9 #4
The three boys made a loose triangle maybe twenty yards down the service drive: a Latino boy with the hood of his wrestling sweatshirt half pulled up, kicking the curb rhythmically; a White boy who definitely wasn’t a wrestler, because he was dressed in jeans and a Walmart coat and wore his wallet on a chain; and Daniel, who was laughing at something one of them had said as he put a vape to his mouth.
The electronic tip glowed red as Daniel inhaled, and for that moment, Daniel’s face glowed red too. And then the vape went dark.
Daniel saw him half a second before Jem reached him.
“Jem, hey—”
He tried to put his hand behind his back, but Jem was faster—still. He twisted the vape out of Daniel’s grip, and he caught Daniel’s arm and hauled him toward the doors.
“Get your ass inside,” he told the wrestler.
“What the fuck?” said the boy with his wallet on a chain.
“Fuck off,” Jem told him.
Daniel was trying to wriggle free, but Jem tightened his grip and half-shoved, half-propelled the boy back into the high school. He didn’t let go of him until they were down one of the side hallways, alone.
“I was just holding it!”
Jem’s laugh was more of a bark.
“I was!” Daniel bristled. “You can’t—”
“I can do whatever the fuck I want,” Jem said. When Daniel opened his mouth to protest, Jem said, “I saw you, dumbshit. Have some fucking decency and don’t lie to my fucking face!”
By the end, it was a shout. And then Jem was out of air. He was breathing, he knew he was breathing, but he couldn’t seem to fill his lungs. Black specks snowed at the edge of his vision. He wanted to keep shouting: You could have gotten yourself killed!
When he did speak, his voice was tight, and even to him, the words had a limping quality as he struggled to breathe. “You know how this works. You stay where we can see you.”
“That’s so stupid!”
“That’s the rule.”
“It’s a stupid rule. Are you going to come into the locker room and watch me change?”
No, Jem almost said. I’ll find some eighty-year-old to do it. You’d like that.
But maybe because he’d been spending so much time with Tean, he managed to be an adult and say, “The rule is to keep you safe.”
Daniel had already shifted gears. “It’s not my fault. Coach Broadbent told me to help them carry out some of the mats they weren’t using.”
“Then you text us.”
“I was gone for, like, five minutes.”
“Then you fucking text us!”
So, maybe not so much of an adult.
“You’re such an asshole,” Daniel whispered. But he was starting to cry.
Jem shifted his weight. There was so much more fighting to get out.
Don’t you know how dangerous it is? Don’t you know how many bad things can happen?
Don’t you understand that it’s when you think you’re safe, that’s when they get you?
You stop watching your ass for five seconds, and that’s when shit happens.
“Look,” Jem said. “I’m sorry. I freaked out.”
Daniel shook his head—anger, refusal, hurt.
“Just text us next time, okay?”
“It isn’t fair.”
“No. It isn’t. It’s shitty, and I’m sorry it happened to you, and I wish it were different. It’s not going to be forever.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yeah, I do, actually. Because we’re going to find these guys, and I’m going to kick their asses, and that’s going to be the end of it.”
Daniel rolled his eyes. But it seemed automatic more than anything else.
“You text us next time, okay? Because do you know what it would do to Tean if something happened to you? And that’s not to mention Scipio.”
Daniel nodded.
“And if I catch you with this shit again, bucko—” Jem held up the vape. “—we’ll have a different kind of conversation. Understand?”
“Oh my God, you’re the worst.”
“Great. As long as we’re clear. There’s a bathroom down here. You can wash your face before you go back.”
When Jem walked with him, Daniel rolled his eyes again. But he must have felt guilty enough to want to patch things up because he said, “The pet store by my house is doing a Valentine’s spa day. We could take Scipio.”
“Sign him up. We’ll drive down.”
A one-shouldered shrug was the only response. But it seemed like a mostly happy one-shouldered shrug.
After returning Daniel to the gym, Jem finished his loop. By the time he got back to the bleachers, Tean was watching for him, worry scribbled all over his face.
“What happened?” Tean asked when Jem took a seat. “He disappeared, and you didn’t answer when I texted you.”
In answer, Jem held up the vape.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, we had a little conversation about it.”
Tean shook his head. “Can we press a button? Is there a way to fast-forward him until he’s twenty-five?”
Jem laughed and reached for what was left of his sandwich.
“I was thinking,” Tean said, “I can take another bereavement day.”
“And use it for a non-work-related murder investigation? That sounds like misappropriation of bereavement days.”
“But I can work on the funeral stuff from the car—” Then Tean stopped and frowned. “Very funny.”
“Just trying to keep you honest.” Jem took a bite and stared down at the gym.
Daniel was going to be up soon. He watched, told himself to focus.
His heart had stopped racing. Those black spots at the corners of his eyes had gone away.
And he told himself, it was a fluke, it was a weird night, you’ve been stressed.
Everything’s okay.