."

I need to get the conversation back onto my brother. Of course he was taking freshman classes when he was a senior... or I guess Dex could have been taking senior classes as a freshman. "Well, Robby hasn't changed much. Got a bit stupider, I think. Ironically, more childish too. He won't just own up to what he did, it always has to be somebody else's fault and it's going to get him put away for a fourth of his life and... sorry. I'm ranting."

"Hey, no worries. Sometimes it helps to rant," Dex informs me as he's scrubbing away the R in 'robber' and I'm starting on the T in 'the' so we're standing closer together now. I sure wish that I had a real shirt on now and not just a tank top.

"To a complete stranger?" I raise my eyebrows at him.

"Are we strangers?" He looks over at me curiously and then that half smile starts appearing on his lips again. "I mean, you've seen my dick so I wouldn't say that we're total strangers."

My face immediately goes entirely red as I quickly insist, "I didn't see anything."

"Really?" He seems skeptical and a bit amused at how quickly I've gotten so embarrassed.

"Really, I was focused on getting the dog before I was hit with a lawsuit," I promise him. "So I didn't see anything."

I get to the H and Dex is cleaning off the E so we're standing right beside each other now, our arms brushing against each other and my heart is going to explode out of my chest because it's beating so quickly. I remember what he said just a little bit ago about how easy I am to read so I try to not look at him because I don't want him to realize how much I'm freaking out right now about how close we're standing together.

"Sure, if you say so," He says it like he doesn't believe me, which makes me think that maybe I'm not so easy to read because I really am telling the truth. I mean, I did see the girl's left boob a little bit but the blanket had covered him up so I really didn't see his... you know. Just thinking about it, I can't stop blushing.

I don't know why he's still here but the last time that I told him that he didn't have to stay, he just accused me of trying to get rid of him so I just finish up cleaning the spray paint off of the garage and I don't ask him about why he hasn't left. Or why he didn't leave right after I had told him that I wouldn't tell anybody about his infidelity in the park.

"So what is it with your dog?" Dex asks me curiously. "Did he fail police school because he only attacked people who were having sex?"

"I thought that I had the wrong idea," I remind him slowly.

"What do you mean?" He looks confused.

"That's what you said, isn't it?" I ask him rhetorically. "That I got the wrong idea about what I saw in the park. What exactly did you think that I thought was going on if it wasn't that."

"Alright, so you've got the right idea about what was going on, I guess, but saying that you've got the wrong idea doesn't actually mean what it says. It can also mean that you've got it right but nobody else can know about it," He tries to explain to me.

"No it doesn't," I disagree with him. Of course, I have eyes and I knew that they were having sex even before he just admitted it to me but I'm just curious about what he thought I was thinking if he thought that I had 'the wrong idea'. Considering the girl was naked and screaming in ecstasy, I can't imagine what else they could have been doing.

"Yes it does," He insists. "It's like when people ask how you are and you just answer with 'I'm fine' even if you aren't. It just has social implications that don't translate literally."

"Alright then," I say even though I don't think that it's the same thing. I think that he's just trying to phrase it to where he can justify lying to me when he told me that my assumptions were wrong. As if I would actually believe that they actually weren't having sex in the park.

"What?" He asks me when he can tell that I don't actually believe him.

"Nothing," I assure him because I don't want to get into it and I'm ready to go back inside but I'm not inviting him in there, especially since my dad is in there and awake.

"You should say what you're thinking more," Dex suggests.

"I think that'd get me in a lot of trouble," I admit to him slowly.

"You shouldn't worry so much about what people think about you," He tells me.

I feel like that's very ironic because he seems like he's pretty thoughtful of what other people think about him. He wants them to think that he's tough and maybe even scary. I think that he comes off as mysterious on purpose so it's just strange that he's giving me that advice.

He can apparently tell that I'm thinking something because I make a face because he says, "You're doing it again. Just say what you want to say, Yasmin."

He says my name again and it's the second time that I've died today. I don't think that I'll tell him exactly what I'm thinking. "Nothing, just that... I don't know, it just seems weird. That you think that I'm too worried about what people think about me. I guess I obviously don't really know you but you seem pretty concerned about that sort of thing. Your image and all."

"Do I?"

"I don't know."

"And what exactly is my image?" He asks me, looking very amused now. This is why I don't tell people what I'm thinking.

"I've just heard that you're fearless and obviously, that's not true. That's impossible. But I think that you like people thinking that you're fearless. I mean, I don't know you, it's just what I've heard about you, so I guess that I could be wrong."

"If you had the chance, wouldn't you want people thinking that you're fearless?" He questions me. The vandalism is completely gone now and the rags are in the bucket of chemical water but we haven't moved from in front of the garage because I'm not inviting him inside. My dog hates him anyway.

"Dex?" I hear Sage's voice from behind me and we both turn around to see her standing on the sidewalk in front of my house wearing denim cutoffs and a bikini top with her hair up in a messy bun and her hand on her hip. "What... are you doing here?"

"Oh, hey, Sage," He gives her a short friendly smile. "Just passing by and figured I'd help out with some teenage punks. I'll get going though, I have to get to Amber's soon."

"What happened?" Sage asks because the vandalism is gone so she can't see that there was writing on the garage door. Even though that's not really why he showed up, it's a pretty believable excuse.

"Just some spray paint," I answer her and then look back to Dex. "Thanks for your help."

"Yeah, no problem," He says and when he starts walking away, he gets closer to me so that Sage can't hear him and he says, "Maybe keep a leash on your dog."

And I don't want to say it, but he just said that he thinks that I should say what I'm thinking and so if it hurts his feelings, he deserves it because he just told me that I should do it. I respond with, "Maybe keep a leash on your penis."

It makes him laugh, the biggest laugh I've ever seen him laugh and it's pretty beautiful, mostly because it's accompanied by a wide smile. I thought that I was dead when he said my name but that was before I saw him really smile. Because that is what's really going to be the death of me.

"So what's up?" I ask Sage when Dex is gone, starting to walk down the sidewalk away from my house. "We don't have any plans today."

"I just got back from the pool with Ty and wanted to see what you were up to," She responds, coming up to the front of the yard. "Somebody spray painted your garage?"

"Yeah but we got it off so it's no big deal," I shrug it off.

"So what'd you talk to Dex about?" Sage wonders curiously.

"Nothing, really," I tell her quickly. "Don't have much in common so we don't really have anything to talk about."

Unlike Dex, at least I can recognize when I'm lying to somebody.

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