"Remember what Miss P said;" Bronwyn said to Olive and Claire as we left the diner, "you two need to be home by 8:30."

"It's not fair!" Claire whined.

"Y'all get to stay up as long as you want!" Olive added.

"She just doesn't want you out too late." Bronwyn wrapped her arms around the little girls' shoulders.

"We'll tell you about whatever you miss." I assured the little girls.

Emma laughed and I turned to frown at her. "What's so funny?" I asked.

"You're the only guy I know who goes to the drive-in to actually watch the movie." She replied, walking on the curb as if it were a tightrope.

"You never spend the movie doing anything other than snogging some random guy." Bronwyn gives the other girl a friendly punch in the arm.

"Hey-o!" A voice came from behind us.

We turned around.

"Hey, Radi." I said, high-fiving the short boy.

Bronwyn rolled her eyes; Radi's been trying to get with her forever, but she'd rather pour vinegar in her eyes; not that Radi isn't a nice kid- he is- he just comes on way too strong.

"Y'know," he said in a fake macho voice, leaning against the fence beside Bronwyn, "pretty girl like you shouldn't be walking along here by her lonesome."

"We're good." Bronwyn said, stepping back from him. "We can defend ourselves."

"And they have me." I said.

Radi pushed the sleeves of his t-shirt up so they were bunched up on his shoulders and flexed. Emma and I laughed; he looked so ridiculous.

"Still no." Bronwyn said, keeping a straight face even though we all knew she was dying of laughter inside.

"Oh c'mon! Give me a-"

"She said 'no', Pickering." We all turned to see Hugh walking up to us. "Leave her alone."

"Ant what are you gonna do about it?" Radi tried to make himself look taller. "Fight me?"

Hugh pursed his lips as if pondering some great life question. "Nah. I know that won't teach you nothin'. Besides, I don't really feel like committing murder today." He sneered at the younger boy. "Nah. I'll tell your mama that you're walkin' around in this neighborhood by yourself while Ricky's in jail."

Radi stumbled back, wide-eyed. "Y-you wouldn't."

"You'd put that below me?"

Radi cleared his throat and returned Hugh's sneer. "You know what she'd do to me!"

Hugh scoffed. "Of course I do! Wouldn't've made the threat if I couldn't count on her whoopin' your ass and lockin' ya in the basement for a month!"

"Please don't!" Radi pleaded, clearly having forgotten about Bronwyn. The rest of us remained silent and frozen like statues, watching the scene unfold.

"I won't if you quit hittin' on Wyn." Hugh said.

Radi looked hopefully at each of us- as if hoping that we would tell Hugh to stop or something- then slumped his shoulders.

"Don't worry, bud." I said. "There's plenty of chicks out there who'd like you."

Radi ignored me and shuffled away, sorta resembling a defeated  dog with his tail between his legs.

"Don't you think that was a little harsh?" Bronwyn asked as we started walking again.

"Nah." Hugh stuck a cigarette between his lips, but didn't light it on account of Miss P hiding all his lighter fluid somewhere. "Where are we goin'"

"The Nightly Double!" Olive exclaimed.

He nodded then looked at me with a mischievous half-smile. "You gonna finally let me teach you how to pick up chicks?"

"Maybe." I shrugged.

Hugh gave me a friendly punch in the arms. "C'mon! You know I've been lookin' forward to it since I saw you get rejected by that curvy middle-class blondie!"

My cheeks grew warm as I thought about the moment in question; it was a dark day indeed; there is nothing else to say.

Bronwyn wrapped her arm around me and chuckled. "I don't think he needs to flirt like you, Hugh; I think he's adorable just like he is!"

"Would you have him?" Hugh raised an eyebrow at Bronwyn.

Her cheeks grew pink and she withdrew her arm. "Well... no... he's like my brother."

"Gee." I joked. "I have such high self-esteem right now."

The older girls giggled; Olive and Claire clearly had no idea what "self-esteem" meant.

"Will you at least sneak into the drive-in?" Hugh asked as we stopped in front of the drive-in, where cars and people were already filing in. Sure it was only a quarter for each of us to get in and we had enough, but, as I have previously mentioned, Hugh doesn't like doing things the legal way and instead crawls through the large hole in the chain-link fence.

"No way!" Bronwyn put her hands on the little girls' shoulders. "You know we're 1 incident away from being taken away from Miss Peregrine and chucked god only knows where!"

"No big deal." Hugh shrugged. "Never been caught before, have I?" He patted my shoulder. "You comin', kid?"

"Uh..." I hesitated.

"I'm coming!" Emma exclaimed.

"Yeah." I finally answered.

"Alright!" Hugh turned and swaggered away from the crowd; Emma and I followed him.

_____________________

So there's chapter two for ya!

What'd you think?

Love ya!

CC