18 – Controlling Maple (2)

Axel shoved Jake aside in a panic, nearly knocking him against a stall.

“What the hell’s going on here?” A voice demanded. Axel turned around and felt the color drain from his face.

Officer Neil McNeil stood in front of the door, eyes darting between Axel and Jake. “What were you doing just now?”

“Taking a piss,” Jake snapped. “Or are you gonna arrest us for that?”

Axel winced. “Jake…”

“If you were doing what I think you were doing, I’d have good reason to arrest you!”

“We were about to leave,” Axel said, eyes on Jake. Jake rolled his eyes and followed Axel to the door.

“Fuckin’ hispanic,” McNeil muttered. Except he left out the h, i, a, and n. The word stung, but being called a slur was nothing new. And he wasn’t about to start an argument with a disgruntled cop in a church bathroom. He could ignore it.

“Holy shit!”

Of course, Jake was incapable of ignoring anything. Before Axel could stop him, Jake lunged for McNeil.

McNeil whipped out his gun.

“No!” Axel shouted.

Three loud bangs rang in Axel’s ears as he squeezed his eyes shut.

“What the fuck?!”

“Lunge at me again, and I’ll aim for you!”

Axel opened his eyes to see Jake visibly frightened, but unharmed. He held his two shaky hands up. McNeil stood with his gun pointed at Jake’s chest. Outside the restroom, people screamed.

“It won’t happen again,” Axel said quickly as Jake inched towards him, hands still raised.

“Good. Now get out!”

Axel and Jake left the restrooms, stumbling upon people fleeing the building. Great. Everyone probably thought there was someone shooting up the place. “It’s safe,” Axel said to every person that passed. His words went ignored.

Sirens wailed as three cop cars pulled up. Probably the whole force, minus McNeil.

Jake swore. “Let’s go!”

The two men raced out the door right as officers started getting out of their cars. They ran down the street, then turned down an alleyway, and onto another street. Axel clutched at a stitch in his side, but neither man stopped until they reached Axel’s van, parked in a public lot.

Axel slid open the side-door, and they both fell inside, panting.

Jake closed the door behind him, and flopped onto the bed. Axel laid next to him. They took a moment to catch their breaths before speaking.

“Never. Ever. Do that again,” Axel said to Jake between wheezes.

“You sure weren’t complaining.” Jake gave him a flirtatious smile.

“Not that.” Though Axel was in no hurry to do something risky again. “Attacking a policeman. That was stupid!”

“I didn’t attack him. Besides, he called you a slur.”

“He’s also a cop. They’re allowed to call people whatever they want.”

“That doesn’t make it okay. How are you not upset?”

“I am upset. Of course I’m upset! But I’m not going to attack a cop for calling me that. A cop!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jake grumbled.

“I don’t know what cops are like in California, but cops here are entitled assholes who look for any excuse to shoot a gun at someone. Especially cops in small towns who never get a chance to use them. McNeil’s reason would have been valid in court.”

Jake stared up at the ceiling. It was hard to read his expression, or if Axel’s words were even sticking. “I won’t do it again,” he said flatly.

“Thank you.”

“But I’d totally make out with you in that bathroom again.” Jake’s smile returned as he eyed Axel’s form. “Or maybe right now?”

How could he possibly be in the mood for that after what just happened? “I’m sorry, but seeing you almost get killed by a cop ruined it for me.”

“Fair enough. Maybe you should drive me home.”

Good. Axel needed to be alone with his thoughts.

~~~~~

Maple returned to the church to find cops swarming around outside. She swallowed. Had her disappearance worried Neil and her brothers that much? That they called cops and reported her missing after 20 minutes?

She spotted Neil and her brothers chatting with two of the cops. Reluctantly, she approached them.

“Jake was about to jump me,” Neil said, “so I whipped out my gun and shot at the wall. I knew he wouldn’t actually hurt me. He’s such a pussy.”

The group laughed. Maple scowled while wondering why Jake would do something that stupid.

“It scared the piss out of him, you should have seen it. They all think they’re so tough until they see a gun.”

“He could have had a gun,” Baum said.

“You think some pansy from California knows how to use a gun?” Neil sneered. The group laughed again.

Maple’s chest burned. “He’s not a pansy!”

Everyone jerked their heads towards her.

“Where have you been?” Walker asked with folded arms. “There’s cops out looking for you. We thought you ran away.”

“I got bored during service.”

Carter glared at her. “That was a very important sermon someone like you needed to listen to.”

Maple shrugged. “Where’s Jake?”

Neil looked to her brothers, and her brothers gave him a sharp nod. Neil took a few steps towards Maple, and slapped her across the face.

“Ow!” She clutched her stinging cheek, looking up at Neil, and then her brothers. Her brothers hadn’t flinched. Nor did the cops. “What was that for?!”

“For being disrespectful.” Neil glowered at her, his jaw tight.

Maple gave her brothers a questioning stare.

“We had a private discussion with Neil,” Walker explained. “We thought it would be a good idea to give him permission to exercise some control over you.”

“Huh?”

“You’re loud, obnoxious, and disrespectful,” Carter said. “Neil said he could fix that. So he has our permission to hit you when needed.”

Maple gaped at them. As if Neil wasn’t a big enough nightmare, now he had permission to abuse her?

“Since the girl’s back, can we go?” one of the officers asked Neil.

“Obviously. Call off the search.” Neil turned back to Maple. “We’re going to lunch. Not that you deserve for me to take you to lunch…”

“I’ll go home and eat alone then. We can go out another time.”

Smack!

Maple clutched her other cheek, wincing. “What? Are you gonna do that every time I talk?”

Neil answered with another slap. Maple narrowed her tear-filled eyes at him, but said nothing.

“See,” Neil said to her brothers. “Already my method is working.”

~~~~~

Jake arrived home, slightly shaky, but also pissed off. Mainly at that cop, for obvious reasons. But a small part of him was also annoyed with Axel for being so complacent. Didn’t he want things to change? Because with an attitude like his, nothing would change. Cops would continue thinking they ruled the world. Blacklisting would still be a thing. Racism and homophobia would continue running rampant. They’d never be able to hold hands in public. It wasn’t fair. At all.

What was it he had said once before? All we can do is vote for people who won’t make our lives worse. What a depressing view. Like politicians cared about anyone other than themselves.

Jake headed for his room, but met his father at the top of the stairs. Will did not look pleased. “We need to talk.”

“About what?” Don’t tell me it made the news…

“I heard something interesting on the news.”

Jake groaned.

“What the hell did you think you were doing?!”

“That cop provoked me!”

Will put his hands on his hips with raised eyebrows. “How?”

Jake turned away from his father’s glare.

“Well?”

“He called Axel a racial slur,” Jake mumbled.

“And you two were making out in a church bathroom? What were you doing in a church anyway? You hate religion.”

Jake didn’t have an answer his father would want to hear. “I’m really tired. I need to-”

“People are calling for boycotting Pieway.”

That got Jake’s attention. He jerked his head towards Will. “What? Why?”

“Because of your disrespect for law enforcement and God.”

“That cop had it coming!”

“People here respect cops. Some are religious. Many are homophobic. They’re all siding with him. You’re lucky you’re not getting blacklisted over it.”

Now that Jake thought about it, how hadn’t he been blacklisted?

Will answered his silent question. “Apparently, there would have needed to be three other witnesses in that bathroom with him when it happened, or video evidence. You’re lucky cops here don’t wear body cameras! But people are still angry at us. We’ll lose sales.”

“Who cares about sales!”

“You should unless you want to live like your homeless friend.”

That wouldn’t be so bad, if Jake could get a van of his own to live in.

“Can you at least think of the consequences before you act? Things are different here-”

“I know!” How many times did people need to remind him? “But nothing will get better if nobody does anything! Living here sucks. I can’t even protest about it.”

“You can vote in the next election.”

“They’ll let me?”

“You were born here.”

Jake stood, gaping at his father, struggling to process those words. “I was born here?! You never told me that!”

Will avoided his gaze. “Your mom and I were planning on moving earlier. But when she got pregnant with you, it put a delay on that. She was forced to stay here until she gave birth.”

“What do you mean, ‘forced to stay here?’”

“Pregnant people aren’t allowed to leave the country until they give birth. You remember seeing that line of women crossing over from Jefferson when we passed the border?”

Jake did. He even asked Will about it, but Will had changed the subject. “Yeah…”

“They were being tested for pregnancy. Anyone who is gets sent back home. It’s to make sure they’re not leaving the country to get an abortion.”

“What!”

“They take that very seriously here.”

“You’ve got to be joking.”

“Anyways…” His father continued on as if there was nothing wrong with such an asinine law. “We had to wait for your mother to recover before we could leave. You might have only spent a few days here as an infant, but it’s enough for you to be considered a citizen. You shouldn’t have a problem registering to vote if you wanted to.”

Jake wondered if he should even waste his time. “Voting won’t change anything. Politicians don’t care about us. They’re all the same.”

“Not all of them. There’s someone running for governor.”

Waylon? Jake snorted. “You know Waylon’s a piece of shit.”

Will didn’t dispute the insult. “I’m not talking about him. I’m talking about his opponent.”

Right. Waylon would have to have an opponent. Probably some other fascist.

“He wants to get rid of blacklisting.”

Jake blinked a few times at those words. “What?”

“Yeah. He’s stirring up a lot of controversy. Clark Black.”

“Clark Black?”

“Look him up.”

“Okay.” Someone who wanted to get rid of blacklisting. Maybe there was hope.