Chapter Eight
Hollie
By the afternoon, Noah is bored. He’s watched back-to-back movies on Netflix, while I’ve sat in an armchair and read a book.
‘Can I go home now?’ he asks me sombrely, after I’ve told him we’re out of food, because he ate it all.
I put down my book. ‘AJ wants you to wait here for him.’
He studies his fingers. ‘My mom’s gonna be real worried by now.’
I try to give him a comforting smile. ‘I’m sure AJ’s spoken to your mother.’
‘I kinda wanna talk to her. Check she’s not mad at me. I miss Mason.’
‘Mason is your younger brother, yes?’
He nods his head. His eyes go back to the TV, and I wonder if the severity of his situation is starting to sink in.
‘When is AJ back?’ he asks.
Less than twenty-four hours ago I was just going about my business as a candy striper, and now I’m planning an overnight trip to New Mexico to deliver a reckless teenager to his strict aunt, to avoid him getting arrested.
My actions have brought me back into contact with someone who used to laugh at me, along with all his friends.
We haven’t addressed that part yet. Why I should be helping someone who was never all that nice to me in the first place. So far, at least, he’s been civil.
‘Soon,’ I tell him.
I get up out of my chair and walk toward my bedroom. ‘What’d AJ say?’ Noah asks from behind me. ‘He say what he’s planning?’
I stop in my tracks. I’m not entirely sure what I should tell him. ‘I think he just wants to keep you safe for now. He’s working it out.’
‘Wild that you already know each other, huh?’
‘I mean, I don’t know him well.’
‘I never heard him mention your name before today.’
I can’t help but feel a small stab of disappointment in my chest, with the knowledge that, after I graduated high school, AJ Callahan never had another thought about me.
That I made such a negligible impact on him, or likely anyone else I went to high school with, was obvious enough when I got on a plane back to England and faded into insignificance.
Yet it still stings to hear it out loud.
If anything, it’s a reality check.
‘Seriously, though, were you two, like… friends?’
‘The fact that you’ve never heard of me before should give you the answer to that. I wasn’t exactly the type of girl that someone like AJ hung out with. I was too busy sitting on my own in the library.’
My words seem to cheer him up. ‘Oh, so you were, like, a nerd?’
‘There’s nothing wrong with being studious.’
‘Ha! You were a nerd! No way would AJ be friends with you.’
‘I’m beginning to think I should have let the police find you last night.’
He sobers. ‘Sorry.’
I turn to walk toward the bedroom.
Noah raises his voice as I walk away. ‘He’s single, you know,’ he hums with glee, and I stiffen. ‘When it comes to girls, everybody says he’s way too picky. Well, my mom does. Only cares about his ride. You could ask him out?’
I snort. ‘Yeah. I can just see that happening,’ I mutter under my breath. ‘That would be one way to humiliate myself.’
An hour later, I hear the intercom. Noah’s still watching TV as I go to my door.
I press my eye close to the peephole. I’m careful not to linger, opening the door a fraction the moment I spy AJ.
When he enters my apartment, I get distracted, because he’s wearing his jeans slung low with a white cotton tank, the front of which is smeared in engine grease.
His biceps too, are covered, and even his face hasn’t escaped; there’s an oily mark smudged just below his right eye.
He’s holding his checkered shirt balled up in his fist, along with his leather jacket.
His scent fills my nostrils, petrol and a slight aroma of sweat, mixed with something more earthy.
I open my mouth to say something, only I can’t, because it’s like I’m back in the halls of Eastvale High.
‘Hey,’ he says in that low, gruff tone of his, and I snap back into the room, closing the door behind him. ‘I bought Mexican food.’
‘Great,’ I blurt ungraciously. ‘Noah ate everything else.’
‘Way to go, Noah,’ AJ says.
‘Sorry,’ Noah says at the same time I say, ‘It’s fine, don’t worry about it.’
There’s a pause. ‘Do you mind if I use your shower?’ AJ asks. ‘Somebody brought their bike to the shop just before we could close up, so I didn’t get time to change.’
‘Of course,’ I stutter. ‘Um, there are fresh towels folded up in the bathroom.’
He wipes one hand through his hair. Even his fingers are grease stained.
He glances over at Noah, then his eyes come back to me. Then he raises his chin toward my bedroom, indicating we should go there together, and not the kitchen.
In my bedroom, my heart starts to pound, AJ closing the door behind him, then fully invading my personal space.
‘I talked to Rita,’ he whispers. ‘She’s good for us to take Noah to her place. She’ll take him in.’
‘That’s good,’ I respond.
‘It’s still okay for you to drive him?’
I nod furiously, despite my fear of getting caught going completely against my normal pattern of behavior.
‘I gotta break it to him. That he can’t go home.’
I wince. ‘He’s already been asking to go.’
AJ shakes his head. ‘You think I should tell him the plan?’
‘You can’t not tell him. What’s the alternative?’
‘I don’t have an alternative.’
‘So, explain it to him. Give him all the reasons why this is the only way for him to avoid arrest.’
‘Will you help me? I figure you’re good at talking to people, Palmer.’
I’m almost bowled over by his remark. Five years ago, I would have paid good money to have AJ Callahan ask for my help. ‘What makes you think that?’
‘You were always so… I dunno. So… optimistic.’
Despite my confidence regularly being trampled on in high school. He mistook my fake smiles, the smiles I hoped would mean that one day I might fit in, for real ones.
‘I mean…’ he adds, ‘I know we didn’t talk much, but…’
Then he falls silent. At least he’s acknowledged what we were both thinking. That I was just a target for ridicule in high school. When I raise my eyes to his, he’s standing within kissing distance, and my mind goes back to Amber’s parents’ closet.
‘You should get a shower,’ I say, and open the door.
After AJ’s showered and got dressed again, we eat delicious Mexican takeout, though I can tell AJ’s not that hungry.
Once I’ve put all the dirty dishes into the kitchen, I linger in the doorway as AJ sits down next to his brother and rests his elbows on his knees.
‘Need to talk to you about something, buddy,’ he says.
I watch Noah’s worried reaction. ‘What?’
‘We’re gonna get you out of Canyon for a while. Take you someplace else.’
‘What do you mean?’
AJ looks to the floor. ‘Means you can’t go home to Mom, Noah.’
I see Noah’s expression crumple. ‘Then where am I going?’
‘You’re going to live with Aunt Rita for a little while. Hollie and I are gonna take you there. It’s for the best.’
The tears come then. My heart goes out to him. ‘What if I don’t wanna go to Rita’s?’
‘You don’t get a choice in the matter. If you stay here, cops’ll arrest you soon enough.’
Noah makes a muffled cry, like he’s trying to stop the flow of tears, but fails. He gets to his feet and starts pacing, furiously wiping his cheeks. ‘No,’ he says. ‘I’m not going!’
AJ looks to me then, as though pleading for my help.
I step forward and reach out to him. ‘Noah,’ I whisper, just before his body is wracked with sobs.
‘I wanna go home,’ he cries. ‘I want Mom.’
I take another step and wrap my arms around him. His shoulders tremble against my chest. I shush him and stroke his hair. Over his shoulder, I look at his brother.
The look AJ gives me tells me he’s grateful.