When To Put Trust On The Line

Part 17

I waited till Friday to see Wess. I considered skipping my afternoon classes or at least last period to go see him. But then I realized I didn't need to put my marks in jeopardy and could wait. As soon as the last bell rang that afternoon, I flew out of school and started on my walk to the garage. Once I made it there, I paused, looking around. The garage door was open, exposing lots of noises and young guys hard at work on vehicles. I moved away from my position on the sidewalk, where the hot sun beamed down on me.

Timidly entering the garage, I looked around for Wess, cringing at all the noise. I halted as a bald man stepped out in front of me. He wasn't dressed like the other workers. Instead, he wore a formal short-sleeved top with black pants. "Can I help you?" he shouted over the noise, smiling lightly.

I craned my neck up to look at him, since he was tall. "Um... I'm looking for Wess. Is he here?"

The man turned to a young guy nearby, working on a car. "You seen Wess?" he asked.

"Uh..." The guy looked around, then jerked his head behind him.

The bald man nodded. "Thanks." He turned to me. "To the back." He pointed.

I nodded. "Uh, okay. Thanks." I smiled and he returned it before walking away. I headed to the back of the garage. At the end, I reached a single car with a guy working hard at it. Wess. His light skinned body glistened with sweat. I carefully went to stand next to him, keeping a distance so I wouldn't get hurt with any of the tools he was using. "Wess!" I called his name a couple of times before he noticed me.

He seemed surprised as he took his protective glasses off. "Oh!" He stepped closer to me. "What are you doin' here? You need help with a car or somethin'?"

I shook my head. "Uh, no! I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Um..." He looked around before putting his tools down and lightly touching my upper arm. "Come this way." He led me all the way to the back, where he opened a door that had dark blue paint peeling off. He gestured for me to go in. As I entered, I looked around, finding myself in a non-spacious room full of things. I first noticed a large desk by the door, overflowed with paper. In front of it, was a wide window that took up the entire width of the wall and allowed a good view of what was happening in the garage. My eyes went to Wess, who was pushing the door behind him, his hand on the knob as he leaned towards me. "Today's been busy. Got a lot of people in the waitin' area and shit. Can you wait here like ten or fifteen minutes? If you don't got nowhere to be?"

I shook my head. "Uh, no. I can wait." I set my bag down.

He gestured at a chair situated behind the big desk. "Have a seat. I'll try to be back here as soon as I can."

I nodded as I took a seat in the swiveling black leather chair. "Okay."

"Alright." Wess left the room, closing the door behind him, which drowned out about thirty percent of the garage noise. I glanced through the large window, catching a glimpse of him, and seeing that no one was paying attention to me. I looked around at the papers on the desk. Was this what Derrick had been talking about? The office holding all the papers that kept records of all customer purchases? I let my eyes wander over the mass of papers, even moving a few out of the way. I found nothing with Bobby's name on it.

I slowly got up and walked over to one of the small desk drawers lining the other walls in the little room. I glanced at the big window before pretending to "curiously" look at the overflowing papers on the surface of each small desk - even looking through their drawers. So many papers, but no sign of Bobby's name. Which could have been understandable, as it was maybe something meant to be kept confidential. In a neighbourhood like this, it made a lot of sense. But why risk everything for such a big secret?