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Seth was awestruck. At a party once he'd played spin the bottle and pass the orange and had kissed a few girls in the process. But he'd never seriously made out. In the distance a big semi trailer appeared on the highway. Adam raised his arm in the air and pumped his fist up and down. The driver responded with three loud blasts of his air horns. A moment later the semi rumbled under them and disappeared. "Let me try that," Seth said. Another truck was coming and he leaned over the stone ledge and jerked his arm up and down. But the trucker ignored him. Adam laughed. "How come it didn't work?" Seth asked. "You gotta do it a special way," Adam told him. "Show me," Seth said. "Can't, man," Adam said. "You just have to have the right touch. It's something you're born with." Seth smirked. It figured. It was just his luck to be born without the touch that made truckers blow their horns. The traffic was gradually getting thicker as the afternoon rush hour approached. Many of the drivers and passengers in the cars seemed unaware of the two boys on the overpass. But a few others stared up through their windshields at them. "Bet they're wondering if we're gonna drop something on them," Adam said. He lifted his hand in the air as if he was holding an imaginary rock. Down on the highway more of the people in the cars were looking up at him now. Suddenly Adam whipped his arm forward. Even though there was nothing in his hand, a woman driving a blue sedan put her hands up in fear. Her car swerved momentarily out of its lane. Seth felt his jaw drop. He couldn't believe Adam had done that. If the car had been going faster it might have gone out of control and crashed into the stone abutment next to the highway Meanwhile Adam grinned at him. "Scared the crap out her." "Maybe we ought to go," Seth said, suddenly worried that they were going to get into trouble. What if a cop had seen them? Or what if the woman was really mad? "Why?" Adam asked. "She could get off and come back here." Adam shrugged. "Let her," he said. .'The last person in the world I'd be afraid of is some old lady." He took a drag off his cigarette and turned away to watch the cars again. Seth kept glancing toward the exit ramp to see if the woman the blue car had gotten off. He was really tempted to leave but he stayed because he liked being with Adam. It made him feel good that a cool guy like Adam let him hang around. A few minutes passed and the blue car did not appear on the exit ramp. Seth relaxed a little. He had smoked his Malboro almost all the way down to the filter and his mouth tasted awful. Smoke kept getting in his eyes and making them water. He dropped the cigarette to the sidewalk and crushed it under his sneaker, relieved to be finished with it. "Here's the way to do it," Adam said. He held the butt of his cigarette between his thumb and middle finger and flicked it over the side of the bridge and down into the traffic. With a burst of red sparks it hit the windshield of a black car passing below. Adam turned and grinned. Seth smiled back uncomfortably. He was beginning to wonder just how far Adam would go. Neither of them saw the black car pull off onto the exit ramp and come up behind them on the bridge. Seth didn't notice it until he heard a door slam. He turned and saw three big guys getting out of the car. They were all wearing tight shirts which outlined their muscles. Seth suddenly decided it was time to go, but he quickly realized that the three guys had spread out, cutting off any way to escape. He and Adam were surrounded. "Uh, Adam." Seth nudged him with his elbow. "Wha--?" Adam turned around and his mouth fell open. In the meantime the three big guys came closer. Seth and Adam backed against the bridge wall. Seth felt his stomach tighten painfully. His heart began to beat like a machine gun. Adam looked pale and pretty scared too. Was it Seth's imagination, or was his friend trembling? "Which one of you geeks flicked that butt on my car?" The question came from the husky guy with a black moustache and long black hair that curled behind his ears. Seth and Adam glanced at each other. Seth was determined not to tell. He didn't believe in squealing on his friends. But suddenly he noticed that all three guys were staring at him. He quickly looked at Adam and saw why. Adam was pointing at him. Before Seth could say anything, the husky guy grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and lifted him off the ground. Seth's feet kicked uselessly in the air for a second and then he was thrown against the front fender of the black car. He hit with a thud and lost his breath. Before he had a chance to recover, the guy grabbed him by the hair and forced his face toward the windshield. "Lick it off," he growled. Seth didn't know what he was talking about. He tried to raise his head, but the husky guy pushed his face closer to the windshield. Lord, he was strong. "I said, lick it." Page 3 |
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