Dinner at the Brake Fast by Renee Beauregard Lute

Author:Renee Beauregard Lute
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2024-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Kyle pulls the truck into one of the parking spots at Olive’s Juice-Up. There’s two other semis in the lot. I assume one of them belongs to Raw Sugar.

Kyle shuts off the truck and unbuckles his seatbelt. Hudgie unbuckles, too.

“Where’d you think you’re going?” Kyle asks him.

“It stinks in here! And you can’t just leave me in the truck. My mom said—”

“Your mom says a lot of things. You’d be smart not to listen to most of ’em. I sure don’t. You’re staying in the truck.”

Hudgie slumps down in his seat.

“Be good out here ’n maybe I’ll bring you something to eat when I’m done.”

Hudgie doesn’t say anything.

“Stop pouting. You look like a fool and a baby.” Kyle gets out of the cab and slams the door behind him.

Denver and I both breathe out noisily in relief. “Oh man, I can’t wait to get out of here,” Denver says.

I hand him my dad’s photo. My fingers are stiff from clutching the frame for so long. “Can you put this in your camera bag?” I ask.

He unzips his bag, hangs his camera around his neck, and carefully fits the photo inside the case. I keep my head low as I watch Kyle open the front door of the building and walk inside.

“Let’s go!” I hop off the bottom bunk and nearly fall over. “Ow!”

“Yeah, my legs are asleep too,” says Denver.

“I’m coming with you guys,” says Hudgie quietly. He’s turned around, looking right at us.

Denver and I freeze.

“What?” I say, even though I heard him.

“I’m coming with you. I don’t want to stay here with him. He’s a jerk.” Hudgie blinks hard, like he’s trying to keep from crying again. “You heard him. He treats me like crap.”

Hudgie’s voice sounds kind of wobbly. Maybe this is the first time Kyle’s treated Hudgie like that in front of other people, even if Kyle didn’t know it. Maybe now it’s harder for Hudgie to pretend his uncle isn’t so bad.

“Well, Tacoma’s the boss, so . . .” Denver looks at me.

“He does treat you like crap,” I say. “I’m really sorry about that, Hudgie. I wouldn’t want to be stuck with Kyle, either. Come on.” I stomp my feet to wake up my legs. I wince at the sharp needle-y feeling in my calves. “But we need to get out of here before he comes back. What’s he going to do when he sees that you’re missing?”

“Nothing,” says Hudgie. “Be glad he doesn’t have to bring me all the way to Boise after all, I guess.”

“So we leave,” says Denver. “All three of us. And then what?”

“And then . . . I guess we wait for Kyle to get out of here, and we go inside and ask to use a phone.”

“If either of you grandmas ever says a word about anything you heard in this truck, I’ll feed you to that rabid rooster,” growls Hudgie.

Denver and I both nod.

“Tacoma,” says Denver, “I can’t wait for Kyle to leave. I need to use a bathroom.

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