Vacant Lot scene–Sixteen

This amused me greatly, so I figured I’d share.  This came about sometime yesterday and pushed me over the 6k-word mark.  The scene itself is not yet finished, and there’s some rather irritatingly awkward description that comes before it, but this is the most interesting bit.  I hope you enjoy.

 

Carlo glanced up momentarily from listening to Ryan’s energetic and most likely over exaggerated story to take in the scene.

“Hey,” he whispered suddenly, interrupting Ryan mid sentence. “Hey, guys, hold up a sec.”

Ryan rolled his good eye as the delivery of his tale was completely ruined. “What is it, Carlo?”

Carlo gestured surreptitiously to the pair seated on the ground across the way. “Jeff and Kory,” he said simply, as if that explained the whole situation clearly.

Mark stared at them intently for a moment, then shook his head. “What about ‘em?”

Eyes widening in disbelief, Carlo gestured wildly. “What about ‘em?” he fairly shrieked, still trying to keep his voice low. “What do you mean, what about ‘em?”

This, of course, caused Mark to roll his eyes, nudging Ryan with his elbow before turning back to the rather excitable Italian and slinging an arm around his shoulders. “Carlo. Dude. How many times do we have to tell you? Nobody can read your mind, so you’re gonna have to just tell us what it is you’re seeing, man.”

Carlo’s eyes went from big as saucers to narrowed slits in point-two seconds flat. “Get that off,” he hissed. Mark removed his arm, though somewhat begrudgingly, and Carlo continued. “There’s something going on over there.”

“Dude, there’s nothing going on over there,” Ryan sighed.

“There so totally is! Why can’t you guys see it?”

“Uh… Maybe because we still don’t even know what ‘it’ is?”

With a frustrated growl, Carlo pointed forcefully in the direction of Kory, who was now lazily fondling Shadow’s ears. This was causing the mutt’s tail to swish right in Jeff’s face, bringing a rather irritated scowl from behind his glasses. Kory gave a soft chuckle before tugging on Shadow’s ear to bring him farther away from the other boy, after which Jeff shot him a grateful glance before going back to his book.

“See!” Carlo hissed again. “See! Right there! Look! Right. There. Tell me you saw that!”

Mark rolled his eyes again and seated himself comfortably against a metal bin. “I didn’t see anything unusual. What’s your conspiracy theory this time, Carlo?”

“No conspiracy,” Carlo commented, suddenly quite casual and calm.

Ryan clapped him on the shoulder. “Yeah, right. So what is it?”

Once again, Carlo glared at the hand on his shoulder. “Off!”

Ryan just chuckled and shoved him a bit, amused at the small Italian’s intense reaction to being touched. As the pieces fell into place, he only laughed harder. “Oh, come on, Itey,” he coaxed. “What’s your damage, man? You’re always convinced there’s something dastardly going on between those two. What’s it gonna take to convince you that they’re honest to goodness just really good friends?”

Carlo sighed as if in sympathy of their incredible lack of vision and shook his head. “Blink,” he said slowly, as if talking to a small child. “You just can’t see things the way I do. There’s something horrible going on right under our noses, but if you want to ignore it and pretend that everything’s all hunky-dory, well you go right on ahead. But don’t say I didn’t warn you when you walk in one day to find them… well, you know.”

Eyebrows scrunched in confusion, Ryan squinted at Carlo with his good eye. “Carlo, they don’t live in my house. How on earth am I supposed to walk in on them doing anything?”

By now the heated conversation was carrying well across the lot. Kory sat up and gently pushed Shadow out of the way, turning to Jeff and tapping his knee to get his attention. Once he had done so, he gestured over to where Carlo and Ryan were having their debate. Jeff listened silently for several moments before smiling softly and shaking his head. “Carlo and his conspiracies again?” he mumbled turning his attention halfway back to his book.

“Yup,” Kory replied matter-of-factly. Excited by the sudden burst of activity, Shadow jumped to his feet and clambered awkwardly into Kory’s lap, his tail once again slapping Jeff soundly in the face. “Shadow,” Kory muttered, somewhere between annoyed and amused but too lazy to do anything about it.

Jeff coughed a few times as he was met with a mouthful of dog hair, then watched as the friendly mutt attempted to lick at Kory’s face. “You know, you really ought to train him or something,” he commented casually.

Kory just shook his head as he pushed the dog away. “I’ve tried. I haven’t decided yet if I’m too lazy, or if he is.”

“It’s you,” Jeff said quickly, going back once more to his book. He chuckled softly as Kory launched a poorly aimed swat at his head.