Yuku free message boards

(Picked up from Franki's commentary in Ben Wade's Thread)

Franki revved her motorcycle just for the pleasure of hearing the cycle roar, feeling the wind run over her back and the engine throb beneath her.

Idiots, morons ... When had they gotten stupid? They used to be so tight, the three of them against the world.

She'd been so scared. Lost and terrified, no idea why her Mother would do this to her, sign her into a lock-down drug rehab program. She didn't do hard drugs, never had. But her Mother believed The Liar.

And Antonio had been there too. Him and Travis were 16 then. Already buddies, already druggies ... but nicer then. Smarter then. Antonio had showed her how to get around the Orderlies, and she'd learned fast. The honest little girl had learned to lie with an innocent face. Even the hard lies.

Bright lights flashed in Franki's rear view mirror.

Oh shit! She throttled down and pulled to the side of the road, running a desperate mental checklist.

Weed, no. Beer, yes. But only a couple of closed bottles in one saddlebag. Heroin, Cocaine, no. Suspiciously large amounts of money, Yes. Okay, don't piss him off, don't let him search me ...

By the time the officer was out of the car she had her game face in place.

He was the 'typical' cop, she checked him out as he walked up. His hand was already hovering over the butt of his gun. He must have run her plates and seen the "On Parole" flag. Then he'd have checked her record and seen her history.

"You know how fast you were going, Miss?"

She nodded, peering at the name on his uniform shirt pocket.

"I'm sorry, Officer ... White". The shirt wasn't a great fit anymore, like he'd not hit the gym in a while.

"I'm going to have to cite you, not a great way to start out your Parole." He was walking around the bike, looking at it, looking at her. But he hadn't taken out his ticket book yet.

Franki knew the drill. He was giving her an opening, she could either take it ... or take the ticket and the risk of a report to her Parole Officer.

She put on a well-rehearsed 'shy smile'. "Is there ... any way I could get you to reduce the ticket?"

He knew the drill too. "Well ... I supposed I could consider letting you off with a warning."

Five minutes later, she was on her knees in the scrub brush off the side of the road, blowing Officer White.

He didn't take long, and he left afterwards without so much as raising a fist. FAr as 'Officer White' was concerned, it was a perk of the job. Not every officer would have been that nice to a spic chick caught speading while on Parole.

Franki looked around the nearly empty bar and decided. That one, the guy with the buzz cut and the sad eyes.

"Hey Mister. Did you know it's supposed to be good luck to kiss a stranger on New Year's Eve?"

Franki flashed her cell phone a quick glance. No telling when Wade might come looking or one of the moron brothers call her for a ride because they were too drunk to remember where their keys were.

"I think I have time for that."

Oh shit. Of course he was going to ask questions like that. They were normal questions and normal people could give nice sane not-getting-arrested answers. But lying to a cop was nothing new, it was instinct by now.

Franki shrugged. "Basically, I deliver stuff. 98% of it is boring as hell." True, as far as it went. "Last month it was flowers ... This last summer it was vehicles for a private collector." Also true as far as it went. She had delivered a couple of vehicles to a private collector. They hadn't started out belonging to that collector but she'd been paid pretty well to overlook that fact.

Officer White looked so serious, actually paying attention to what she was saying, it was a new thing for Franki to be faced with a guy who seemed to really want to listen instead of just treating conversation as a way to get into her pants.

And for the first time, Franki wished just a little bit that she really was the 'classy woman' Officer White thought she was. "I do my job and I go home, that's pretty much the end of it."

She sipped the dark, syrupy beer and reminded herself to go slow drinking it on an empty stomach. "So ... now I know that you're a cop and your last name is White. I'd bet you have a first name too?" She teased him gently."