Chapter 4
“I’m taking a nap!” Keme shouted before flopping onto his side and pulling the blanket over his head.
“Right,” I said. “I know that.”
Silence from the chesterfield.
“In fact,” I said, “I’m kind of an expert on naps.”
Nothing.
“One time, I napped so hard it turned into a full night’s sleep. Hugo called an ambulance because he thought I was in a coma.”
“Why don’t you ever stop talking?” Keme groaned under the blanket. “Why can’t you leave me alone?”
“Because we did something awesome! And I want you to see it and be impressed and know how much we love you and be grateful and tell us how much you love us and—okay, kind of took a left turn there, ignore that last part.”
Keme was utterly still under the blanket.
“If you don’t want to come out,” I said, “Fox and I can rehearse our special musical number that we’re putting together for you.”
A whimper came from the direction of the chesterfield.
“There’s so much kazoo,” I informed him.
And that’s how you get Keme up from a nap. (Or you can spray him with water, like a cat, but let me tell you: he does not like that, and when he catches up to you, he’ll give you the worst pink-belly you’ve ever seen.)
He followed me outside, dramatically rubbing his eyes, stomping extra hard to let me know how annoying this was, and how annoying I was, and how annoying life, in general, was.
A rectangle defined by chalk covered the drive in front of the house.
It was filled with hearts and flowers (Indira’s contribution), and really pretty handwriting that said, I love you and Congratulations (Millie), and a dragon fighting a Tai fighter (Fox—although I had been the genius to come up with that idea), and a lot of writing in neat, blocky letters that said Great job and We’re all proud of you (Bobby, of course—I’d told him to draw a gun and a badge, and he’d told me to go away because he needed to make sure his letters looked good, which in Bobby speak meant he wanted them to all be exactly the same size).
(Also, he didn’t say go away, because that would have been rude; he said, Dash, babe, I need to focus, and he was so earnest about the whole thing that my heart pretty much exploded.)
Arranged around it, Indira, Fox, Bobby, and Millie were waiting for us. Millie, for some reason, had found a sparkler, and she waved it excitedly when we came out of the house.
Fox booed, but then they added, “I’m only booing Dash,” which you could tell Keme really appreciated.
When we got to the chalk drawing, Keme looked at it, clearly struggling to come up with something to say. “That’s really cool.”
“IT’S YOUR PARKING SPACE!” (Guess who?) “EVERYBODY gets their parking space decorated senior year. It’s the BEST!”
It took about three seconds for Keme to say, “Oh.” And then, “Cool.”
“We know it’s not your REAL parking space,” Millie said. “But you didn’t have one at the high school, so we had to improvise.”
“We already took pictures of it,” Indira said, “but we want a picture of you lying down next to it.”
“And don’t mess up my dragon,” Fox said.
Keme lowered himself to lie on the drive, and Indira snapped a lot of pictures. He picked himself up, dusted himself off, and said, “Thanks. This is cool.”
“It would be cooler if you had a car to park in your parking space,” I said.
“Dash,” Bobby said.
Do you know what’s funny? Keme actually seemed grateful for a chance to shift from the awkwardness of having people do something nice for him and into, well, picking on me.
He tried to swat my glasses off my face, and when I dodged back, laughing, he lunged and caught my hood, and the next thing I knew, I was being swung around by my hoodie.
“Okay,” Bobby said, separating us. “Enough. I need him alive, Keme.”
Keme did try to kick me one more time, but it was a loving kick. (The love was implied.)
We stood there for a few minutes—for some reason, I was the one trying to catch my breath.
Keme didn’t look like he’d exerted himself at all.
(Have I mentioned he’s a mini-Hulk?) But it was nice, standing there, in the warmth of another perfect afternoon, Bobby’s arm around my shoulders, with the people I love.
“Well,” Keme said in the voice of a boy who wants to get back to his nap. “Thanks.”
Indira laughed and covered her mouth. Fox grinned and ducked their head. Millie was bouncing on her toes, and the sparkler went into action again.
Face surprisingly serious, Bobby reached into his pocket and took out the keys to his Pilot.
And then he held them out to Keme.
Keme stared at them like he didn’t quite believe what was happening. Then he swallowed.
“Dash is right,” Bobby said. “You need a vehicle for your new parking spot.”
There aren’t a lot of times I’ve seen Keme’s guard drop entirely, but for a moment, the raw happiness on his face was so intense that it made me ache. He crashed into Bobby, wrapping him in a huge hug. And then, for some reason, the hug got transferred to me.
Collateral damage, I guess.