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4 • Bullets and Boots

I had a countdown for how long Levi had in Idaho. He left on the 14th and soon he had a week left. Then five days.

"Le-vi!" I cried, kicking open his bedroom door. His head snapped up from the suitcase he was packing.

"Gosh, are you trying to kill me?" Levi said with a smile. He dropped the T-shirt and closed the top of the case.

"Let's go somewhere," I said, fondling the metals on the wall. They were from academics and art. I remember when I was little I was jealous of Levi's awards. But I got awards for essays and music so all was forgiven.

"Like where?" Levi asked, coming towards and me and slapping my hands away from the metals.

"Somewhere cool," I said. I walked out of the room, headed turned back to see if he was following me. He, of course, was. I walked past the key rack and snatched the keys to his truck. "Let's go!" I called. I threw open the door and stepped into the garage. I heard Levi call out to our mom that we were leaving.

Levi followed and I tossed the keys to him. He threw them back. "You drive," he said.

I rolled my eyes and climbed into the driver's seat. Levi got in and put the seatbelt on and pressed the palms of his hands together. "Our dear, kind Lord," he said, his eyes closed and his head tilted to the heavens. "Please don't let Jo kill us today."

I smacked his shoulder. "Come on! I drive better than you!" Levi opened his eyes. He pressed the garage opener and pointed to the sunlight filling the room. "Drive woman."

As I pulled out onto the road. "Where should we go?" I asked.

"This was your idea," he said.

I thought and then smiled. "Wanna see how long it takes to get kicked out of Wal-Mart?"

"We did that a month ago," Levi said. "What if they remember us?"

"They won't," I said. I chose a route that would get us there.

"How do you want to do this?" I asked.

"Let's play, 'You Won't Do It,'" Levi said with a wide grin.

"Okay, but we can't do anything that would require us to end up paying for damages," I said. "Good?"

"Let's do it."

We pulled into the parking lot. I was filled with nervous energy. We walked into the building and began to scout out the area. We walked through until Levi found something.

"You won't get that book," he said, nodding to the stand. "And open and begin crying over a character. Bonus points for how weird it is."

"Deal," I said. Levi hung back with his phone and I walked confidently to the stand. I picked up a random book and opened it up. I stood there for a minute or two before 'crying'.

People walked past me awkwardly. One person, an older woman asked me," Are you alright?"

"No!" I cried. I held out the book. "Why would Mikey sell his dog? She was so good..."

The woman began to walk away and I followed. "And what about Chloe?! Why her? She didn't have to get rabies from the dog."

The woman walked quickly away. A couple people around us started laughing. I put the book back. Levi shut off his phone. "That was okay," he said.

"Alright," I said. "You won't... turn something into a commercial."

"Easy." We walked around until we found something. Levi grabbed a knife block and waited until a bunch of people walked by. I got my phone ready.

"Gather 'round!" Levi said. "Have you seen the new, revolutionary knives?"

A few people stopped and others stayed away but watched from a distance.

"Are you tired of those boring blocks that have no fun? I've got a solution! What if when you wanted a knife..." he yanked on a handle hard. It stayed in the block. "It was as stubborn as a mule with the runs?"

Some people laughed. Levi tried to pull the knife out again but it was tied in for the display. He tried one more time and just the handle popped off. Levi shrieked and dropped the knife on the shelf, running away. He broke out in a huge grin as he came back,

"How was that?" he asked.

"Awesome!" I said with a giggle. I looked over his shoulder and gasped, An employee with a red face was stomping towards us.

"Ah, crap," I muttered. Levi turned around. "Whoops."

"Please leave," the worker said. Levi nodded and we turned to leave.

"Wait," the man said. "Did you steal a knife?"

Levi spun around. "What?! No."

"Empty your pockets, please. You too, miss."

"Come on," Levi said under his breath.

I pulled out a pile of change and gum wrappers from all of my pockets. I also found a dollar bill in my coat pocket. "Hey, what luck," I said.

Levi had the keys and some money. In his jacket pocket was the stray bullet. The employee's face went white. He backed away with his hands up. "Hey, don't do anything stupid."

"Dude, it's just a bullet," Levi said. "Your sporting goods section has a million of these."

"I think you should leave," the worker said. We didn't need telling twice. We hurried out of there and back to the truck.

"That didn't go so well," Levi said as soon as we were safe in the vehicle.

I checked my phone. "11 minutes, 14 seconds."

"That's it?" Levi said. "It felt like that worker was grilling us for at least 15."

Levi was driving now and we drifted around town, not really sure what to do. We ended up home again, an adventure crashing and burning.

"So, now what?" Levi said, as soon as the truck was turned off. "I dunno. We got to do something fun."

I opened my door and stepped out. My right foot hit the ground first and it went right out from under me. My arms windmilled in an attempt to catch myself. I fell forward, cracking my elbow on the concrete. I hollered and Levi came running around. I was crumpled on the ground, ankle throbbing and something warm crawling down my arm.

"Woah, you okay?" Levi asked. He reached down and grabbed my left hand. I staggered to my feet but nearly fell again. "My foot."

It ached and sent pain licking up my leg. Levi sighed. "Let's go." He scooped me up like a baby and carried me into the house. "And don't get any blood on my jacket."

One look at me from my mom and we were back in a car, heading for another trip to the doctor.

I had broken my foot and needed three stitches on my elbow. So instead of partying with Levi his last few days, I was laid up, begging him to take me with him and his friends. He agreed once but after trying to keep up with him and his friends at the mall, I tripped on my crutches and landed on my elbow. Again. It split open and gushed like some strawberry fountain. One of Levi's friends passed out and another had to lay on the floor.

I was stitched up again and then forbidden by my oh so kind mother to go out until I was healed up. The only time I could leave the house was for school.

I was asleep when Levi drove for the airport. I woke up and yelled at the time. His plane left 2 minutes ago. I rolled out of bed, grabbed a crutch and hobbled to his room while yelling, "You're late Levi! Let's go!"

"Hush, Jennifer," Mom said, coming in from the garage. She took off her coat and hung up her keys.

"Wait, he's gone?" I said.

Mom nodded. "We were going to leave at 5, remember? The plane left at 6:30."

"I know, but why didn't you wake me?"

"I didn't want you to get hurt again. It'll be okay. You can come to drop him off next time."

I pushed the crutch away from me and turned around. The crutch clattered on the tile and I limped back to my room. I ignored my mom's calls for me to come back. I threw open my bedroom door and fell onto my bed. How could they think I didn't want to see my best friend off? Stupid them.

My door was quietly nudged open and I peeled my face off my pillow to see my dad awkwardly standing there. "You good, Jo?" he asked.

"Yep." I dropped my face back into my pillow.

"Good." I heard the door close and I couldn't help but laugh a little. Dad wasn't the most touchy-feely guy so just the fact he asked me how I was doing was something. Still didn't fix the fact that my family didn't think I could go to the airport. I expected Mom to pull crap like this but not Levi.

A feeling rolled over me that I hadn't felt in years. What if my brother didn't like me? What if he wanted to go off on his special day alone, without his baby sister screwing it up and pulling all the attention to her with her crutches and boot. I was suddenly ashamed. I pulled the covers over my head and didn't emerge for hours.

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