Chapter 31
“I’m telling you, he laughed out loud. He had a whole conversation with this kid,” Bryce said to a rapt audience of Priya, Felicity and Abigail.
Priya and Felicity looked at him, awestruck and disbelieving.
Abigail met his eye over his coffee cup and winked, a teasing smile on her face.
Kai hadn’t said anything about last night when he’d got to work that morning, but Bryce had wasted no time telling them when he’d come in at eleven.
Kai was officially done for the day but, per usual, he’d stuck around.
“Our Kai? I don’t believe it. I need to meet this Jeremiah.”
Kai blushed all the way to the tips of his ears and looked away.
“Well, he’s coming today, so it’s probably going to happen.”
“And he comes by regularly at night?” Abigail asked Kai.
“He’s been coming for a month or so, before Kai even worked here,” Bryce answered.
“I didn’t know that Misty wasn’t here anymore,” Kai said, fidgeting with a napkin.
Abigail didn’t say anything but smiled affectionately at him.
The door chimed as customers came in, and all five of them disbursed.
Kai followed Abigail back into the kitchen, where she was prepping ciabatta buns for their weekly special.
“Can I ask you a question?” Kai asked, dropping himself onto the stool across the stainless-steel counter where she was working.
“Of course! What’s up?”
“I think Jeremiah needs help, but I don’t really know what kind of help he needs. I thought he was homeless, but last night he said he had to get home before they lock the doors.”
Abigail made a sound of understanding, her brow creased with concentration as she stretched and folded the dough on top of itself.
“Do you think he’s not safe?”
The truth was, yes, his gut told him that Jeremiah was in an unsafe situation, but he was scared about making assumptions and making it worse. “I don’t know.”
Abigail cast him a glance, like she knew he was holding back, but didn’t challenge him. “Well, I would probably charge in and make a big old mess, so I’m going to ask you, what do you want to do?”
Kai hesitated. “I think I want to get to know him more? Maybe if he trusts me, he’ll tell me what’s going on with him?”
Abigail put both hands on the counter, her smile reassuring. “I think that’s a reasonable place to start. There is one thing you need to keep in mind though.” Kai looked at her questioningly. “If he’s a minor, as soon as you feel sure that he’s in an unsafe situation, you need to ask for help.”
Jeremiah came at exactly noon, and Abigail dialled her mother hen to max.
He was dressed in a different shirt, but it looked as desperate for a cleaning as what he’d been wearing last night.
Kai could tell that Abigail was finding it difficult not to jump in and fawn over him, so she did it in the only other way she could: with food.
She insisted on them having lunch there and brought them both chilli bread bowls, topped with melty cheese, sour cream, guacamole and croutons.
It was Kai’s favourite thing on their menu.
Jeremiah had taken it down to crumbs faster than Kai.
She followed it up with a giant slab of chocolate cake and a bowl of fruit salad.
Fruit salad wasn’t on their menu, so she’d definitely made it just for him.
“Is she always like this?” Jeremiah asked, leaning across the table to whisper to Kai. Abigail, Felicity and Bryce were watching from the counter, and Kai’s heart warmed with affection for them. He grinned and they all looked at him surprised.
“Yeah, kinda. Just run with it.”
They talked about all sorts of stuff. All of the hidden places they’d found in the city, what stores threw out the best stuff.
Kai told him about being kicked out at sixteen, and Jeremiah had gotten a little sad and confided that his parents had died during COVID and he lived with his sister now.
Kai watched as he ate exactly half of the chocolate cake and some of the fruit and then packed the leftovers into his beat-up backpack.
Because Kai was off, they decided to hang out, and they roamed the city with no real destination in mind but ending up on the lakeshore.
The city was always busy in the summer, but the two of them seemed invisible to the rest of the world.
They sat, side by side, on the end of one of the docks talking for a few more hours.
“So, why were you at that thing last month?” Jeremiah eventually asked. Kai felt like he’d been kicked in the gut at the unexpected reminder of Nolan.
“I was there with my boyfriend, but we broke up.”
“Is that why you work at the cafe now?” Jeremiah smirked like a little shit.
Kai scoffed. “Yeah, kind of.”
“We used to live with my sister’s ex. He was such a dick and he hated me being there. That’s why we moved to where we are now.” Jeremiah picked up a pebble from the dock and whipped it as hard as he could across the water.
“That’s fucked up. My uncle was like that.”
“Is that why he kicked you out?”
“Yeah. He was an asshole.”
“What did you do when you left?” Jeremiah asked with interest.
“Lots of bad shit.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know if I should tell you that. You’re a kid.”
“Whatever,” Jeremiah said, sounding a little annoyed, hunching in on himself. Laughter and chatter from the crowd strolling the boardwalk behind them filled the silence.
“I stole a lot,” Kai admitted, not wanting Jeremiah to shut down on him.
“My sister would beat my ass. If she could catch me.”
“Good. I did a lot of stuff for money that I shouldn’t have done.”
“Like sex stuff?” Jeremiah turned to look curiously at him.
Kai paused. “Yeah. Sometimes. Have you ever done that before?”
“No, not me. My sister... wait. If I tell you something, do you promise not to tell?” Jeremiah’s face was cautious. Kai’s heartbeat automatically ramped up several notches.
“I can’t promise that, Jeremiah,” Kai answered carefully.
Jeremiah turned away from him to stare straight ahead. He chewed his bottom lip thoughtfully while Kai waited for him to speak again.
“My sister’s really sick. We all got COVID at the same time, but my parents were too sick by the time that we got to the hospital.
I got better, but my sister never did. She can’t breathe properly and she’s always tired and she can’t work no more.
And… and something bad is happening to her and I don’t know what to do.
” Jeremiah’s whole body went tense, his jaw trembling as tears filled his eyes.
“Tell me what’s going on and we’ll figure it out,” Kai said, not daring to move in case he accidentally freaked Jeremiah out.
“There’s people who might get in trouble if I say anything.”
“Good people or bad people?” Kai asked.
“Good people.”
Kai turned his whole body to face Jeremiah, but the boy just stared worriedly into the distance with tears spilling down his cheeks.
“I told you I did a lot of bad shit and that was true, but it was always me and my best friend, Liam. He’s like my brother and we always had each other’s backs, no matter what. If something is happening to your sister and good people are letting it happen, then they’re not good.”
“No, you don’t understand. It’s happening to them too.
The place where we moved to after my sister broke up with her boyfriend, the landlord is really scary.
A couple months ago, he raised our rent by a lot and we couldn’t afford it anymore and we can’t find anywhere else to go.
” He dropped his chin to his chest and whispered the next part, shame colouring every word.
“He told her she could do stuff to make up the rent.”
Kai’s heart hammered in his chest with every word, rage colouring his vision and turning his body hot.
Jeremiah clenched his hands where they rested on the dock.
“She didn’t want me to know, but I heard him say it.
The two other girls that live there have to do it too.
They came from away to go to school. My sister said that if we say anything, Children’s Aid will make me go to foster care because she can’t afford to take care of me, and the other girls will probably have to go back home, and I don’t know what to do.
” His words broke on a sob. He covered his face with his arms, his small body shaking with grief.
Kai pulled him close, wrapping his arms around him and holding him tight.
Kai said nothing, not trusting the hatred burning in his blood.
When Jeremiah finally quieted, Kai pulled him to his feet.
“Come on. We’re going to fix this right the fuck now.”
“What do you mean?” Jeremiah asked, an edge of panic in his voice.
“Your sister is wrong. Children’s Aid isn’t going to take you away. What’s happening to her is not her fault, and I know people who would never let the other girls get sent back for what’s happening to them. We can’t let this keep happening. You want to save them, don’t you?” Kai demanded.
Jeremiah nodded quickly, although there was trepidation in his eyes. Kai took him back to the cafe and by the time they got there, the red haze in Kai’s vision had cleared just enough for him to get his head on right. When he picked up the phone, it was Matteo’s number that he dialled.