Free Pressure by Jeff Strand Page A

gonna see what I can do. He might listen to me.”
    “Why would he listen to you?”
    “I don’t know, but he might.” We’d bonded over lying outside in the cold waiting to see a naked woman, and a bond like that was not easily broken.
    I ran ahead of Jeremy and Peter, praying that I could work this out. I hurried through the trees, and it didn’t take long to catch up with Darren. He started to pick up his pace as he heard me approach.
    “Darren, wait!” I shouted.
    He broke into a run.
    “Darren, please! ”
    I’m not sure if it was because I sounded so pathetic or because he figured I could outrun him anyway, but he slowed his pace. “What do you want?”
    “What do you think I want? Let’s talk about this.”
    He ran his finger along his neck. “I’ve got a lot to talk about, but it’s sure not going to be with you.”
    “C’mon, Darren, you know we weren’t going to do anything!”
    “I don’t know that at all.”
    “Yes you do. And Mr. Sevin will know it, too. And so will the cops. But if we just forget about the whole thing, pretend like nothing happened, then nobody has to get hurt.”
    Darren lifted his chin to give me a better view of his neck. “Nobody has to get hurt?”
    “I’ve already seen your neck, okay? Don’t be an asshole about this!”
    “ I’m an asshole?”
    Though I was still in a severe state of panic, I was starting to get more than a little angry, too. “Don’t act all innocent! You got yourself into this! And if you tell, believe me, I’ll make sure they know exactly how sick you really are.”
    Darren gave me a grin that made me want to break his jaw. “You suck at threats.”
    “I’m serious.”
    “Alex, when I tell them what happened you’ll be so busy sobbing and blubbering that you won’t be able to say a fuckin’word, you chickenshit.”
    I stared into his eyes, hoping to find some sign that he was concerned, but it seemed to be genuine arrogance. I clenched my fists. “I’m not a chicken.”
    “What, you can’t even say the ‘shit’ part? You’re the biggest loser I’ve ever met in my entire life!”
    He had to be bluffing.
    “Fine,” I said, shrugging. “Tell them. You’ll have fun in the loony bin. Maybe you’ll get to cut up a person who thinks he’s a dog.”
    “That was kind of funny.”
    “Yeah. Ha-ha.”
    “I might not tell anybody. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet. But you’d better just leave me alone for a while.”
    “I’m really sorry about this, Darren.”
    “See? You’re a chickenshit.”
    “But I am sorry.”
    “Good. Stay away from me.”
    I let him go. If he was considering keeping this a secret, then all we could do was be as nice to him as possible and stay on his good side.
    I walked back and met up with Jeremy and Peter. “So?” Jeremy asked.
    “He doesn’t know what he’s going to do. He might not say anything.”
    “He’d better not. We can do a lot worse than scrape up his neck.”
    “Stop it,” I said. “Don’t say anything mean to him from now on.”
    “I never said anything mean to him until he did this!”
    “Well, let’s please not fight with him. Maybe he won’t say anything. We’ll just all pretend nothing happened.”
    Jeremy sighed. “Fine. Whatever. But I’d like to see him try to tell on us.”
    We walked in silence until we were in sight of the campus.
    “I don’t think he killed Killer Fang,” Peter said, his voice hollow. “Killer Fang would’ve been too fast for somebody like him. He would’ve ripped Darren’s throat out if he tried to hurt him. I think he got hit by a car.”
    “That’s what I think, too,” I said.
    “My parents should’ve left him at home.” Peter sniffled. “He was a great dog.”
    “Yeah,” Jeremy agreed.
    Peter began to cry. Neither Jeremy nor I were particularly well versed in the art of consoling a friend in mourning, so we fell behind to give Peter some dignity as he wept.
    When we got back to the room, Darren was under