Dub
Dub had spent another night in his van. Last night he’d parked in the industrial area near the day labor site, hoping his van would look more at home there. He was still stuck with the damn fridge. He’d thought about dropping it in an empty lot or down an alley so that he could have more space in the back of the van, but he was afraid someone would spot him and report him for illegal dumping. The last thing he needed right now was to attract attention.
To make matters worse, Jenna wasn’t responding to his texts or calls. Had her parents found her secret phone? Or had Jenna decided he wasn’t worth the trouble and moved on? He couldn’t blame her if she had.
He’d thought about leaving town, but he had only an eighth of a tank of gas left. The way this old van sucked down gas he’d only get as far as Dallas before running out. And he couldn’t afford to put more gas in it. The small amount of money he had left would be needed for food. He’d already gone through half of the cereal bars, all of the bananas, and most of the peanut butter and bread. Today for lunch he’d eat the alphabet soup, just as soon as he could heat the stuff up with the van’s cigarette lighter. It was taking forever. The dang thing only stayed hot for fifteen seconds at a time. Still, he kept trying, pushing the lighter back into the socket to heat, stirring the soup, then holding the lighter back under the can when it popped out, glowing orange.
Funny, after enjoying his freedom while living with Trent and Wes, he hadn’t wanted to go back to the state school. But here he was, a prisoner in this van. He couldn’t show his face for fear of being hauled to jail for shooting that couple in their home.
It was freezing in the van and getting worse by the minute. As much as he would’ve loved a hot meal, he gave up on trying to heat the soup and decided to go ahead and eat it cold. When he looked down into the can he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. Floating in the orange broth at the top of the can were the letters F U.
“Story of my life,” he muttered to himself.
He shoved his plastic spoon into the soup and stirred it up.